By Hunt Palmer
Three weeks of camp are now in the rearview, and it’s time to get the starters the lion’s share of the reps.
The focus is shifting toward Clemson. The players that will be tasked with helping to win that game have to practice more than the players who will be backing them up.
Brian Kelly said during the summer that they were going to set the depth chart early and move forward.
That’s now.
I’m ready to call three positional battles, two of which are more important than the third. As of 10 days ago, the reps were split pretty evenly. That’s starting to shift.
SAFETY
Jardin Gilbert is the lone returning starter, and he’s been moved down to the STAR role behind Harold Perkins. He’s still taking some safety reps, but not nearly as many. Those are going to AJ Haulcy and Tamarcus Cooley. On Tuesday Ashton Stamps was asked about the safeties, and he mentioned Haulcy and Cooley by name.
Dashawn Spears and Javien Toviano continue to work as well, but this battle feels like it’s wrapping up. Haulcy has been a standout in all three of his college seasons, and he’s got SEC size coming from the Big 12. Cooley is bigger than he looks on film and is not at all afraid to play the run.
With Mansoor Delane settling at cornerback and Perkins handling the STAR role that is similar to nickel in some of its assignments, Cooley is consistently playing safety. He’s back there with the first team.
There is still a role on this team for Gilbert, Toviano and Spears, but the two transfers are locking the safety spots down.
RIGHT GUARD
Tyree Adams and Weston Davis have taken every rep with the first team that I’ve seen. They’re the tackles. Braelin Moore has been named the center by Brian Kelly. That left the two guard spots up for grabs as camp began. On the first day, DJ Chester played left guard, and Josh Thompson played right guard.
That hasn’t changed three weeks later, but Paul Mubegna is still rotating in a little bit for Chester on the left side. Thompson has won the job on the right side. Coen Echols and Ory Williams have been working on the second and third teams, but neither is a threat to Thompson right now.
BACKUP QUARTERBACK
It’s been an up and down camp for Michael Van Buren, but the staff is going to lean his direction as the second teamer. He started eight games last year and acquitted himself nicely in an extremely adverse set of circumstances. State’s roster was just putrid.
Van Buren has struggled with accuracy at times, and Joe Sloan jumped him for missing a read on Tuesday. It’s been bumpy, but there have been some really good moments as well.
Colin Hurley is still a very young player, and that shows. His reps have been cut a little bit as Van Buren has taken more. When the second team offense operated on Tuesday, Van Buren got almost all of the 11-on-11 reps.
This was always the likely scenario, but it feels more clearly defined now than it did two weeks ago.
The second team quarterback these days is almost always a young player with limited playing time. LSU in in that spot. Van Buren got a little bit of a baptism by fire last year, so he’ll be called upon if Garrett Nussmeier misses some time.
More LSU Sports
