By Hunt Palmer
Eric Wolford walked into a relatively empty offensive line room when he took the job.
The former Kentucky offensive line coach who spent a season at Alabama was brought in to help fix the mess up front, and aggressiveness in talent acquisition was essential.
LSU needed starters. LSU needed depth. A month later, the Tigers have both thanks to a big budget, Lane Kiffin, Billy Glasscock and Wolford, who is working alongside former LSU offensive line coach James Cregg.
WHAT WE KNOW
Sean Thompkins brings power conference starting experience and versatility. Both were vital to LSU’s rebuild up front.
The 6-fooot-5, 300 lbs., junior-to-be spent three seasons in Waco. He showed up as a three-star from the state of Georgia and went to work. He redshirted in 2023 and only played in the season opener in 2024. So, through two seasons he’d only seen action in one game.
In 2025, he appeared in 10 games and started the last five. Nearly all of his time was at left tackle thought he did play right tackle for 14 snaps.
Pro Football Focus graded him a 50.1 on offense, a 48.1 in run blocking and a 56.0 in pass protection. Six of his 10 pass protection grades were over 71, though, which is very strong. He was severely dinged for his efforts against TCU (27.3) and Utah (19.2) where he, according to PFF, allowed eight pressures in 74 pass rush sets. Those two Saturdays were rough.
Thompkins was committed to North Carolina in January but flipped that to LSU after a visit to Baton Rouge. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
THE FIT
Plenty of great players come from the FCS and JUCO ranks. However, more of them come from the power leagues.
Thompkins was LSU’s first commitment up front from the power leagues. LSU went on to nab William Satterwhite, Derrin Strey, Devin Harper, Aliou Bah and Jordan Seaton. But Thompkins was first. That makes him a good fit. He’s also got tackle experience which LSU had to have in the worst way.
With Seaton coming in to anchor the left tackle spot in 2026, Thompkins becomes a viable option at right tackle where he’ll battle with Weston Davis, Harper and others. All three of those players are really good athletes who have their issues.
Davis struggled in 2025 under a different offensive line coach in a different offense. Harper didn’t really play at Ole Miss in 2025 as a true freshman. Thompkins will need to switch sides of the line and had his struggles last season.
Depth and options are good things, though.
Soloman Thomas is still in the picture as a redshirt freshman, and the Bordelon brother adds depth at guard. But at tackle, I see those first four fighting for time.
HUNT’S PROJECTION
I think Thompkins is one of LSU’s top four tackles.
Right now, I would project him as the backup left tackle with Seaton starting there and Harper manning the right side. Davis would back Harper up.
There are seven months for Wolford to sort this out, and it would come as no surprise at all if Davis were the starter at right tackle for the second straight year and Harper kicked down to guard. Either way, I think Thompkins is the second left tackle.
He’s a really good athlete who is a better pass protector than run blocker. And he may be the left tackle in 2027 when Seaton moves on.
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