DALLAS — There are obvious questions facing LSU as the Tigers prepare for the coming season.
How does LSU move on from Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels. How does it replace wide receivers Brian Thomas, Jr. and Malik Nabers after they left Baton Rouge for the NFL?
“I don't think you look towards one player,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “I think when we look at our football team in its totality, there will be a number of players that we'll count on. Kyren Lacey, he will be certainly a player that we lean on. But I think at the wide receiver position, there is probably six to eight players that will get the opportunity to contribute and make an impact.
“I think that's what I like about our receiving corps more than anything else, is the depth. I think we've got speed on the perimeter. Chris Hilton showed that in our bowl game against Wisconsin, his ability to track the ball down the field. I think we've got the ability to play inside out at the slot receiver position. I think we've got great depth there.”
Replacing Daniels is going to fall on veteran Garrett Nussmeier. The former starter was replaced by Daniels but brings talent and experience to the job.
“Oh, there is certainly common traits,” Kelly said. “I think the first one certainly, if we're talking outside of the skill factor, right, the ability to throw the football. If you talk about just from the neck up, the ability to certainly translate. In other words, take the offense, take the things that are taught in the classroom, and be able to translate those things to the field.
“That was one of Jayden Daniel's best assets. You could watch it, talk about it, he could recite it. You could be in a meeting and you would walk out of that meeting and go, amazing. His recall, his ability to go through all the progressions, his ability to know everything in terms of blitz protection, and then in a game he could do it.
“That gift, that ability is what makes the great quarterbacks great, and Garrett has been able to do that as well. Now, he has to go do it in the games like Jayden did. But that's the first thing we look for, the ability to take it from the meetings, film study, walk-throughs, practice, and apply it to the games real time. I believe Garrett will be able to do that as well.”
The Tigers also must make major strides on defense after being borderline awful on that side of the football in 2023. That deficiency was big enough to spoil a season in which the Tigers had the top-ranked offense nationally.
“Clearly being the No. 1 offense in the country was not good enough,” Kelly said. “I think you have to have much more balance. So I the balance that we need is offensively and defensively we have got to be able to complement each other. We didn't do that last year.
“What we're going to need is that complement on defense; going to have to play better defense this year. I think we've made the necessary strides in the off-season to continue on that growth. So again, complementary football, offense and defense. I know that sounds like coach speak, but the numbers prove it out. You can't have the No. 1 offense in the country and not play the kind of defense necessary to get you to the next level.
Expectations still high at LSU: Most of the SEC-related national buzz this summer is focused on Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Alabama and Missouri. LSU, however, is holding itself to a national title standard.
“The easiest way for me to answer the question is that I don't deal in expectations,” Kelly said. “I deal within a process of how we do things on a day-to-day basis. I mean, so we don't deal on a day-to-day basis with those expectations as much as are we doing the things necessary that allows us to stick with our process. Because we're not about the results as much as are we making progress towards our ultimate goals.
“Our mission is certainly to win championships. I get how we get to that conclusion. We didn't win a championship. We're in year three, this is the most accountable that group has been. There is trust within the group.
“This will be the deepest team that we've had. I don't know what that's going to be relative to the expectations. All I can do is continue to work towards what our process is and then whatever the outcomes are going to be evaluated externally. I don't control those. I control what our process is and how we go to work every day. I can tell you in year three, I've had really good success with getting our football team to be the most accountable, trusting team that I've had here at LSU. That's usually been pretty good at my other stops.”
Gamecocks moving on after Rattler: South Carolina must replace quarterback Spencer Rattler after the former Oklahoma star steadied the Gamecocks’ offense the past two seasons. Rattler is now playing for the New Orleans Saints.
“We certainly are going to look different at the quarterback position and LaNorris Sellers and Robby Ashford, both guys that are 240-pound guys that can run and are able to throw equally as well,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “So it brings a new dimension to our offense. Those guys have made each other better.
“We have experience in that room. We don't have a ton of experience starting at South Carolina. But Robby has SEC experience (at Auburn) and LaNorris has played in some games last season. We return a lot of players around those guys which will help."
Beamer knows what Sooners, Longhorns are in for: Beamer was an assistant head coach for three seasons at Oklahoma before getting hired at South Carolina. The Gamecocks play in Norman this fall, so he was asked plenty about the Sooners on Monday.
While that will be a “work trip” for Beamer, he did say Oklahoma is in for an adjustment as it transitions to the SEC.
“I think it's a couple things,” Beamer said. “One, on the field and another one off the field. From being in other conferences -- and I've coached in multiple leagues in my career -- it's the size and the depth and the athleticism you see on the line of scrimmage every single week in this conference.
“I can remember being at Oklahoma, coaching tight ends, and you would be getting ready to play most Saturdays and there may be one or two guys on the opposing defensive line that you really got to be cognizant of. Like this guy can completely wreck your game if you don't have a plan for him.
“But then you come into this league, it's not one or two, it's like six or seven every single Saturday on the line of scrimmage. That's one thing.
“The other part off the field, and it's awesome, is just the venues that you go into this in league. Being able -- like every single Saturday it's an event in that town. There is 80, 90, or 100,000 people every single Saturday in this league. There is nothing like it. Just the competition, pageantry, it's special. It's something I missed when I was not in this conference and coaching in other conferences, and excited that I'm still part of the SEC.
“And don't get me wrong, Oklahoma and Texas have played a lot of big time football games and are two big time programs. But to answer your question, just the difference and what to expect, those are two things that stand out to me that I think are a little bit different than other conferences.”
Lea shakes up everything at Vanderbilt: On the heels of a 2-10 season, Vanderbilt's Clark Lea changed, well, everything.
"As I've said the past, success is seldom linear," Lea said. "Unfortunately, we dipped in our performance and fell well short of our goal of competing in post-season play.
"It's a core belief of mine that challenges present opportunities, specifically opportunities for growth. With that in mind, at the conclusion of the last season, I set out to understand more about our shortcomings so that I could make adjustments to get us back on track.
"I approached every decision this off-season looking to answer two important questions: What am I meant to learn from this adversity? How can we use it as an inflection shun point and a catalyst to our future success?
"In this exercise we've changed in three fundamental ways. First, we changed the way we train. It was clear we weren't developing physically at a rate that was closing the gap between us and our league peers, and that a new approach was needed in the weight room."
