The LSU football team takes the field at Tiger Stadium.

LSU’s Offense Is Sputtering and Uninspired, But Has Upside Potential

• Joe Burrow – There has been some criticism of Burrow that he is an upgrade, but not truly a polished SEC quarterback. There is some truth to this, as it took him a few games to get used to the speed of play, and to develop a better feel of his time in the pocket. That being said, I tend to agree with the consensus view of Burrow—i.e., that he is a polished QB who does an excellent job of managing a high-caliber SEC offense. Burrow has been plagued by inconsistencies among WRs and OTs, and the RBs on this team are not up to LSU’s usual standards.
• Too Many WRs – I’ve disagreed with the personnel decisions that have been made at WR so far this year. The offense has suffered through a slew of dropped passes, and other than Justin Jefferson, the team hasn’t yet found a stable set of receivers. This can be problematic, especially for a new QB trying to develop timing and rhythm with his teammates. At the end of last season, I thought it would be a given that Dillon & Sullivan (two very talented WRs who made plenty of great plays in 2017) would be starters this year. Instead, we’ve been treating to a 7-receiver rotation of Jefferson, Anderson, Giles, XX, Chase, Dillon, & Sullivan. Anderson has proven his worth, but Giles, XXX, and Chase need to take a back seat and spend more time on the bench; or else the team risks having continual mistiming issues and passing woes with the bloated WRs corps.
• Sub-Standard RBs – At least for LSU. Brossette seems like a serviceable RB, but not much more. I think Edwards-Helaire is the better player, and the only runner LSU has capable of making impressive highlights. More distressing, however, is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of depth at this position. Maybe Lanard Fournette can grow into his brother?
• O-Line Lacks Depth – After Karl Malone Jr. went down at Florida in the 6th game of the season last year, Matt Canada did an amazing job of stitching together game plans and an offensive line around underclassmen (Weathersby, Cushenberry, Magee, Ingram, Charles, Deculus, etc.), and it seemed like the sky was the limit for that unit going into 2018. Then tackle Toby Weathersby declared early and went to the Chiefs (somewhat expected), and center Will Clap declared early and went to the Saints (somewhat unexpected). Then over the summer Ed Ingram got charged with sexual assault charges from some incident (apparently when he was still a minor) in Dallas, Texas. So rather than having an O-line of (left-to-right) Weathersby-Brumfield-Clapp-Ingram-Magee, we instead get Charles-Brumfield-Cushenberry-Lewis-Magee. (Thank God Brumfield returned for his senior year.) So far, the starters on this unit have exceeded expectations. The backup OTs, however, Deculus and Traore, are another matter. With both Charles & Magee out against Louisiana Tech, the Deculus-Traore tandem at OT proved surprisingly bad, and affected the passing game. Charles has missed a couple of starts for miscellaneous problems, and Magee is expected to return soon after his injury in the Labor Day opener against the Miami Hurricanes. Deculus is probably a good player who still makes occasion mistakes, but who could be solid toward the end of this season. But watch out if this line gets hit with multiple injuries.

LSU’s Defense Is Good, But Soft in the Middle

• Losing 3 Potential Starting LBs Is Killing this Defense – Much like was the case with the O-line unit, the sky was the limit for the LB corps going into 2018. If all players returned, LSU could field Chaisson-Taylor-Key-White, and terrorize opposing offenses. As expected, however, Arden Key declared early and went to the Raiders. Then over the summer Tyler Taylor got charged with felony second degree assault on his ex-girlfriend and was suspended from the team. The third blow came in the Labor Day opener against the Miami Hurricanes, when K’Lavon Chaisson went down with a season-ending ACL tear. With LaCouture gone as a DE pass rusher, LSU loss a ton of speed from its front 7, and can no longer rely on LaCouture-Chaisson-Key to chase down opposing players. Only White is left to rove from sideline to sideline, in what is otherwise a somewhat unimpressive group. That being said, the front 7 is still doing a great job of stopping the run so far this season, with only Auburn’s 130 yards in Week 3 surpassing the 90-yard rushing mark.
• The D-Line Doesn’t Pass Rush Well – As noted above, the team lost a lot with the graduation of senior captain, #18 Christian LaCouture. Featuring Lawrence, the D-line is very good, but it doesn’t excel at pass rushing, and so far, Aranda has not been able to dial up effective blitzing schemes. (See the linebacker problems above with the losses of Key & Chaisson.) Aranda is not without his flaws as defensive coordinator, and I’d say his use of LBs in pass coverage is the biggest one. He gets away with it when he has great DL/LB talent, but lacking that, he sometimes gets exposed (see e.g., the Miss. State game last year).
• Spotlight on One DB – The team’s #2 star on defense (after Devin White) is Andraez (Greedy) Williams at CB, and Delpit and Battle at strong and free safety are solid. However, the Tiger fan is still left wondering what could have been if two of last year’s cornerbacks (Donte Jackson and XXX) hadn’t both declared early, and left for the NFL after their junior seasons. Given that Kary Vincent Jr. returns as a solid nickel back, that leaves XXX as the only potential weak link in the backfield for LSU. So far though, he’s been pretty good.

LSU’s Kicking Game Looks Solid Again

• Kickers – We’ve had even better kickers in the past, but the trio of Cole Tracy (FGs), XXX (kickoffs), and Zach VonRosenberg (punts) comprise a really good unit.
• Kick Returners – This team is not as good at returns as past LSU teams have been. Dillon has some potential for punt returns, but Edwards-Helaire is not very well suited to returning kickoffs, in my opinion.

This Team Is Too Young To Win a Title, Losing 10 Seniors Who Took Their Shots at the NFL, Along with Suffering 9 Early Departures or Injuries

• Coaching – As a general habit, I do not follow recruiting closely, and so I’m a little unsure of how well-positioned this program is to restock talent for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. That being said, I like what I’ve seen from Coach Orgeron since Les Miles was fired mid-season in 2016. The situation with Matt Canada was mismanaged in the midst of the 2017 season last year, and I was not happy about the way that Steve Ensminger was ushered in with the typical duplicity and misdirection that we’ve come to expect from CFB press relations. However, on the field, the quality of the coaching in 2017 and the first half of 2018 has been a vast improvement from past seasons under Miles. The 2017 squad had some weaknesses at O-line that Matt Canada (the Troy game aside) did a great job of working around, and the wins against Florida and Auburn showed real genius. With Ensminger, there was some concern that he represented the backwards regime of ages past, but ironically, Old Man Ensminger’s offenses have been the most modern and pro-oriented ever implemented at LSU. Aranda may be slightly overrated, but he is still legitimately a great defensive coordinator. Overall then, the “CEO” era of Ed Orgeron seems to be working.
• Too Many Losses – If only the team hadn’t loss so many players. Losing seniors is expected, of course, and while 10 took their shots at the NFL, only 3 were actually drafted, and only 7 actually landed on rosters. As senior classes at LSU go, this one was not unusually talented. However, the loss of non-seniors has been one of the most devastating in recent memory. LSU lost Guice, Key, Weathersby, Clapp, XXX, XXX, & XXX, and then on top of that, lost XXX & XXX to off-field issues, and XXX to a season-ending injury. Tough luck, Tigers. Maybe next year.