By Hunt Palmer
LSU has spent a fortune on changing the nameplate of the defensive line coach’s office over the last seven years.
When Brian Kelly convinced Bo Davis to leave Texas for his alma mater, it felt like a long-term solution to the revolving door at the position. Then 13 months later, he bolted for the Saints opening, and LSU was back in the market for a defensive line coach for the sixth time in Kelly’s four years in Baton Rouge.
It took some prying, but LSU lured Kyle Williams out of his comfortable situation at Ruston High School to assume the role. Williams has no college coaching experience, but he spent a decade in the middle of the Buffalo Bills’ defensive front and has really impressed everyone in the program with his energy and teaching ability.
The 2025 roster has a good combination of young, homegrown talent and some veteran pieces from the portal. Marked improvement is going to be a must if the Tigers want to become a championship-level defense.
WHO’S GONE
- Gio Paez (Graduation)
- Jay’viar Suggs (Transfer: Wisconsin)
- Kimo Makane’ole (Transfer: West Virginia)
- Jalen Lee (Transfer: UNLV)
- De’Myrion Johnson (Transfer: Southern)
WHO’S BACK
- Jacobian Guillory (6’2”, 318, Grad)
- Ahmad Breaux (6’3”, 278, Soph)
- Dominick McKinley (6’6”, 308, Soph)
- Shone Washington (6’4”, 295, R-Jr)
WHO’S NEW
- Sydir Mitchell (6’6”, 355, R-Soph, Texas
- Bernard Gooden (6’1”, 268, 5-Sr, South Florida)
- Walter Mathis Jr. (6’2”, 285, Fr)
- Brandon Brown (6’1”, 295, Fr)
- Zion Williams 6’4”, 360, Fr)
WHAT WE KNOW
After some lean years due in part to coaching instability, LSU’s numbers at defensive tackles are finally healthy. Last year Gio Paez and Paris Shand were kind of forced down to tackle when Jacobian Guillory went down. Ahmad Breaux and Dominick McKinley were probably asked to play too much because Maason Smith and Mekhi Wingo departed early for the NFL Draft.
Numbers are no longer an issue. LSU has six upperclassmen and three true freshmen to handle the defensive interior.
Guillory returns as the group’s leader. He was a standout in camp last year before his Achilles tore in Week 2 against Nicholls. He’s never been a massively productive player, but his size and strength are a handful. He’s played in 41 games over five seasons and has two tackles for loss and half a sack to his name. Still, Guillory wants to finish his career the right way, not on crutches.
Last year’s freshmen are back as sophomores, and their roles are due to expand. Breaux showed up in Baton Rouge as an edge player and grew quickly into a tackle. His recruiting profile lists him at 260. He’s now closer to 280 lbs. He played in all 13 games and started twice in September. He made 17 stops, 1.5 for loss. Breaux’s motor is his defining characteristic. He never slows down. Williams coached him at Ruston, so that pair knows each other well.
McKinley got hurt in camp which really slowed his progression. He was able to play in the final 10 games and made a big splash in the finale versus Oklahoma with four tackles and two sacks. Per Pro Football Focus, McKinley played 163 snaps and graded a respectable 69.3. He was only credited with one missed tackle on the season.
Shone Washington is a big body who was a four-star recruit when he signed with Georgia out of Warren Easton. He left Athens for East Mississippi Junior College and made his way to LSU for the 2024 season. He played in 12 games and made nine stops as a depth piece to the rotation.
Sydir Mitchell turned some heads in the spring. His size is obvious. He’s the biggest player on the roster. Zion Williams has him by a few lbs., but Mitchell is two inches taller. Bo Davis loves huge defensive tackles, and he brought Mitchell to Texas and then over to LSU. As a Longhorn, Mitchell didn’t play much. He logged action in four games in 2023 and five in 2024.
Bernard Gooden is the opposite of Mitchell. He’s the Kyle Williams mold. Gooden is on the smaller side and plays with quickness. He had 10 tackles for loss at South Florida a season ago. Pro Football Focus graded Gooden extremely high, a season-long run defense grade of 81.7 that included a 74.1 against Alabama. He created 27 quarterback hurries from his spot on the interior as well.
Walter Mathis, Zion Williams and Brandon Brown are the three freshmen. 247sports rated them all as three-star prospects. Williams is a mountain of a man at 360 lbs. Brown and Mathis are closer to 290 lbs.
HUNT’S PROJECTION
I think Kyle Williams is going to rotate pretty freely early in the season. Guillory is a high floor player who is a load to handle in the middle but isn’t going to make a ton of plays. He’s going to drive centers and guards backwards with his strength and leverage.
Breaux and McKinley have higher upsides and should be improved in year two in college.
Gooden and Mitchell are the wildcards. Williams is going to really like Gooden’s style because it’s what he played with. Williams turned himself into a Pro Bowler as an undersized defensive tackle who split gaps and made plays behind the line of scrimmage. He’s not really all that interested in just holding the point of attack and letting the linebackers roam to make plays. He wants his tackles and ends making plays in the backfield. That’s what Gooden does.
Mitchell is more the space eater. He and Guillory fill that role, and I think they’ll share it this fall.
To me, Mitchell and Guillory play that role. Gooden and Breaux will be the guys who finish with the most tackles in the backfield. McKinley’s role is going to be the most interesting. He’s got the highest ceiling of the bunch. If that size and agility come together, he could be an all-league player. I could also see his role diminishing if Guillory, Breaux, Mitchell and Gooden outplay him.
LSU should be able to stay fresh at the position. That’s a positive.
The best LSU teams have been elite at defensive tackle. Chad Lavalais, Glen Dorsey, Michael Brockers and Tyler Shelvin were difference makers on those championship-level teams. I don’t know that I see that type of potential in this group, but it also doesn’t feel like a weakness or massive question mark like it did this time last year.
If Williams sticks around for a few years unlike his predecessors, he’ll likely bring back the dominance he once knew at LSU.
More LSU Sports
