Andre Sam was one of four defensive backs that Brian Kelly picked up in the transfer portal for last year’s recruiting class.
[autotag]Andre Sam[/autotag] was one of four defensive backs that [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] picked up in the transfer portal for last year’s recruiting class. Sam came from Marshall where he was a star for the Thundering Herd.
There is a world of difference when it comes to the competition that Marshall faces and the competition LSU faces. LSU is playing the best teams in the country week after week and it has taken some time for Sam to get more comfortable with the defense the Tigers are running. In the game against Army, Sam had three tackles but he had two interceptions to lead the defense. Here is what he had to say about how he is playing right now.
“The more time I spend watching extra film or getting more work in with my teammates so we can all be on the same page,” Sam said after the win over Army, per On3. “The offense was in slow motion today. From my first game in this uniform to now, the offenses are getting slower and slower, and now I have a better feel for it.”
Sam has a better feel for what is going on and his comfort level showed as LSU got their first shutout of the season.
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LSU’s defense shouldn’t be this bad. It doesn’t make sense.
The unit reached a new low on Saturday night, allowing over 700 yards and 55 points to Ole Miss.
The Rebel offense is good, and Lane Kiffin is one of the best playcallers in the country. But it’s an offense that only scored 10 points the week prior. Not unstoppable by any means.
So, how did LSU, a defense filled with four and five-star recruits, allow 700 yards?
This is a unit that finished last year ranked as the 26th-best defense in the nation, according to ESPN’s SP+ metric.
Plenty of the guys that made that happen returned.[autotag] Mekhi Wingo[/autotag] was an All-American, and [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag] was talked about with the best defenders in America.
Talented transfers were added too, from linebacker [autotag]Omar Speights[/autotag] to cornerback [autotag]Denver Harris[/autotag].
Sure, there were losses. LSU lost both starting defensive ends and its top corners. But the returning talent was supposed to overshadow the losses.
Through five games, LSU’s 115th in scoring defense and 116th in yards/play. The Tigers rank outside the top 115 in late down and red zone defense too. It’s hard to imagine it getting any worse.
Defensive coordinator [autotag]Matt House[/autotag] was being considered for head coaching jobs last year. Now LSU fans are calling for his job.
While the offense has taken off, the defense has regressed.
It doesn’t get any easier this week. LSU’s set to face Missouri and the SEC’s leading receiver, Luther Burden. Missouri ranks 20th in yards per play and fourth in yards per pass.
If LSU doesn’t figure things out this week, what happened in Oxford could happen in Missouri.
[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] reaffirmed his trust in House and offered a reminder that nobody else is walking through that door. LSU has to work with what they have now.
You would think that should be enough. Again, this is the same talent that led LSU to a top-30 defense last year.
Maybe this defense hears all the noise and decides to come out and play the best game of its life. Who knows at this point?
Kelly and House know what the expectation is. Kelly said it himself on Monday.
LSU reaching a NY6 at this point isn’t out of the question even if its playoff hopes are all but dead.
If the defense figures it out, LSU can reenter the national discussion, but it needs to be figured out soon or Kelly’s going to feel the pressure to make a change at DC.
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Here’s what Brian Kelly wants to see the defense do better moving forward.
LSU’s had an inconsistent start to the year on defense.
The Tigers allowed 45 points to Florida State and struggled early against Grambling. They flipped the script with a dominant performance at Mississippi State but had trouble again against Arkansas.
[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] spoke about the defense at his press conference on Monday, saying LSU needs “to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
“We’re having a tendency to try to chase too many plays, make plays that aren’t ours to make,” Kelly said.
Kelly said he wants the defense to settle down.
“When they’re doing the little things well, they’re a really good defense,” Kelly added later.
Right now, LSU ranks 47th in defensive SP+ but sits outside the top 80 in yards per play and points allowed.
Kelly on defense: We have to do the ordinary things extrordinarily well. We're having a tendency to try to chase too many plays, make plays that aren't ours to make. This can be a really good defense. #LSU
Despite a lot of new faces, ESPN is buying this unit in its latest defensive power rankings for the 2023 season.
LSU returns a lot of talent in 2023 coming off a 10-win, SEC West championship season last fall.
That is especially true on offense, where the team returns starting quarterback [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag], all of its top running backs, its two best pass-catchers arguably in [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Mason Taylor[/autotag], as well as an offensive line that is young but promising and brings back all but one starter.
Defensively, though, there are a few more questions. The Tigers lost a good amount of production including their two starting defensive ends and much of their secondary. However, coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] hit the portal once again to rebuild.
After adding players like [autotag]JK Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Denver Harris[/autotag] in the secondary, as well as linebacker [autotag]Omar Speights[/autotag] and defensive line additions like [autotag]Bradyn Swinson[/autotag], [autotag]Ovie Oghoufo[/autotag] and [autotag]Paris Shand[/autotag], this group looks promising despite featuring a lot of new faces for the second year in a row.
Still, ESPN is buying the unit and ranks it as the No. 7 defense in the country entering the season.
2022 future defense power ranking: 9
Scouting the Tigers: LSU’s defense is in a good spot after a solid but not spectacular 2022 season under a new coaching staff. The unit brings back star power, especially with linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. for at least two more seasons. But there are some holes to fill, especially in the secondary and up front, as B.J. Ojulari moves on to the NFL. The return of dynamic defensive tackle Maason Smith, injured while celebrating during the 2022 opener, helps a line that loses both Ojulari and end Ali Gaye. Smith and Mekhi Wingo, a third-team AP All-America selection who had three sacks and six tackles for loss, give the Tigers two interior stalwarts, both with multiple years of eligibility left. Junior end Sai’vion Jones could see a bigger role after finishing third on the team in sacks (4.5) last fall. Jacobian Guillory and Arizona transfer Paris Shand provide depth inside. Ovie Oghoufo, a Texas transfer with 13 career sacks, should help fill the pass-rushing gap.
The Tigers have one of the nation’s best linebacker tandems in Perkins and Omar Speights, an Oregon State transfer who earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2022. The group also boasts junior Greg Penn III, who finished second on the team in tackles last season (78). Junior West Weeks is a solid depth player who had 28 tackles last season. Veteran safety Greg Brooks Jr. will lead the secondary after showing production and playmaking in 2022. Brooks and junior Major Burns project to start at safety. The cornerback spot is a bigger mystery, although LSU has options with transfers Duce Chestnut (Syracuse), Denver Harris (Texas A&M), JK Johnson (Ohio State) and Zy Alexander (Southeastern Louisiana), as well as holdovers such as Sage Ryan, an ESPN top-65 recruit in 2021. LSU also signed Javien Toviano (cornerback) and Da’Shawn Wommack (defensive end). The team’s overall defensive recruiting remains promising.
With the offseason additions plus the return of a budding superstar in linebacker [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag], this defense is certainly promising. You can never know for sure how a defense filled with transfers will look until it takes the field, but there will be no shortage of defensive talent in Baton Rouge this season.
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Here are 10 of the best defensive units the Tigers have ever had.
For much of its history, LSU has had elite defense.
Whether it was [autotag]Paul Dietzel[/autotag], [autotag]Charles McClendon[/autotag] or [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag], several LSU coaches have had the luxury of a top defense.
In several cases, it led to a national title.
Here, I’m looking at some of the best defenses in LSU history. I’ve avoided ranking them because it’s too hard to compare defense across eras.
The bottom line: all of these units are good.
I tried not to include a bunch of units from consecutive years. For example, LSU had four of its best defenses from 1958-62. Only a couple of those groups are included here.
Omar Speights could prove to be just the veteran LSU’s defense needs
LSU isn’t returning a ton of experience at linebacker but did add some in the transfer portal with the addition of [autotag]Omar Speights[/autotag].
According to defensive coordinator [autotag]Matt House[/autotag], that added experience is making a difference in the linebacker room.
“I love Omar’s approach,” House said in a press conference Tuesday, “The focus he comes in with, the attention to detail he has in his work.”
House said Speights might not be the vocal guy, but is when he needs to be on the field.
“He does a great job modeling, to that whole room, and to Harold (Perkins),” House said.
Speights began his career at Oregon State, where he was an all-conference performer with the Beaver defense.
Speights’ arrival comes as LSU is trying to develop [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag] into a traditional inside linebacker. Perkins emerged as a star last year due to his ability to play the edge and tackle in space. He didn’t see much time stacked inside.
House said Perkins came to LSU to learn how to play linebacker, and that’s what they’ve been working on in the spring.
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LSU will stay in-house to fill its coaching vacancy.
LSU will stay in-house to fill its one current on-field coaching vacancy.
Analyst [autotag]John Jancek[/autotag] has been promoted to special teams and outside linebackers coach after [autotag]Brian Polian[/autotag], LSU’s special teams coach in 2022, moved into a general manager role last month.
LSU interviewed several outside candidates, but [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] opted to rol1 with a familiar face. Kelly’s relationship with Jancek goes all the way back to their time at Grand Valley State.
Jancek’s playing days overlapped with Kelly’s time as an assistant. Jancek later returned to GVSU as defensive coordinator when Kelly was the head coach.
Jancek has SEC experience, holding positions at Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky throughout his career. He’s coached defensive line, linebackers, and safeties.
Working with special teams and OLBs, Jancek will oversee two units that need some work entering 2023. The special teams struggles of 2022 were well documented, and LSU’s replacing its top edge rushers on defense.
#LSU finds its special teams coach in analyst John Jancek.
Was told DC Matt House also wanted a pass rush specialist, and Jancek will handle both duties. https://t.co/pBl2KNElsp
Before he was carving up opponents, Joe Burrow was forcing his LSU teammates into defense-only meetings, where they wrestled with self-doubt
“What’s really going on out there?”
“Are those guys that good, or are we that bad?”
“Are we a bad defense?”
“Is Joe this great of a quarterback?”
Before he was carving up opposing defenses on his way to a Heisman Trophy, a national title, and the most prolific season a quarterback has every had in the history of college football, Joe Burrow was forcing his own defense into private meetings, where they wrestled with self-doubt.
Burrow, the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, was making his defense look like soggy Quilted Northern after a hurricane.
“He killed us so much in practice,” defensive lineman Rashard Lawrence told Draft Wire’s Justin Melo back in February. “That was tough. We never got the upper hand on him. We couldn’t touch him in practice. Joe has all of the intangibles. He would see us in a certain coverage and just pick us apart. Whether we were only rushing three guys or bringing a five or six man pressure, he always had a feel for it. It definitely made us better. We knew that we were going up against one of the best players, if not the best player in LSU history. He definitely made me a better player. He’s the ultimate competitor.”
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
LSU cornerback Kristian Fulton agreed with Lawrence’s account of those early days of practice prior to the 2019 season.
“Yeah, that’s exactly how it went in the beginning,” Fulton told Melo in early April. “We had a lot of defense-only team meetings after those practices. ‘What’s really going on out there? Are those guys that good or are we that bad?’ We had to get on the same page. That’s exactly how it went.”
Pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson also backed up those claims, but acknowledged how much it helped the defense rise to another level.
“It helped us out a lot,” Chaisson told Melo earlier this month. “When you talk about a program like LSU, you’re talking about a program that’s used to fielding a dominant defense. When you go against Joe Burrow in practice, and he’s picking us apart every day in practice, we were out there trying to figure out what the issue was. ‘Are we a bad defense? Is Joe this great of a quarterback?’ Those are the questions we were asking ourselves during spring and fall camp. We eventually figured out that Joe was that great of a quarterback.”
The iron started to sharpen the iron in Baton Rouge, and Chaisson says the LSU defense started to take advantage of what Burrow was bringing to practice on a daily basis.
“It gave us the knowledge of what a great quarterback is looking for,” Chaisson said. “We understood how he tried to take advantage of the looks we were giving him in practice. He had an answer for every read and disguise we threw at him. Whatever we gave him, he took it away from us. Going up against a guy of that caliber was a tremendous help to our defense.”
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Not only did Burrow’s play make the defense better as a unit, but Chaisson took it upon himself to make sure it fueled his own personal goals to improve his game.
“Practicing against, and alongside his talent definitely improved my overall knowledge of the game,” Chaisson said. “The things he was doing against us in practice were just unbelievable. It taught me so much. I took that into the meeting room. I learned from it off the field as well. It was such a blessing. He’s such a special quarterback. He’s a rare guy with high level talent and a high football IQ to go with it.”
Burrow wasn’t the only pro talent on the LSU offense pushing the Tigers’ to challenge themselves on a daily basis. Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Terrace Marshall, Jr. were one of college football’s best wide receiver trios, and versatile running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a load to bring down. Three Tigers along the offensive line are sure to be drafted in Lloyd Cushenberry III, Damien Lewis and Saahdiq Charles. Tight ends Thaddeus Moss and Stephen Sullivan are also likely draft picks in 2020.
“For us as a secondary, we possibly saw the best collegiate offense of all time every day in practice,” Fulton said. “That’s how he made us better. To be honest with you, they had us questioning our abilities throughout spring and fall camp. We weren’t sure how good we were as a defense. Going up against those guys on offense helped us out tremendously. We started slow, but we had to adapt. That’s why we came on strong towards the end of the season.”
Come on strong they did, helping lead the Bayou Bengals to an undefeated season, closing out with three straight dominant victories over top-5 teams in Georgia (for the SEC title), Oklahoma (in the CFP semifinal), and finally Clemson for the national title.
If the Bengals indeed take Burrow at No. 1 overall Thursday night, what kind of player will they be getting?
“Joe is very humble,” Fulton said. “He comes to work every day ready to work. He doesn’t really say much around the building. Once he gets on the field, he turns into a completely different person. He’s the ultimate competitor. I just think Joe is different. He took a business approach in practice. That’s why he did what he did on game day. He practiced like he played. That’s how serious he takes the game.”
The Bulldogs’ offense chose a good time to click again, scoring 52 points in last week’s beatdown of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Georgia averaged only 22 points per game in its six previous contests, not having scored over 30 points during the stretch. This followed a 5-0 start during which the offense scored 42.8 points per game.
LSU’s defense has been inconsistent in recent weeks but found their form last week against Texas A&M, yielding just 169 yards to the Aggies after allowing 304 yards against SEC bottom-dweller Arkansas and a whopping 614 yards versus 4-8 Ole Miss the week prior.
Without injured leading wide receiver Lawrence Cager, Georgia’s offense had to get a bit more creative in their regular season closer. We saw more toss sweeps and end-arounds against from the Dawgs against the Yellow Jackets.
Second-leading receiver George Pickens is suspended for the first half of the SEC Championship following a fight with Georgia Tech defensive back Tre Swilling, which will force Georgia to turn even more toward the run against an LSU secondary allowing a mediocre 2657 passing yards on the season, ranked 56th out of 130 FBS teams.
The Tigers’ defense is ranked 28th in rushing defense; their opponents have gained 1494 ground yards this season.
UGA’s tailbacks have eclipsed 2400 yards, more than any of Louisiana State’s previous 2019 opponents. Over half of those yards have been gained by D’Andre Swift, whose minor shoulder injury hasn’t limited his participation in practice but may limit him in terms of carries.
With a receiving corps already struggling to earn separation missing one-and-a-half of its most productive members and a consequently struggling Jake Fromm, who’s completed under 50% of attempted passes in, expect James Coley’s offense to focus on establishing the run to wear down LSU’s defense going into the second half.
At that point, George Pickens will be available and all bets are off.
