LSU’s defense took a massive hit with the announcement that defensive tackle [autotag]Jacobian Guillory[/autotag] would miss the entire season with a torn Achilles. Guillory, a fifth-year senior, was one of the only returning players with experience on the defensive line.
[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and staff spent much of the offseason shopping around the transfer portal for impact defensive tackles. The Tigers came up short for the services of highly touted transfers [autotag]Domanic Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Simeon Barrow[/autotag], but LSU managed to land [autotag]Gio Paez[/autotag] and [autotag]Jay’Viar Suggs[/autotag].
Paez and Suggs brought much-needed experience and offered a significant boost to LSU’s depth up front. Paez ended up winning a starting job next to Guillory. Now, with Guillory’s injury, Suggs joins Paez on the first line.
This area was a concern for LSU entering the year. Even with Guillory, Paez and Suggs aren’t proven at an SEC level. Paez was a rotational player at Wisconsin while Suggs is moving up from the Division II level.
Paez and Suggs are now positioned to be the focal points of LSU’s defensive line. It’s hard to read much into what we saw against Nicholls State, but Kelly was impressed by the defensive tackles in the USC contest. Paez and Suggs weren’t disruptors, but they avoided huge mistakes and didn’t get pushed around by a good USC offensive line.
Still, Guillory was LSU’s best defensive tackle by a decent margin. He was a blue-chip recruit with significant SEC experience. He’s proven as an interior pass rusher and a guy who can plug the run. After an offseason with [autotag]Bo Davis[/autotag], he was primed for a career year.
That’s hard to replace.
As LSU’s SEC schedule gets underway, the Tigers will face some of the best offensive lines in the country. Most OL’s LSU sees will have a better overall talent level than LSU’s interior defensive line.
The Tigers have some promising freshmen at this spot. But they’re just that — freshman.
[autotag]Ahmad Breaux[/autotag] has already played 30 snaps, which comes as no surprise after Kelly said he was one of LSU’s most ready freshmen, physically and mentally.
If Breaux is ahead of schedule and Paez and Suggs hold their own, LSU will be fine. There will be some rough games, sure. But LSU can live with that trio.
That’s counting on a lot to go right, though. Breaux will have some growing pains and Suggs’ transition from D-II to the SEC won’t be seamless.
LSU will get another test this Saturday when it travels to South Carolina, but that’s just the start of a schedule that won’t offer many breaks.
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