With just six more days remaining until the start of the 2024 LSU football season, coach Brian Kelly spoke with the media early Monday afternoon and shared an injury report that included updates on key offensive players Chris Hilton Jr and Miles Frazier.
Coach Brian Kelly listed veteran wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr as questionable with less than a week until game day
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s officially game week.
In true game week fashion, coach Brian Kelly had his weekly Monday press conference to speak with the media and give his final thoughts on the week ahead, and in turn, he shared plenty of tid-bits about what fans can expect to see on the field on Sunday evening.
One such tid-bit involved the weekly injury report, and while the offseason was largely a healthy one for the purple and gold, the Tiger head coach did mention two key players on the offensive side of the ball that have the potential to be sidelined for the first game of the season.
“One guy that is questionable is Chris Hilton Jr – he has a bone bruise. He is working through that process, but today he will be listed in that category,” Brian Kelly said while beginning his injury report.
“Chris will move around today with our trainers and we’ll get a better sense of his situation. That’s why we’ve got him as questionable, because we haven’t seen him move around.”
While it’s never ideal to have one of your best playmakers potentially sidelined for a season opener against the USC Trojans, it’s important to note that this has been an injury that the coaching staff has been working around for some time now. In turn, they’ve had the chance to at least play around with their wide receiver room and work with some potential replacements until he’s back to full health.
“Kyle Parker will be the next guy up in that situation. He’s had a great camp, we feel really good about what he can do for us, and then we can start moving the pieces around a little bit.”
Zavion Thomas gets a little bit more involved in what we’re doing relative to playing out at the field, so we can move some guys around, but those would be the two guys that would be featured a little bit more. Aaron Anderson gets called on a little bit more, and then you can bump Kyren [Lacy] out to the X as well, so we’ve got a lot of moving pieces where some guys know multiple positions, but going back to my original comments, Kyle Parker would be the first guy that slides in.”
With Hilton Jr officially listed as questionable with six days until game day, the Tigers are in danger of being without some major experience ahead of one of their biggest games of the year. If he’s unable to be fully healthy by the time kickoff rolls around, expect LSU to have a starting wide receiver group featuring the likes of senior Kyren Lacy, senior transfer CJ Daniels and sophomore Kyle Parker.
Offensive guard Miles Frazier was also included on the injury report with a “probable” tag
Chris Hilton Jr wasn’t the only star offensive player included on today’s injury report. Miles Frazier, one of the Tiger’s two starting offensive guards was also included in the report from Brian Kelly, but with a tag of “probable,” it appears that he may be a bit closer to game ready than the star wide receiver.
Still, in the off chance that he isn’t good to go come Sunday, the Tiger coaching staff does have a backup plan in place if necessary.
“We’ve been moving that around. Tyree Adams has played a little bit of guard, Paul Mubenga is playing a little guard for us, so those two guys would be naturally moving into that position. I think that that’s kind of how we’ve been managing it right now. Miles should practice here tomorrow for us, so that’s why we’ve got him listed as probable.”
Even so, while it’s important to have a backup plan, the LSU offensive line is likely to be good to go come game time and should still be expected to roll out their all-star wrecking crew that includes junior offensive tackle Will Campbell, senior offensive guard Miles Frazier, sophomore center DJ Chester, senior guard Garrett Dellinger and junior offensive tackle Emery Jones Jr this weekend.
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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