By Hunt Palmer
Be careful what you wish for.
You know who are. A decade ago, you were incensed with LSU’s stubborn offensive approach. You bemoaned the short-side option and lead toss. You shuddered when the Tigers would complete nine passes for 111 yards and win a slugfest.
“Why can everyone else throw the ball, and we’re stuck in the Stoneage?”
“What do we have to do to get a functional passing game?”
You blamed “The Mad Hatter” and Cam Cameron. You badmouthed quarterback after quarterback.
At one point, probably after watching a 131-yard passing effort in Lambeau Field, you claimed you would do anything for a great passing attack. Anything.
In 2019, you got the best one ever. Four years later, another one showed up.
LSU produced two Heismans, a Biletnikoff Award, four first round receivers and two passing offenses that topped the country. You got your wish.
So, what was the catch?
Well, it might be a swing too far in the other direction. A program that once embraced bare-knuckled brawls appears to have gone finesse.
There’s no great shame in struggling to pound the football right down Florida State or Alabama’s throat. Even USC has five-star high school products on the defensive line. It’s excusable to a degree that LSU failed to mount a consistent rushing attack on the Trojans.
An FCS school from down the bayou? No excuse.
LSU finished Saturday’s tilt with Nicholls with 64 rushing yards on 21 attempts. The long Tiger run of the night was 12 yards. Rightly, offensive coordinator Joe Sloan basically scrapped the running game just so LSU could put away a Colonel team that drew within two points early in the third quarter.
After Collin Guggenheim’s 67-yard wildcat touchdown run made it 23-21, the next two Tiger drives combined for 113 yards on 16 plays. LSU ran the ball four times for 23 yards. Sloan and the Tigers spread the field and let Garrett Nussmeier throw it.
LSU’s next drive went back to the run a little bit. Caden Durham carried the ball three times. He gained five yards. Nussmeier’s four passes on the drive were all complete, totaled 40 yards, and LSU scored another touchdown.
It’s still early September, and 10 games is a long time to adapt and improve. But at this point LSU has an offensive identity. The tackles are exceptional pass blockers. The quarterback is comfortable in the system, and the best playmakers on the team play wide receiver and tight end.
Kaleb Jackson has every attribute necessary for an ol’ Les Miles power rushing attack. He’s physically imposing and brutal to bring down when he gets a head of steam.
Through two weeks, he’s carried the ball 14 times for 33 yards. That’s not even two and a half yards per carry.
LSU has scored eight touchdowns in two games. All eight have come through the air.
Spread it out and chunk it.
That approach, in my estimation, is LSU’s best shot to win games. On the flip side, it gives LSU no shot to win championships.
That was evident last year when the Tigers resembled a runaway freight train on offense but proved totally feckless on defense.
Those archaic offenses of a decade ago also came with ferocious defenses. LSU manhandled teams defensively with a slew of future NFL players in the trenches. Brutal as it may have been to watch the offenses, the defense generally complimented those groups.
This defense showed flashes of improvement in Las Vegas but underwhelmed in the home opener. Nicholls consistently won the line of scrimmage, gashing the Tigers with the run at times and winning on the edges with the passing game.
The Colonels snapped the ball 60 times, and LSU produced two tackles for loss and a single quarterback hurry. Yes, the visitors from Thibodaux did a great job of getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hand quickly, so sacks weren’t going to be plentiful. But the Colonels ran the ball 38 times, and LSU stopped them for a loss twice.
Gross.
As of Saturday night, Brian Kelly was waiting for word about Jacobian Guillory’s injury. The senior defensive tackle left the sideline in a wheelchair in the first quarter.
Without Guillory, this LSU defensive front becomes wildly unproven. Gio Paez has been serviceable through two weeks. The rest of the group is a major question mark. Harold Perkins has proven to be a playmaking pass rusher. Sai’vion Jones got upfield and made plays against USC. So did Whit Weeks. LSU might be strong on the edges, but that’s of little value when the middle of the defense is soft.
The Tiger passing game can, to an extent, make up for a lack of running game. Without the ability to stop the run, LSU’s defense could be in some trouble.
Brian Kelly is not an air raid coach with a history of pass-happy offenses and no defense. Quite the opposite. He won more games than anyone in Notre Dame’s history, and he did it without elite quarterback play.
His staff is recruiting elite level talent on both lines of scrimmage, and history suggests he’ll balance the roster out.
Right now, though, LSU’s path to wins probably resembles a shootout more than those old-fashioned brawls.
