BATON ROUGE, La. — Ever since Dave Aranda came to LSU in January and the shift from a 4-3 base defense to a 3-4 was announced, there have been plenty of names bounced around as to who might play the nose tackle spot in the new scheme.

Take a look:

  • First, it was Christian LaCouture, a starter last year as a 4-3 defensive tackle who, at under 310 pounds, was undersized but the Tigers’ best option for a big space-eater.
  • Then, there was Davon Godchaux, who was under 300 pounds but had the quickness that would allow him to possibly be effective in a modified version of the 3-4 where the nose tackle would take angles and shoot gaps rather than be the traditional anchor.
  • Then, there was Travonte Valentine, the long-awaited junior college transfer who, at well over 300 pounds and a comfortable playing weight, is a hard person to block.
  • There was even talk of true freshman Edwin Alexander, another huge body, filling the roll after he hustled to get eligible.

One player who was hardly ever mentioned as a possible starting nose guard has been fourth-year junior Greg Gilmore, who has been a reserve defensive tackle in his career and was hardly considered a factor from the outside coming into camp.

But with LaCouture’s season ended by a knee injury suffered early in camp, and with Valentine and Alexander in a learning mode, it’s Gilmore who’s sitting at the top of the depth chart with less than two weeks before LSU’s season opener against Wisconsin on Sept. 3, and he thinks he may have found a fit at the position.

“I think I do pretty well at the nose tackle position,” said Gilmore, a Hope Mills, N.C. native. “I think the 3-4 fits me well. I played the 4-3 all my life, but you venture in and you say, ‘I really think this works for me.'”

Gilmore played in all 12 games last year for the Tigers as a 4-3 defensive tackle who played at under 300 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame. Included in those games was his only career start against Western Kentucky.

Once he was identified as a nose tackle candidate, he altered his body under a plan from LSU strength coach Tommy Moffitt that was designed to turn him into a defensive anchor.

He now plays at 308 pounds but has to monitor it to make sure he stays at a heavy enough playing weight.

“I was like 297 during camp and I said ‘I need to go eat a cheeseburger,'” Gilmore said. “I can’t take on double teams at 297.”

But through a maintenance program that has him lifting weights even on days where the Tigers practice, he is able to play at 308, a weight that fits him comfortably.

“I’ve adapted,” he said, “and I feel like I am where I need to be.”

One might argue that a Gilmore that has adapted to a new position isn’t as potentially effective as a Valentine, whose huge body makes him seemingly a natural nose tackle for anybody’s 3-4 scheme.

“He’s a big body, a big surface,” Gilmore said of Valentine, the top-rated junior college defensive tackle in the 2016 class. “He takes double teams unlike I’ve ever seen before.”

So to have an edge, Gilmore has been relying on his experience and the chemistry he has with ends Godchaux and Lewis Neal, both returning starters on the Tigers’ defensive line.

“When we all three are in, three veteran guys are in,” he said. “We all know the defense. We all know the calls. Communication is great, which is key to defense. So it’s comfortable.”

Meanwhile, he helps teach Valentine the calls and admits that the big fella is learning quickly.

Does that mean that, inevitably, Gilmore gives way to Valentine?

Gilmore said that nose tackle is where his talents are best used, so don’t count him out.

“I’m a true nose tackle,” he said. “I’m not getting too much into the scheme, because that’s not my place, but I feel like I’m the anchor in the middle, and I’m going to do my best to make things cut outside.

“Then, I’m going to make the tackle.”

Maybe LSU is lucky. If Gilmore is good enough to give LSU quality snaps while Valentine is being groomed, that’s a bonus. If he’s good enough to make Valentine really have to compete to get on the field, that’s even better.

“I’m ready to step up,” he said. “I think as a team, we’re ready to step up.”