At some point between watching a receiver get 17 yards of separation on the game’s first play and a botched “duck, duck, goose” celebration, reality sank in.

Another LSU defense is getting cooked.

If you had a nickel for every time the latter half of that sentence has been applicable during the 2020s, well, you’d have a lot of nickels. Of course, new defensive coordinator Blake Baker was paid more nickels than any assistant in America to ensure that sentence wouldn’t be so applicable in 2024.

LSU’s defense allowed 5 plays of 30 yards in a spring game — the box score incorrectly listed just 4 because it forgot to add a 42-yard catch in the first quarter — 3 of which came in the first 6 minutes (4 passing, 1 rushing). On the surface, that’s not a cause for concern. In plenty of spring game settings, a sentence like that isn’t worded that way. It’s instead “LSU’s offense produced 4 plays of 30 yards.”

But dig a little deeper and you’ll realize that allowing 4 plays of 30 yards in a spring game is a bit troubling. It happened against an LSU offense that replaced the historically prolific trio of Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., along with play-caller Mike Denbrock. It was also the byproduct of coverage busts. Guys running free was an all-too-familiar sight.

Then there’s the more obvious context. That is, it came after Brian Kelly gutted the entire defensive staff after the 2023 group ranked:

  • No. 81 in FBS in scoring defense
  • No. 87 in FBS in rushing yards/game allowed
  • No. 91 in FBS in rushing yards/carry allowed
  • No. 104 in FBS in opposing QB rating
  • No. 106 in FBS in yards/pass allowed
  • No. 108 in FBS in yards/game allowed
  • No. 109 in FBS in yards/play allowed
  • No. 114 in FBS in opposing 20-yard plays allowed
  • No. 117 in FBS in opposing 3rd down percentage
  • No. 118 in FBS in passing yards/game allowed

Sorry, you know this, LSU fans. You watched this play out and ruin any chance of having a Heisman Trophy winner play for a Playoff team. You were also told that better days were ahead.

I’m here to say that better days are ahead, but I’ll be honest. That spring game reminded me that there’s a long way to go in Baker’s defense.

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It’s one thing to watch an early enrollee corner give up 17 yards of separation on the first play of a scrimmage and immediately turn to the sideline to suggest there was some sort of miscommunication. It’s another to watch Mississippi State transfer Zavion Thomas go completely un-guarded on a go-route that led to the aforementioned botched “duck, duck, goose” celebration.

Kyren Lacy is LSU’s top returning receiver (Liberty transfer CJ Daniels also looks the part). Based on the way the LSU secondary ignored him, you would’ve thought he was a freshman walk-on. His first big play of the day was a 42-yard grab where there was 10 yards of separation between himself and either defender in coverage. A few minutes later, LSU’s defense came out of the timeout and looked like it didn’t realize action had resumed because multiple defensive backs still had their eyes in the backfield as Lacy got over the top for an easy 62-yard score.

Here’s the thing: Baker’s defense is going to surrender some chunk plays. At Mizzou, where he ran one of the SEC’s top defenses to earn all of those nickels at LSU, his unit allowed 60 plays of 20 yards. That was just 8 fewer than LSU. If you blitz the way that Baker likes to, yes, you’re going to surrender some chunk plays. Plus, it was a spring game, wherein blitz packages were far less exotic than they’ll be come fall.

But watching LSU’s defense in the spring game didn’t feel like that. It felt like a secondary with plenty of reps that looked still lost.

Perhaps the saving grace was that the usually blunt Kelly didn’t seem overly concerned about those defensive miscues. When he first took to the podium, his indifference was evident.

“Alright. What do you guys want to know? It was a spring game. Anything?” Kelly said.

Kelly would go on to point out that there was a noteworthy defensive positive. After the well-documented decision to have Harold Perkins line up in the box, Kelly made a conscious decision to run at him with different looks in the ground game. By Kelly’s evaluation, the electrifying Perkins passed that test.

That’s not to say he was totally dismissive of the day that was.

“You also saw the things we have to get better at. Certainly, we can’t let the ball over our head,” Kelly said. “We had some coverage mistakes. Those can’t continue to happen, certainly.”

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It’s also possible that no SEC quarterback will try to throw over a secondary more than the gunslinging Nussmeier. Perhaps it’s a positive that instead of facing a guy who relies heavily on underneath routes instead of stretching the field, LSU’s secondary is going to get exposed for all of its flaws leading up to the fall.

Last year, the September schedule wasn’t kind to a new-look LSU secondary. The Tigers faced 4 returning starting quarterbacks at Power 5 schools, 3 of which were away from home. It showed. This year, LSU won’t face a single returning Power 5 starting quarterback until Jaxson Dart leads Ole Miss into Death Valley on Oct. 12.

Of course, that season-opening game against the Lincoln Riley-led USC offense looms. In 3 of LSU’s 4 seasons during the 2020s, the defense was gashed in a deflating season-opening loss (I excluded the 2022 FSU opener). It allowed at least 38 points and 480 yards of offense in those 3 games, which came with 3 different defensive coordinators in 3 different time zones.

In a few short months, LSU will be in pursuit of its first season-opening victory since Joe Burrow led the Tigers to a 55-3 win against Georgia Southern in 2019. The Tigers have plenty of time to make sure that another defensive dud is avoided.

Sooner or later, the LSU defense has to stop getting cooked … I think.