As the LSU football defense continues their prep for Lincoln Riley and his high powered air raid offense, coach Brian Kelly took the time to speak on the challenges ahead, and what he expects to see from USC on that side of the ball.
Coach Brian Kelly is well aware of the challenge ahead for the LSU football defense on Sunday
There are very few guarantees in college football. Each year, every program changes skill level, strengths and weaknesses, and it’s hard to predict just what to expect from any one team when moving into a new season.
With all that said, the one thing that is as close to a guarantee is the fact that USC head coach Lincoln Riley is really good at coaching the offensive side of the ball.
Having led three quarterbacks to an eventual Heisman Trophy victory in his eight years as a head coach, he’s one of the very best at what he does, and the 2024 season is unlikely to be any different, which is fantastic news for new Trojan starting quarterback Miller Moss.
Luckily, this overall offensive ability is no secret, and LSU coach Brian Kelly is well aware of the challenges ahead. If anything, it’s just a matter of whether they can slow it down enough to come out on top on Sunday.
“The air raid offense is one that we’ve seen many times,” the Tiger head coach said while speaking to the media on Thursday. “It’s precision, it is fundamentally based upon wanting to throw the football, but will attack you in the run game if you are overcommitting yourself to the pass.”
Its roots are in Mike Leach’s offensive structure, and we’ve seen quite a bit of it. Each head coach has its own way of kind of tweaking it a little bit. Lincoln [Riley] has his own flavors. They implement the tight end much more than any of the other air raid offenses that we’ve gone against and do a really good job with the tight end on the field. So, they’re not a four-wide receiver air raid, which gives them a better opportunity to include a run game, and be good at the run game.”
For many fans of the purple and gold, the idea of facing off against a truly elite air raid offense is about as scary as it gets, especially when considering just how much the LSU secondary struggled in that department just last season. In turn, this could quickly turn out to be the biggest challenge for coach Kelly’s squad heading into Sunday.
“So, what does it give us in terms of challenges? A really good play caller, somebody that’s gonna keep you off-balance, reverses, trick plays, he’s going to be non-traditional in many ways. This is not going to be a “Wow, that seems like a call I would have made.” I think these will be times where our guys have to be on their toes at all times.”
While last season’s roster construction doesn’t exactly lend for much confidence heading into Sunday, the good news is that this is a completely new team. The defensive backfield as a whole is projected to be much better thanks to several young players stepping up, and with secondary coach Corey Raymond in charge, it’d be hard to imagine they don’t at least show some improvement.
If the LSU defense does ultimately find a way to slow down Lincoln Riley and his entire offense even slightly this Sunday, it could mean big things for the Tigers as far as the eventual outcome of the game goes. For now, it’s just a waiting game, but there’s little doubt that the Tiger defensive squad will be looking to prove their haters wrong as soon as possible.
The 2024 LSU football season is officially set to get started this Sunday, September 1, against the USC Trojans in Las Vegas, NV, which will be available to watch live on ABC at 6:30 p.m. CST.
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