By Hunt Palmer
Brad Davis inherited a mess at offensive line when he arrived in the summer of 2021. James Cregg had been fired for impermissible recruiting contact during the COVID-19 season. The crop returned Austin Deculus and Ed Ingram for their final season. The rest of the group was very, very young or turned out to be less than SEC caliber. Davis cobbled it together and ultimately earned the interim head coaching job after Ed Orgeron was fired. The next recruiting class brought Will Campbell and Emery Jones into the fold, and Davis hasn’t looked back. In three full recruiting cycles, Davis has signed 14 high school prospects. There is not a single transfer in this position group outside of Miles Frazier who was in Brian Kelly’s first class that had to compensate for massive attrition in the coaching change. That’s exactly the composition Kelly and Davis are looking for. Kelly’s time at Notre Dame yielded four first round draft picks from the offensive line. LSU hasn’t produced a single one since 1998. This spring, LSU might just have two. The turnaround has been seismic, but it hasn’t been unexpected.
WHO’S GONE: Kimo Makane’ole (Defense), Charles Turner (Graduation), Zalance Heard (Transfer), Marlon Martinez (Transfer), Mason Lunsford (Retired)
WHO’S BACK: Will Campbell, Garrett Dellinger, Miles Frazier, Emery Jones, Paul Mubenga, Bo Bordelon, Tyree Adams, DJ Chester
WHO’S NEW: Weston Davis (Freshman), Coen Echols (Freshman), Ethan Calloway (Freshman), Ory Williams (Freshman), Khayree Lee (Freshman)
To an extent, the fate of this LSU team falls with this position group. The expectation is nothing short of domination. And there’s every reason to believe this group will dominate. The experience is absurd. Campbell, Jones, Frazier and Dellinger have combined to play in 127 college games with 110 starts. They started every game together last year with the exception of Jones missing the Army game. This quartet has lived in the foxhole.
Now DJ Chester joins them. He’ll take over for Charles Turner at center. Chester has two inches and 25 lbs. on Turner. He’s got a ways to go to reach Turner’s acumen at the position. The first day of padded practices the media was allowed to take in was a great day for Turner. He stonewalled multiple rushers in one-on-ones. The next day wasn’t as good. He lost some reps and misfired some snaps. Kelly alluded to that on Wednesday’s teleconference suggesting Chester had good and bad days early. Those have apparently improved over the last three weeks. Chester’s potential is enticing because of his great size. The thought of the returning four starters adding a physically dominant center is a recipe for a Joe Moore Award type season. Chester remains the main question mark.
It’s beyond dispute that Jayden Daniels aided the offensive line last year. Free rushers weighing in excess of 245 lbs. simply couldn’t run with the Heisman winner. It wasn’t a fair fight. Still, the Tiger pass protection was often excellent. Campbell has only allowed two sacks in his career, none last season. They figure to see different looks this year. Blitzing a fifth year senior Heisman Trophy winner is not a grand plan. Few did it. Blitzing a first-year starter with less mobility? That’s more like it. Garrett Nussmeier will need his veteran front to handle far more blitzes than they saw in 2023. Still, the pass protection isn’t much of a question mark.
Run blocking is. By now I’ve written and said I’m concerned about LSU’s run blocking far too many times. They simply must do a better job. That being said, the USC front that awaits on Sunday is not the Florida State front of 2023. It’s not even the Texas A&M front of 2023. Campbell told reporters on Tuesday that the plan is to run the ball, and they don’t care who knows it. We’ll get a litmus test pretty quickly.
As far as reserves go, Tyree Adams appears to be the first man up no matter the injury. If Campbell goes down, Jones probably goes to left tackle with Adams sliding in at right. If Jones, Dellinger or Frazier goes down, Adams slides right in. If Chester goes down, Dellinger likely shifts to center with Adams taking his guard spot. Adams is probably the left tackle of the future. He’s had a great camp.
The rest of the guys need to grow up in a hurry. They’re all fighting for a starting job in four months. Weston Davis has been working as the second right tackle. Echols has been the second team center although he’s a little further from the field than that.
Many of these guys were prep basketball players. Davis and Williams were standout hoopers. Mubenga played soccer growing up. The whole crew is long and lean without much, if any, bad weight. That’s the way Kelly prefers to recruit them. Davis has done a hell of a job developing them.
That old saying says “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”, and maybe that’s true. It could certainly apply to LSU’s 2023 team. However, your strongest link means a heck of a lot, too. This should be LSU’s strongest link. They’re old. They’re talented. They’re cohesive.
About 6:30 central on Sunday would be a good time to start calling them dominant.
