By Hunt Palmer
As the summer closes, college football talkin’ season commences. Most every team in America has a sore spot or two as that conversation kicks off. For LSU, it’s not replacing the Heisman winner or the two first round wide receivers who collectively launched LSU to the top of college football offensively. It’s defensive tackle.
Nothing on LSU’s 2023 defense shined. There was plenty of blame to spread in what become the country’s 108th ranked total defense. Defensive tackle play had its issues, and the two mainstays at that position, Mekhi Wingo and Maason Smith, both elected to turn professional and were NFL Draft selections. Add in the departure of Jordan Jefferson, and it’s a total remake of better than 90 percent of the meaningful snaps last season.
That means it will be incumbent on a collection of career reserves, transfers and freshmen to play at a higher level.
Head coach Brian Kelly told WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge the defensive tackle transfer portal search, “hasn’t fared very well, quite frankly” back in May. The good news is that veteran position coach Bo Davis has entered the fold which should create some stability at the position in 2024 and beyond.
WHO’S GONE: Mekhi Wingo (Draft), Maason Smith (Draft), Jordon Jefferson (Draft), Bryce Langston (Transfer), Fitzgerald West (Transfer)
WHO’S BACK: Jacobian Guillory, Jalen Lee, Paris Shand, Kimo Makane’ole
WHO’S NEW: Gio Paez (Transfer, Wisconsin), Jay’Viar Suggs (Transfer, Grand Valley State), Shone Washinton (JUCO), Dominick McKinley (Freshman), Ahmad Breaux (Freshman), De’Myrion Johnson (Freshman)
The Tiger coaching staff hoped to retain Smith and Wingo. Neither obliged. So, the offseason goal was clear: add tackles any way possible. Gio Paez played in 33 career games at Wisconsin. He made six starts, all on the edge of the defensive line. Jay’Viar Suggs enrolled at Grand Valley State in 2019. This will be his sixth collegiate season. As a prep player at Warren Easton in New Orleans, Shone Washington garnered offers from LSU, Alabama and Florida before choosing the Georgia Bulldogs. His path took him from Athens to East Mississippi Junior College.
Those additions didn’t grab many headlines in the offseason, but they’ll certainly be called upon to help out.
Jacobian Guillory and Jalen Lee have been career reserves. Guillory has only made three starts in four years in Baton Rouge. He’s been credited with 51 career tackles and half a sack. The man they call “Tank” does possess tremendous size at 6-foot-2 and 315lbs. He’ll need to elevate his game in his final colligate season. Lee only played in seven games last season, his first at LSU after coming over from Florida.
The presumption is that Guillory and Paez will be the starters. Paris Shand is a little bit lighter at 275lbs, but he may be able to provide some pass rush from the interior while also logging some snaps at end. Suggs is jumping from a level where he was playing Colorado State Pueblo and Wayne State. Now it’s going to be Alabama and Ole Miss. He’ll get his first dose of big-time college football when the pads come on in August.
Perhaps the biggest wild card is Dominick McKinley. The former five-star prospect out of Acadiana has added significant weight since the winter and now looks the part at 6-foot-6 and 315 lbs. Speaking generally, counting on freshman on the defensive interior is a no-no in the Southeastern Conference. McKinley shouldn’t be asked to play 50-60 snaps in the season opener, but the door is open for his role to grow as he gets some collegiate seasoning early on.
Numbers are not LSU’s issue at defensive tackle. Plenty of options are available. The issue is level of play. If Guillory and Lee prove to be reserve level players… If Paez and Shand can’t make the move inside… If Washington is a JUCO level player and Suggs is a Division II player… If McKinley is an ill-prepared freshman… Well, LSU is in big, big trouble. Offenses will turn around, hand the ball off and gash this unit. But if Bo Davis can take a group of mature players and improve their technique while bringing along a precocious freshman talent, LSU’s defense tackle unit can take that step forward all Tiger fans are hoping for.
This group is not going to be asked to wreck games for opposing offenses. If they can hold their own at the point of attack to let a quality linebacking corps behind them roam freely, things should work out nicely.
