Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
Saturday night wasn’t a work of art by the LSU offense. The defense held up its end of the bargain.
Brian Kelly was not thrilled with “the production” offensively and was disappointed in a late coverage bust by the defense that led to Louisiana Tech avoiding the shutout.
LSU did control the game from start to finish and won comfortably. Style points were lacking, but on a wild day in college football, LSU moved to 2-0.
Each week we take a look at the grades from the folks at Pro Football Focus to see how they saw the action. We’ll go over the highest graded players as well as the lowest graded players from the first Saturday Night in Death Valley of 2025.
HIGHEST GRADES
- Gabriel Reliford, DT – 84.4
- Mansoor Delane, CB – 82.3
- Barion Brown, WR – 78.3
- Ahmad Breaux, DT – 78.3
- Garrett Nussmeier, QB – 77.5
It’s great to see Reliford’s name atop the list. LSU brought in three veteran transfers at his position, but the plan was always to continue to develop the Shreveport product so that he could compete with those three proven commodities.
Reliford played 27 snaps. He played the run 10 times, rushed the passer 16 and dropped into coverage once. His 83.3 pass rush grade included a hurry and two hits on the quarterback. That’s great work. He was also graded a respectable 70.2 against the run.
Delane has emerged as LSU’s best cover man. He graded 81.7 in coverage, only allowing one catch for four yards on four targets. LSU has been lacking a lock down cover man since Derek Stingley moved on. Delane isn’t in Stingley’s category just yet, but he’s off to a heck of a start.
Brown “balled out” according to Kelly. He got the game ball for his efforts, and the PFF crew agreed. He converted five first downs, made 34 yards after the catch and forced a missed tackle. He was credited with a contested catch. Brown was underutilized at Kentucky due to putrid quarterback play. That’s not an issue in Baton Rouge.
Breaux is the second sophomore defensive lineman on the list. He didn’t play a ton, just 20 snaps, but he was credited with two hurries on 10 pass rush reps. That’s great production from the interior. On his 10 run defense snaps he made three tackles including half a tackle for loss. Breaux certainly made the most of his snaps.
I was a little surprised to see Nussmeier on the list. Just watching the game live, it didn’t feel like the signal caller was on his game. The interception early was badly under thrown, and he misfired on a handful of other throws down the field. PFF dinged LSU for four drops which actually helps bolster Nussmeier’s PFF grades relative to his statistics. He made three “big time throws.” Nussmeier will have better nights.
LOWEST GRADES
- Javien Toviano, FS – 31.7
- Trey’Dez Green, TE – 45.1
- Bauer Sharp, TE – 45.6
- Weston Davis, RT – 50.6
- Jacobian Guillory, DT – 51.7
Toviano only played 17 snaps, and his 30.5 coverage grade is massively impacted by the 33-yard touchdown pass that was credited against him. That may have been more on Ja’keem Jackson. As for the good news, Toviano graded 76.4 in tackling.
The two tight ends were next on the list. Their blocking grades were not good. Green graded 40.3 in run blocking on nine snaps. Sharp graded 58.6 on 34 snaps. Expect Sharp’s role in the offense to grow a little bit with Green out, and Donovan Green, the Texas A&M transfer will likely see a big tick up in playing time with Green on the shelf.
Davis allowed four pressures, three hurries and a sack on 48 pass blocking reps. His grade there was 55.2. That was an improvement from his 47.0 run blocking grade. Davis’s season-long run blocking grade is now 39.0 on 66 snaps at right tackle. That has to improve.
Guillory only played 15 snaps, and 10 of them were in pass rush. That’s not his strength. His role is going to be to play the run far more often than not.
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