LSU football transfer portal: Tigers add former Conference-USA special teams veteran

Coach Brian Kelly and the Tigers have been relatively quiet as far as the spring LSU football transfer portal goes, but they’re finally starting to see some late movement, as the purple and gold have most recently added former Louisiana Tech punter Blake Ochsendorf.

Former Louisiana Tech punter becomes latest to join 2024 LSU football transfer portal class

Outside of the defensive side of the ball, the main concerns for coach Brian Kelly and the Tigers heading into the 2024 college football season rested on special teams with the punter position. While current projected starter Peyton Todd has all the tools necessary to become a star in this league, early signs showed that he hasn’t completely latched onto the starting spot, which has only been further emphasized with the most recent addition of Louisiana Tech transfer Blake Ochsendorf.

All glory to god.
Many blessings to everyone that got me to this point.
GEAUX TIGERS 🐯 pic.twitter.com/ujzSaa97XX

— Blake Ochsendorf (@blakeochsendorf) May 27, 2024

Having begun his career with Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2018, the newest Tiger showed plenty of promise, punting the ball 127 times for 4,779 yards, with a long of 68 in his first two years. From there, he transferred to Eastern Michigan University for the next three seasons before eventually landing with Louisiana Tech in 2023.

As a part of the Bulldog football program, Ochsendorf – a 6-foot-6, 220-pound punter out of Savage, MN – finally received an opportunity at the Division I college level and he ran with it.

Earning First-Team All-C-USA recognition, he punted the ball a total of 53 times – 17 of which went for 50 or more yards, helping him to a season average of 45.7 yards per punt. He finished his time with Louisiana Tech as the program’s all-time leader in career punting average and logged the eighth-longest punt in program history with a 70 yard boot against Jacksonville State on November 18.

Expect a punter position battle heading into the new college football season

While coach Brian Kelly never specified that he’d be searching for another punter to add to his 2024 roster, it also doesn’t come as too much of a surprise after the overall lack of consistency from the room coming out of spring practice.

Following the 2024 National L-Club Spring Game on April 13, coach Kelly wasn’t shy about the performance he’d seen from redshirt junior punter Peyton Todd.

“Not as consistent as I would like. I thought today was an opportunity for him to just say, ‘There is no competition here.’ He’s gotta be more consistent, quite frankly. He’s long, he’s got all the tools, he’s a classic case of – you’ve got 14 practices where you look great, and today, the ball was wobbling. It was not what I was looking for, nor was it what he was looking for either. He’s a great kid, but look, it’s about performance on Saturdays and he’s gotta do a better job.”

In turn, with the LSU football transfer portal addition of Blake Ochsendorf to the room, it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll be seeing something of a position battle this summer.

After serving as the backup to Jay Bramblett over the last two seasons, Todd was assumed to be the easy choice as the new starter. However, after the latest moves from the Tiger head coach, it will certainly be worth keeping a close eye on as the new season gets closer over the coming months.

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