There are questions involving LSU football that we really won’t know the answers to until the Tigers line up to open the season on the not-so-frozen tundra of Lambeau Field on Sept. 3 against Wisconsin.

Like, how is the passing game coming around? Is Leonard Fournette ready to win a Heisman Trophy? Is the defense better or worse under Dave Aranda?

These are great questions, but ones that are hard to answer until games are played.

So when we look at key questions for preseason practice, we have to keep it in the realm of the observable. With that in mind, here’s what we’re looking at.

Is the depth chart the same?

We left the spring with a depth chart that featured things like Davon Godchaux at nose tackle, former safety Corey Thompson at outside linebacker and former guard Maea Teuhema at left tackle.

Will that all still be true in August?

The truth is, player evaluation doesn’t end at the spring game and begin again at the start of August camp. These days, players do go through offseason workouts supervised by their position coaches, all outside of the eye of the media and the public.

So those spring experiments that are still fresh on the mind of fans may be distant memories in the eyes of coaches and players.

With that in mind, is Teuhema still at tackle, or is he back at guard, where he has shown so much promise? Is Godchaux still the answer as a smallish, but quick, nose? What linebackers will line up next to Kendell Beckwith?

That’s the first thing we’ll want to see at practice. What does the lineup look like after a summer of evaluation?

What scheme is the defense in?

Speaking of experiments, the idea of going to a 3-4 defensive front still seems like a trial run for first-year coach Dave Aranda. Will it be scrapped until more appropriate personnel is recruited? Will it be a sort of 4-3 hybrid? A true 4-3? Or maybe Aranda is all in for a 3-4 front.

Or, will it be like it has mostly been these last few years, a nickel package out of matchup necessity? After all, most teams run some version of a spread offense, so wouldn’t a 4-2-5 look be considered the “true” base?

In the snippets of practice the media gets to see, it’ll be interesting to see the personnel packages the Tigers work on. If the packages look more like a 4-3, then perhaps the 3-4 experiment didn’t pan out. Whatever the case, the Tigers’ opponents (Wisconsin being a glaring exception) will likely force the defense into five- and six-DB packages often.

That should be an advantage for LSU because its depth of talent in the secondary. But it will be interesting to see the personnel groupings Aranda puts together for these matchups as well.

How do newcomers affect the lineup?

Kristian Fulton, a five-star true freshman from the New Orleans suburbs, is LSU’s most highly regarded DB prospect in the 2016 recruiting class. But he was not in spring practice, so it was another freshman, Savion Smith, who made a good impression.

Now that Fulton and several other freshmen are in the fold, how do they impact the depth chart? If Smith was able to make a splash in the spring, perhaps Fulton will do the same in August. At defensive tackle, five-star prospect Rashard Lawrence has the résumé to be a guy who can be a true 3-4 nose tackle. But like Fulton, he was not yet enrolled in the spring.

For guys like Fulton and Lawrence, the on-paper résumé hasn’t been matched with on-the-field performance against college competition. Not yet, at least.

LSU has never been afraid to play true freshmen under Miles. We know of some who will likely make an impact from their spring performances (like Smith and linebacker Devin White). But only five of the freshmen were present for spring practice. The rest of the highly regarded class will make its debut in August.