First open date provides LSU with opportunities

By Hunt Palmer

Traditionally, college football has only offered one open date per team. This year, everyone gets two.

After Saturday’s win over South Alabama, LSU head coach Brian Kelly made his intentions for the season’s first bye week abundantly clear.

“It’s not really a recovery week. We’re going to practice,” Kelly said. “We still have work to get done. We’ll treat the second bye week as a recovery week. This will be kind of a work week for us.”

With that in mind, here are three goals LSU should have during this week where the gameplan doesn’t consume every moment of practice and film time.

RECOVER

Sorry, Coach. I know this is contradictory to the above declaration, but some guys do get a chance to recover this week. Caden Durham injured his foot on Saturday. LSU desperately needs him at full strength next week. The Duncanville High standout has far and away been LSU’s best back. If he needs to take a few days off his injured foot, so be it. Mental reps will do.

Speaking of players LSU desperately needs next week, Zy Alexander qualifies. Ole Miss essentially abandoned the run on Saturday versus Kentucky. It’s a pass-happy bunch. Alexander may not be a candidate for the Thorpe Award, but he’s as good as LSU has in coverage. The Tigers need him to clear concussion protocol and return to the field.

I’ve written my last “Chris Hilton is returning” piece. I’ve forecasted that the last two weeks, and the junior wide receiver has shown up is street clothes on both occasions. If he does come back, he’ll help. I’m confident in that.

Emery Jones is dealing with an ankle issue. His play has suffered the last two weeks because of it. He needs some time off.

Same goes for West Weeks who was only able to play four snaps on Saturday before taking himself out.

The rest of the roster is generally healthy outside of the season-enders. Ole Miss is in for a physical game at South Carolina this weekend. LSU should be the fresher team.

SETTLE ON SECONDARY

LSU has shuffled through myriad options in the secondary. That’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do against Nicholls, South Carolina, UCLA and South Alabama. It’s not against Ole Miss. Brian Kelly knows that.

“We’ve rolled a lot of guys in (at safety),” Kelly said Saturday. “We get to two weeks from today, there’s not going to be a lot of rolling.”

Lane Kiffin feasts on secondary indecision and miscommunication. Two or three players need to be getting the lion’s share of the coaching this week and into next. If that’s the veterans in Jardin Gilbert and Sage Ryan, so be it. If that’s Kylin Jackson and/or Dashawn Spears, cool. Jordan Allen has played a bunch, as well. It’s up to Jake Olson to figure that out. Limiting explosive plays will be vital against Ole Miss. The safeties represent the last line of defense. Their preparation is paramount.

FRESHMEN FORWARD

I don’t think it’s stepping out of bounds to call this freshman class a talented bunch. In some instances, the freshmen aren’t playing quite as much as some of the older players, but they’re more talented.

It’s early in the year, and a lot of the freshmen haven’t played a ton. Guys like Trey’dez Green, Gabriel Reliford, PJ Woodland, Ahmad Breaux and Dominick McKinley should feel ready for a good week of work.

I omit Spears and Durham here for obvious reasons. Durham needs to rest, and if Spears isn’t ready to play 55 snaps against Ole Miss, then give the reps to whoever is.

Outside of Breaux, the other four guys may not play a huge role against the Rebels. That’s not to say they won’t play a huge role by Halloween. This could be a good week for their development.