PALMER: Week 2 feels hopeful again

By Hunt Palmer

Building an identity takes time.

Football programs can cultivate personalities, but each team is different. More often in the portal era, teams trump programs. Better said, it’s hard to cling to a personality when the revolving door of entering and exiting players swings so violently every winter.

The true identity of the 2025 LSU team will enter focus over the next two months. We’ve only seen a glimpse. Still, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to draw some conclusions after what could have been the Tigers’ toughest test.

LSU’s strength could be the defense.

What the media watched at practice in August manifested over four quarters in Clemson. The Tigers are tough and deep up front, fast and physical in the middle and sticky on the outside. There may not be headlining NFL Draft talent, but the strength in numbers feels obvious.

One of the most defining characteristics of the win at Clemson on Saturday was the lack of dependence on the quarterback. While a top-15 pick is unlikely to emerge on the defense, the guy taking the snaps on offense very well could be picked that early. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if he earns an invitation to the Heisman Trophy ceremony.

While that would have been a dream in Baton Rouge for the better part of the 2010s, it’s now commonplace. The two multi-year starters to precede Garrett Nussmeier both won the trophy, so his inclusion in that discussion doesn’t raise eyebrows. Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels defined their super-senior teams. They were the identity.

Nussmeier won’t have to play that role.

There will come a Saturday when LSU trails and needs its star quarterback to shoulder the burden of winning a game. It may happen multiple times. And based on his efforts last season against South Carolina and Ole Miss, he’ll be ready to do that.

What makes this LSU team different from 2024 is its strength beyond the signal caller.

He’s surrounded by more talent at wide receiver and a running back in his second year, not first. His offensive coordinator is calling plays in his second year, not first. His defensive coordinator is in his second year, not first.

All of those truths showed up Saturday when LSU used nine different targets in the passing game, stayed committed to the run in many different ways and shut Clemson out in the second half. Last year’s team rarely did any of that.

When Nussmeier threw for under 275 yards, LSU was 1-2 last year. He never threw for as few as 232, which was his total on Saturday night.

Oddly, that lack of production represents a positive rather than some sort of regression.

No one in the program doubts whether or not Nussmeier can be counted on for a 380-yard night to carry the team. What could have been questioned entering Saturday’s game was whether or not the ground game and defense could hold up against a top 10 team.

The answers were obvious.

When the polls come out on Tuesday, LSU will find itself near the top. That does not mean anything on Sept. 2. Truth be told, it does not matter on Dec. 2, either. What does is the fact that LSU proved itself to be a team with an identity formed from the things that mold championship-caliber teams.

Week 2 has been marred for half a decade by Week 1 losses away from home. Tiger fans have showed up for trouncings of McNeese, Southern, Grambling and Nicholls because that’s what Tiger fans do. But when they settled in those sultry seats, they knew their team was in some trouble.

This coming Saturday, none of those emotions will be present. Instead, it will be a warm welcome home for a team that earned it in the opener. Hope is the fuel for football season, and in a place that has watched three national title winners in 22 years, the highest hopes are all that will do.

This version of the LSU Tigers is a long, long way from any type of title, but it showed Saturday that its balance and talent provide plenty of hope.

This week is now not about pondering what went wrong in the opener but celebrating the return of a team that scored the best win in college football in Week 1.

That, along with a balanced football team, has been missing from Baton Rouge for years.