Tag: lsu offense

Where did LSU’s offense rank in Joe Sloan’s first-year as offensive coordinator

Here’s where LSU’s offense ranked nationally in Joe Sloan’s first-year calling the plays

LSU football had two new coordinators in 2024. On the defensive side, Blake Baker was hired after Brian Kelly replaced the entire defensive staff.

On offense, LSU promoted quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan after previous offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock bolted to take the same job at Notre Dame. 

Sloan had a tough task. LSU was losing the big pieces that led to the most explosive offense in the country in 2023. [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] was off to the NFL with receivers [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] All three were first-round picks.

LSU handed the reins to Garrett Nussmeier as quarterback. A good player, but he lacked the experience and rushing ability of Daniels. There were adjustments to be made.

It was an up-and-down year for Sloan, Nussmeier, and the LSU offense. But a strong finish to 2024 will have expectations high when the 2025 season rolls around.

Let’s close the book on 2024. Here’s where LSU’s offense ranked in key stats in Sloan’s first year as play caller.

6.19 yards per play — 35th

After leading the nation in 2024, LSU fell to 35th in yards per play in 2024. LSU was effective but struggled to create explosive plays at times.

LSU ranked 40th in yards per pass and 84th in yards per rush.

2.6 points per drive — 35th

The name of the game is scoring points and points per drive is the best way to measure that. Again, LSU sits 35th. LSU was good in the open field but struggled to finish when it got in the red zone.

0.09 EPA/play — 36th

EPA is the best mark we have for efficiency in modern college football. It tells us how good a team is at improving its chances of scoring on average. LSU ranked 36th, according to GameOnPaper. If you adjust for opponent, LSU’s mark is better.

LSU was 24th in EPA/pass, but just 87th in EPA/run. That prevented LSU from creating a balanced attack.

43.7% success rate — 40th

Success rate is another good general mark of efficiency. Offenses with a good success rate do a good job of staying on schedule and getting the necessary yards, even if they lack explosiveness. LSU sat 40th nationally in success rate.

49.2% third down conversation — 6th

This was the best part of LSU’s offense. On third and long, Nussmeier was trusted to drop back and pick up the first down. Even on LSU’s inconsistent days, this allowed the Tigers to remain competitive.

37.3 SP+ — 11th

SP+ is a model built by Bill Connelly and ESPN. It’s intended to show how strong a team will be moving forward. It gives us a good overview of how a unit compares to the rest of college football.

LSU’s offense is set to finish No. 11 nationally in SP+. That’s a strong indicator of what this group can do in 2025.

Former LSU RB Logan Diggs could be ready to make his Ole Miss debut

Former LSU running back Logan Diggs could make his Ole Miss debut later this year

A former LSU running back could be set to make his Ole Miss debut soon. [autotag]Logan Diggs[/autotag], who began his career with Notre Dame and spent one year with the Tigers, hit the transfer portal and transferred to Ole Miss after LSU’s bowl game.

Diggs tore his ACL in the bowl win, but [autotag]Lane Kiffin[/autotag] said Diggs has a chance to return following Ole Miss’ second bye week. That would be Nov. 23, after Ole Miss plays Arkansas and Georgia.

Diggs ran 119 times for 653 yards with the Tigers in 2023. He caught eight passes for 82 more yards. That put Diggs at a solid 5.8 yards per touch, something LSU could use now with its struggling run game.

Kiffin said it would be great for Ole Miss to get a “big, physical back” like Diggs in the backfield.

Week 13 may seem late for a return, but Ole Miss is still hoping to make a college football playoff run. Diggs could inject some life into a Rebel offense looking for consistency.

Ole Miss already has a strong rotation with Henry Parrish and Ulysses Bentley. Diggs would make it one of the deeper backfields in college football.

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LSU’s offense the team’s biggest question heading into 2024, per ESPN

The defense was a limiting factor this fall, but the offense may be a bigger question in 2024 with all it’s set to lose.

LSU had a lot of issues on the defensive side of the ball that limited it in 2023. If it doesn’t address those problems, it’s hard to imagine the team takes the leap to competing for a national title in 2024.

But while questions abound defensively, the Tigers arguably face even more on the offensive side of the ball, where they lose a ton of production from the 2023 season. [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag], [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] are all likely off to the NFL, and those may not be the only losses this offense sees.

Whether it’s a transfer quarterback or [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] leading the charge in 2024, that side of the ball is LSU’s biggest question entering the offseason, per ESPN’s Chris Low.

LSU was a lot of fun to watch on offense this season and incredibly explosive with Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels throwing to Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., all of whom will be in the NFL next season. The Tigers led the country in scoring offense (46.4 points per game), total offense (547.8 yards per game) and yards per play (8.5). The good news is that LSU locked up offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock with a hefty raise after Texas A&M came after him, and now Denbrock has to go to work in retooling an offense that scored more than 40 points in nine of its 12 games this season. Garrett Nussmeier has waited his turn at quarterback and will get his first shot at leading the Tigers next season. They may need to look in the portal to surround him with some new playmakers on offense, and some of the younger players on the roster will need to grow up in a hurry.

With Denbrock back and the flashes Nussmeier has shown when he’s gotten the chance to play, it’s easy to talk yourself into this unit next year. But as Low mentions, it may need some portal help — particularly at receiver — if it’s going to come close to replicating the production it found this season.

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LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock is a semifinalist for the Broyles Award

The mastermind behind the No. 1 offense in the NCAA is getting the recognition he deserves from voters.

The mastermind behind the No. 1 offense in the NCAA is getting the recognition he deserves from voters.

[autotag]Mike Denbrock[/autotag] is the offensive coordinator for the LSU Tigers and he has been the mastermind calling the plays for the Tigers as they have become the No. 1 offense in the NCAA. LSU’s offense has the No. 1 scoring offense in the country. They average 562.2 yards per game, 8.60 yards per play, and 6,184 yards on 719 plays.

All of those stats are No. 1 in the country. The only stat the Tigers do not lead in is offensive touchdowns. LSU has 67 touchdowns this season but the Oregon Ducks have 68. LSU is only one touchdown behind the Ducks and the Tigers have played the No. 1 rated strength of schedule in the country.

Denbrock joins Tommy Rees (Alabama), Adam Fuller (Florida State), Mike Bobo (Georgia), Phil Parker (Iowa), Bryant Haines (James Madison), Ron English (Louisville), Sherrone Moore (Michigan), Kevin Peoples (Missouri), Jim Knowles (Ohio State), Will Stein (Oregon), Manny Diaz (Penn State), Pete Kwiatkowski (Texas), D’Anton Lynn (UCLA), and Ryan Grubb (Washington) as the semifinalists.

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This 1 stat explains much of LSU’s offensive success in 2022

Success on first downs was a major factor for LSU last fall.

Third down has always been known as the “money down”.

How a team performs on third down is thought to go a long way toward determining the outcome of the game — and for the most part, that’s true.

What leads to success on third down? You need a good offense and a play-caller dialing up the right thing at the right moment. You need the players to execute it, too.

But the easiest way to be good on third down is to not get there. The best offenses take care of business before late downs even arrive. When they do arrive, they’re manageable. Third and three is a lot easier than third and nine.

LSU’s offense was efficient last year. It wasn’t explosive, but it was efficient. The main culprit leading to that success was LSU’s performance on first down.

LSU’s offense ran 997 plays in 2022. Only 201 of those came on third or fourth down. A percentage around 20%.

The only offenses who ran late down players at a lower clip were Georgia, USC, Alabama and Syracuse. Three of those units were some of the sports best. Other offenses in the top 10 include UCLA, UTSA and Oregon.

According to CollegeFootballData, LSU was eighth in first down PPA/EPA. On second and third down, LSU was just 30th and 42nd. Not terrible, but not elite and far from the top 10.

The conversion rate tells a bit of a different story, where LSU was one of the sport’s best on late downs. LSU was one of just seven FBS teams to rank in the top 15 in avoiding late downs, but also top 15 when it came to converting them.

Despite all the consistency issues LSU had on offense, the numbers still suggest this was a good unit across the board, capable of handling every situation.

That bodes well for Mike Denbrock’s unit this fall.

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Ranking the 10 best offenses in LSU history

Let’s take a look at the best offenses in program history while doing our best to adjust for era.

Offense. Offense. Offense.

To many, it’s the most exciting part of the game. Quarterbacks are the stars, and wide receivers and running backs get all the highlight reels on YouTube. Here, we’ll be looking at the 10 best offenses in LSU history.

This was tricky. The game has changed, and so has the way offenses are evaluated. Prolific passers and scorers are much more common now than they were in the 20th century. Yards come a dime a dozen now.

Because of that, I’ve tried my best to adjust for era. I didn’t just use total yards and points, but I also looked at how the units performed in big games and the individual talent as well. If an offense was also good in back-to-back years and featured several of the same players, I used them once in the interest of variety.

Here’s how it all breaks down.

Where LSU’s offense ranked in every key stat

Here’s how LSU stacked up in nearly every offensive stat category.

The days of LSU being the dark ages on offense have been over for some time. Really, ever since [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] got the job, LSU’s offense has been competent at its worst and elite at its best.

LSU’s 2022 unit was somewhere in the middle. It was up and down, but it was beyond competent and showed flashes of being a top unit. [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] behind center was much different than LSU’s quarterbacks of recent years.

It’s been a minute since someone with the running and playmaking ability of Daniels was taking snaps for LSU. His legs added a different dimension to Mike Denbrock’s offense. With the year now over, it’s time to take a by-the-numbers looked at how this offense stacked up with others across the country.

Evaluating LSU’s wide receiver room in 2022 and beyond

We take a look at how LSU stacks up at wide receiver in 2022 and the years to come

When Brian Kelly first took the job at LSU, perhaps his most daunting task was to rebuild the roster.

That’s what this is, after all, a rebuild. Rebuilding takes time. When Kelly took this job, it was clear it would take some time to fill this roster.

In a short time, Kelly and the staff have done a good job at steering the ship in the right direction. LSU has been active in the portal and LSU has done what it can do on the recruiting trail.

With all the movement that has gone on, it was easy to miss some things. The roster looks wildly different now than it did in November.

There’s now some time to take a look at how the roster is positioned heading into 2022 and the future.

LSU looks good at some positions such as defensive line and quarterback. There are position groups that are trending up, such as linebackers and safety. Some question marks remain too, like cornerback and offensive line.

The pandemic combined with new transfer rules has presented challenges to managing a roster over the last couple of years. These are things coaches plan for years in advance. Recent turbulence in the sport has forced coaches to adjust.

Now that we’ve done quarterback and running back, today we will take a look at the wide receiver position.

Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm suffers ankle injury in SEC title game

Three-year starting quarterback Jake Fromm suffered an ankle injury following an awkward landing on a sack.

In the second quarter in today’s SEC Championship game, three-year starting quarterback Jake Fromm suffered an ankle injury following an awkward landing on a sack.

Backup quarterback Stetson Bennett has stepped in but Fromm’s injury appears to be minor and will not keep him out of the game.

Fromm since returned but looks rattled entering the second half.

Bad luck for the Dawgs: Joe Burrow passes to Joe Burrow

Following several dropped passes on offense, Georgia’s luck got worse.

Following several dropped passes on offense, Georgia’s luck got worse.

This prolonged a drive that ultimately led to a questionable catch ruled as a touchdown.