The LSU football defense put together one of their worst showings we’ve seen in recent memory last season, allowing just about every team they faced to put up massive numbers on them. For the most part, this was due to their struggling defensive line and linebacker groups that couldn’t do much to stop opposing rushing games. Now, as we look ahead to the 2024 college football season, the Tigers have a completely revamped defensive coaching staff, and with plenty of new faces and unproven talent spread throughout the unit, it’s time to finally show what they’re capable of.
The LSU football defensive line group is filled with new faces and a surprising amount of potential
It’s hard to know exactly what to expect from the LSU football defense in any position group in 2024, but the defensive line very well may be the most uncertain.
After losing three defensive tackles to the 2024 NFL Draft over the offseason, little to no production is returning from last year’s 2023 roster, and in turn, plenty of new faces are going to be expected to step up in a major way. Luckily, for all the nervous fans out there, that doesn’t exactly mean the Tigers are going to be leaning heavily on freshmen and sophomores this season.
As a matter of fact, the bulk of the first-team defensive line could actually be upperclassmen, with 5th-Year defensive tackle Jacobian Guillory, senior defensive lineman Paris Shand, senior edge rusher Bradyn Swinson and senior defensive end Sai’vion Jones all being expected to take a hefty dose of snaps throughout this coming year.
If anything, it’s the depth of this position group that poses the bulk of question marks. There’s undoubtedly some proven commodities such as sophomore edge rusher Da’Shawn Womack, who made the most out of limited snaps last season, to go along with transfer portal defensive tackles Gio Paez and Jay’viar Suggs, both of whom made a significant impact for Wisconsin and Grand Valley State, respectively last season.
The real wildcards come into play when you start to look at the group of freshmen. Already, it appears that the young stars are making significant moves up the depth chart, with former three-star defensive line recruits Ahmad Breaux and Gabriel Reliford, among others, receiving plenty of praise from coach Brian Kelly throughout the offseason.
Some additional players who could find their way to some early snaps include five-star freshman defensive tackle Dominick McKinley, freshman edge rusher Kolaj Cobbins and senior defensive lineman Jalen Lee, as well as converted offensive lineman Kimo Makane’ole, all of which have made moves into the two-deep through fall camp.
The Tiger defensive line returns just 137 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss and eight sacks from last season’s roster. While there’s certainly some high hopes for a jump in production during the 2024 season, plenty of new faces are going to need to step up if it’s going to happen. Lucky for them, if anyone can get the most out of this group in just one offseason, it’s defensive line coach Bo Davis.
Linebacker should once again be a strength for this year’s Tiger defense
If there’s anywhere on this LSU football defense that fans should feel good about their returning production, it’s the linebacker room. Junior Harold Perkins Jr, senior Greg Penn III and sophomore Whit Weeks alone have accounted for 374 total tackles, 42 tackles for loss and 17.5 sacks over the course of their time with the Tigers, and Weeks hasn’t even played a full season yet.
Add in the fact that defensive coordinator Blake Baker is likely to be running plenty of two-linebacker sets in 2024, and the depth in the room could end up being fairly impressive as well.
Outside of that big three, there’s a lot of unknown, but still plenty of untapped potential in many ways. Senior West Weeks leads a group of backups that includes an almost shocking amount of underclassmen, as freshmen Xavier Atkins, Davhon Keys, Tylen Singleton and Jake Ibieta could quickly find themselves within the two-deep if an injury or two happens to find this group at some point during the regular season.
When it comes to the national perspective of this LSU football team, there’s some pretty wide spread concern as far as the defensive front seven go, and for good reason. Plenty was lost over the offseason, and with the Tigers coming off one of their worst defensive seasons in recent memory, not much about this group lends to quick and easy optimism.
With all that said, the potential is certainly there for at least a slight boost in productivity. If anything, it’s just a matter of whether the defensive coaching trio of Bo Davis (defensive line), Kevin Peoples (edge rushers) and Blake Baker (defensive coordinator/linebacker coach) can get the most out of this group, or if they need one more season to truly get the group ready to compete in an extremely challenging 16-team SEC.
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