LSU football: 4 biggest positions battles the reigning champs will face
LSU is going to have to replace a bunch of important players from its national championship team.
The Tigers have long known that seniors such as quarterback Joe Burrow, cornerback Kristian Fulton, linebacker Michael Divinity Jr., guards Damien Lewis and Adrian Magee, and defensive ends Rashard Lawrence and Breiden Fehoko were running out of eligibility in 2019.
Safety Grant Delpit, linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson, wide receiver Justin Jefferson, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, center Lloyd Cushenberry III linebacker Patrick Queen have declared for the NFL Draft.
Several other underclassmen who aren’t as likely to be high draft choices will consider whether leaving early or coming back is the best move.
Additionally, coach Ed Orgeron and his revamped staff will put the finishing touches on their 2020 recruiting class and also keep an eye on the transfer portal to see which newcomers will be part of next year’s team.
It’s long way to preseason camp, but here are four position battles that figure to be key to the Tigers’ fortunes moving forward:
1. Running back
Edwards-Helaire’s departure leaves a hole not only as the leading rusher but also an important pass receiver and blocker.
Tyrion Davis-Price emerged as the primary backup to Edwards-Helaire as a true freshman last season, though when Edwards-Helaire was limited by a hamstring injury in the CFP semifinal win against Oklahoma, it was redshirt freshman Chris Curry who got the most work.
John Emery II, who arrived last year with presumably a slight lead on Davis-Price, is still very much in the mix to be a factor next season.
Additionally, the Tigers hope to land a top-flight freshman in this recruiting class – perhaps Zach Evans.
Orgeron planned to use a platoon system last season before Edwards-Helaire’s play demanded that he be the main guy.
So there will be plenty of competition to be his successor and it could be one player or multiple players that inherit that role.
2. Pass-rushing outside linebacker
Losing Divinity will take away the Tigers’ most versatile linebacker because he could play inside and outside. Chaisson’s departure means the defense must replace its 2 best pass-rushing linebackers.
That would leave significant competition to fill that role. Andre Anthony and Ray Thornton have experience, but it was Marcel Brooks who emerged the most this season. Desmond Little could also be in the mix.
3. Wide receiver
Both Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Jr. are back, so that’s a great starting point.
But whoever replaces Joe Brady as passing game coordinator is going to want to use 3-plus wide receivers the way Brady did and Jefferson is headed to the NFL after becoming the first Tiger to catch 100 passes.
There are several good candidates waiting in the wings – Trey Palmer, Devonta Lee, Racey McMath and Jontre Kirklin, just among the holdovers.
4. Quarterback
The competition to replace Burrow won’t be as wide open as some other battles, but because of the nature of the position and the impact that Burrow had, it will be the most scrutinized position battle in the spring and summer.
Rising junior Myles Brennan is the clear-cut favorite but not the guaranteed successor.
If redshirt freshman Peter Parrish impresses in the spring he could push Brennan in preseason camp. Incoming freshmen Max Johnson and T.J. Finley are well regarded but unlike to push for playing time right away.
The competition will get a lot more interesting if a transfer shows up after in the spring or summer as Burrow did 2 years ago.
They should be fine at RB and WR. Just no one substantial to throw to them. And with Brady leaving, that offense could be set back.
You would think after revolutionizing the offense, LSU could have landed a highly sought after QB recruit, and a receiver. I guess everyone but LSU fans and staff know this is a one hit wonder.
Myles Brennan threw for 165 TD passes in only three years of the highest class of varsity football in Mississippi. As long as he has good protection and people to throw to, im not concerned. He’s better than alot of QB’s weve had in the past. Great recruiting and time to develop has put us in a better spot to be in than previous years.
I hope you are right. Time will tell.
Gotta love Gump trolls. You realize your presumed starter was a 3 star ranked around 400 nationally while LSUs presumed starter was a 4 star ranked in the top 150…right?
Brennan is an unknown but he ran an RPO offense, has a better arm than Burrow and threw for over 15K yards and 160 TDs in high school I believe. So he’s an elite QB. Certainly more elite than your guy.
Can he be as tough as Burrow? Does he have the moxy or the ability to pick apart defenses as well? Can he, will he learn? Only time will tell.
Go to AL.com with the rest of the basement dwellers.
Very strange line of rebuttal. Alabama has not had trouble winning NCs with 3 and 4 star. LSU is not Bama. They won one, with a 4 star, from Ohio.
I’m not sure I follow your flawed way of assessing talent. Byrce Young is the highest rated QB. Tua was also top 2 or three. Blake Barnet, although he didn’t work out, was the highest rated QB. Alabama has not had any trouble recruiting the best talent.
LSU takes three steps back next year, and back to 2 to 3 losses for a while, again. Why would the top WR flip if the LSU offense was in good hands? Why wouldn’t one of the top QBs go to LSU?
Instead, the top QB goes to a program that is crumbling? Right.
I’m not going to attack you as you did me, and other Bama fans. Your attacks say more about your insecurities.
Jarrett flipped from LSU because Maryland offers him the one thing that LSU cannot: it’s home.
Same for Burton.
LSU is not struggling for WR talent as long as it remains in Baton Rouge. Louisiana creates plenty as it is.
Bama won with 3-star QBs because LSU had a head coach who refused to evolve with the times. You should recognize that the one thing holding LSU back (predictable play-calling) is no longer an issue for them. You’re in for a ride awakening if you think losing players to the NFL is going to suddenly make LSU the same team under Les Miles that Bama beat time and time again.
Strange line of rebuttal? “No one substational to throw to them”
Were you referring to your own QB? Did you not read what you wrote? Both Bama and LSU bring back as their presumptive starters QBs who will be 1st year starters.
Except one was rated substantially higher than the other. That would be Brennan and not Jones.
I guess because Jones is your boy then that qualifies him as more substantial than Brennan.
No one knows what either can do. The good old Alabama arrogance though…you can count on that every dau.
Jones has won. How many games has Brennan won? I can’t find his record anywhere.
Myles Brennan was also a higher ranked recruit than Burrow, so even if your nonsense about Bama winning with lesser QBs were true, Brennan is still a more than capable successor to Burrow using your criteria.
Joe Burrow (6-4, 200)–4 star recruit, #8 pro-style, .9003 grade
Myles Brennan (6-3, 180)–4 star recruit, #6 pro-style, .9347 grade
Max Johnson (6-4, 216)–4 star recruit, #10 pro-style, .9097 grade
Burrow sat on the bench for 3 years going into 2018. Brennan has sat on the bench for 3 years going into 2020. Johnson is on campus this spring. I don’t expect either of them to light up defenses the way Burrow did, but, as Burrow showed us, you never know.
You just hope Brennan took really good notes. Because Brady is gone. Things seemed to take off when Brady arrived. Maybe it would have happened anyway, but I doubt it.
I hope LSU is strong. The SEC West needs a strong LSU, and aTm for that matter. I just don’t see Coach O winning another one any time soon.
Yeah. Brennan has been around Burrow for 2 years and around Brady for a year. Hopefully some of it rubbed off. He has a good arm, so that’s a starting point.
Maybe it takes him a year at LSU like it did Burrow?
They still have the playbook and Ensminger shared the play calling duties. It remains to be seen what the impact of Brady leaving will be, but it’s not like he wiped everyone’s brains clean on the way out,
LSU got their QB commits early, before anyone knew how good the offense is. The good QBs tend to commit early, which is why we needed Joe Burrow to begin with. Now next year, we’ll see with the QBs.
You just wish they could have spent more time getting a better QB. Instead they spent all of that time and money on a WR commit that flipped to Maryland. And Evans, the RB. Seems like a problem child.
Did LSU even sign a RB?
We still have a shot at Evans, if we want him. We have a shot at Devontre Bradford, a 4 star RB. We have 3 decent RBs, so it’s not an emergency situation.
*Kevontre Bradford
And when I say you wish, I mean no disrespect. If it were my program, those kinds of things would linger in my mind.
Myles Brennan is every bit as talented as Mac Jones and physically speaking, more talented than Burrow. Brennan is set to graduate in May, making him pretty much a full time football player this coming fall.
At WR, LSU Keyshone Boutte and Koy Moore who are both ridiculously talented WRs. Not that they need either to play next season, although Boutte will see the field a good bit.
I’m not the least bit concerned about either of those positions. My biggest offensive concern is the O-Line. They will replace 4 out of the 5 starters.
Something that stands out about the 2019 team is that some of the stars on the team were not highly rated recruits. Burrow, CEH, and Justin Jefferson were recruits that nobody wanted. LSU signed Jefferson as an afterthought, because they had a vacant spot. Burrow had to scratch and claw just to get a scholarship, then he sat the bench for 3 years. CEH was too small. Just saying, you never know. It was a strange mix of misfits.
It all cam together with Brady. He was that catalyst that made this engine run.
More than Brady. It was a perfect storm of scheme, talent, experience, and practice. 16 returning starters. A lot of offseason work by the players to improve. All those workouts Burrow and the receivers put in, getting the timing down. The offensive line. It was a confluence of many things.
It was a thing of beauty.
Much like Bama’s offense came together with Kiffen? They seem to be doing just fine running those same concepts without Lane these days. Why do you think LSU won’t continue like Bama did despite losing the architect of it all?
Ensminger still remains for LSU, unlike Kiffen for Bama. Brady called some red zone plays and the 5-wide offensive sets. Brady installed the RPO concepts. The rest is Ensminger, folks. They call him “Slinger” for a reason.
Don’t bring up Lane. NO No No. And we aren’t running the same scheme. Similar. And you keep comparing LSU’s one year of success to Alabama’s sustained success. Not wise.
I think RTnColorado must be quite young and only knows of Alabama dominating with lil’ Nicky. Before that, only knows of the stories of his grandfather when they dominated with the DaBaer. Between that, is just a forgotten era that none of his elders too much talks about when Alabama was in the middle of the scrum with Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, and LSU and generally not faring as well as them teams. He has no comprehension there are a few other quite proud programs in the SEC that don’t take losing sitting down. He just figures unless someone else has a great QB, or Alabama has injuries, or someone else ends up with a fluke play, etc., that Alabama wins and the rest of us are just here for second place. From his ramblings, it appears all of our recruits are just guys not quite good enough to be offered by Alabama.
Dude, get a grip. Your 2019 Alabama team is only returning 12 starters from a team that proved nothing to nobody. Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, and maybe A&M and Tennessee although I’m not sold on them yet will all give Alabama a run for their money next year.
Sure Alabama’s been a cut above for most of the Saban years, but only a slight cut and the separation keeps getting tighter. Eleven and two in 2019 was not a fluke, it’s the state of the competition. History has shown us over and over that dynasties whether in sports or sovereign nations are quite fragile. Competition is always catching up and in the case of SEC football, it’s caught up.
Sure, Alabama will always have a strong football program, but here’s your rude awakening and you can book it. Alabama’s chances of winning another 5 SEC championships over the next ten years is nil and none.
For next year, you’ve lost several of your key players and will be replacing them with unproven recruits just like the rest of us. Your schedule next year is much tougher. You have the same defensive coordinator that couldn’t stop Auburn or LSU when they needed to. You have a QB with an entire 3 games experience that is no more blue chip than what the rest of us have. Your coach is old and showing it. I see nothing that says Alabama will be greatly improved next year. Welcome back to the scrum, you’ll be in it with the rest of us. If you can get out of with another 11-2 record next year you can consider it a success and be thankful.
Well said, Father Time will continue to tell this story.
I went to Alabama from 01 to 05. Why do people act like they know someone? Kind of funny that you think you know who I am.
It’s all good though. Think away.
So you lived through a 4-9 season, a 6-6 season, and a 7-5 season, but still seem to believe that Bama is forever cemented in place as Kings of College Football.
From what i have seen from Brennan so far he looks pretty good. When the spring game comes everyone can get a better view of his skill set. That Brooks looks really good. Seems like every time he took the field he had a sack. D line should be good. Haven’t heard if Logan is leaving or not, but Farrel Jr, Ika, and Shelvin are all good, plus some freshman coming in. Gonna be a young but talented team next year.
Apparently Logan is coming back, or we would have heard otherwise by now. Today’s the deadline to declare. So it should be a solid DLine with Logan, Farrell, and Shelvin/Ika. Good depth, too. Secondary should be good again. Clark and Baskerville have experience at LB, and Brooks looks like a good edge.
Brennan has a good arm, and the receivers will help him out. His QBR last year would have put him 6th in the SEC, and he should improve with more reps. The losses in the OLine concern me a bit.
Dead on. Agreed, O-Line is biggest concern. Second is Brennan, but I do look forward to seeing him get his chance. If he gets beat out by one of the freshmen; then obviously, that would point to a bright future indeed as if a freshmen beats him out they must be extremely talented and a quick study.
I think like most Tiger fans, I’ve no illusions of continuing 2020 like we left off in 2019, but I’m excited and looking forward to seeing the talents of our 2020 team displayed.
Yeah iagree
I read about the players LSU has coming back and saw Logan, I didn’t know if he was senior or junior, so that is good.
I’m looking at LSU and Bamas roster right now… LSU has way more talent.
We signed QB Max Johnson(10) son of Brad Johnson.. Nephew of Mark Richt.. TE Arik Gilbert highest rated TE in history of rankings also Kayshon Boutte the 6 ranked WR to pair with the best WR in the Nation in Jamar Chase and Terrace Marshall a future 1st rounder… We’ll be fine.. See you in November.. Congratulations on that Citrus Bowl Victory