Station Survey: Biggest surprise for LSU in 2024?

The dust has settled on LSU’s 8-4 regular season of 2024. There were some high highs like coming back from 17-0 down to win at South Carolina and the dramatic overtime win over Ole Miss. However, the season started with a thud in Las Vegas and spiraled into a three-game losing streak between Texas A&M and Florida. We asked the 104.5 ESPN crew for their biggest surprise of the season. Here’s what they had to say.

Taylor Sharp, Video Producer, Off the Bench: The lines on scrimmage on both sides of the ball.  First off, I was very disappointed in the offensive lines run blocking. For a unit that was elite at time in pass protection, the fact that the consistently got no push while run blocking is mind boggling. I was pleasantly surprised by the interior defensive line.  This was considered the biggest weakness/question mark coming into the year but ended up being a very consistent group throughout the season.  The job that Bo Davis has done so far shows that he is well worth the money.

Jacob Hester, Co-Host, Off the Bench: Two things. One positive and one negative.

Negative: The inability to consistently run the football. You had flashes of success but never could rely on a steady run game.

Positive: The toughness, grit, and attention to detail on the defensive side of the football. It’s (thankfully) not a distant cousin to the historically bad defense we saw a year ago. 

T-Bob Hebert, Co-Host, Off the Bench: The thing that most shocked me about this LSU football team is that they never became a good rushing team.  This offensive line is the best pass blocking line I have ever seen across the board.  That is not hyperbole.  So then to only be “ok” at running the ball is truly mind boggling.  Because I hate being negative however, I’ll also say that the play of the defensive line was a surprise and a welcome one to be sure.  That group was thought to be the Achilles’ heel of this team and yet they ended up being a strength despite losing their best and most experienced player right at the beginning of the season. 

Charles Hanagriff, Co-Host, Live at Lunch: The biggest surprise for this LSU football team was their inability to run the football.  Behind an experienced offensive line, with a quarterback capable of keeping any defense honest, and a talented running back emerging in Caden Durham, the Tigers finished last in the SEC in rushing.

Jacob Beck, Audio Producer, The Hunt Palmer Show: This is probably the easiest answer, but the inability to run the ball effectively for the majority of the season was the biggest surprise for me. With a veteran offensive line including two top tackle prospects in Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr., this was supposed to be one of the best offensive lines in the SEC if not the country. Turns out they’re very good at pass blocking, but pretty poor at run blocking. I’m sure there are layers to this in terms of the actual reasons why they struggled so mightily blocking for the run. One possibly being the lack of creativity in run-play design. But either way, the combination of a lacking rushing attack and the inability to challenge defenses down the field in the passing game led to LSU’s offense averaging 22.6 points per game in their last five, which of course includes the three straight losses to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida.

Hunt Palmer, Host, The Hunt Palmer Show: For me, it was the nearly complete no show by the signing class of 2022. That class ranked 5^th in the country, and here were to Top 7 ranked players in that class—Zalance Heard, DaShawn Womack, Javien Toviano, Jalen Brown, Shelton Sampson, Jaxon Howard, D.J. Chester, Ka’Morreun Pimpton, Whit Weeks and Kylin Jackson. You got two starters out of that group in its second year out of high school. Ashton Stamps was the only other starter from the entire high school class. Two of 26 ain’t too good. Now 19 of those 26 either have already left or are in the portal. The class just never arrived.

Matt Musso, Audio Producer, After Further Review: The most surprising thing to me about LSU’s team in 2024 was the inability to run the football. There were bright spots obviously with the emergence of Caden Durham and a strong finish by Josh Williams, but overall, I don’t know how you call the run game anything other than disappointing this season. I say that because of the preseason conversation. Take yourself back there for a moment. Brian Kelly all spring and fall talked about how LSU was going to use their veteran offensive line to build their offense around the running game. Will Campbell the week of the opener said, “I’m telling you we are going to run the football.” It never materialized. Even with a veteran offensive line with four potential NFL players. You didn’t see the jump expected from a guy like Kaleb Jackson. All of that hurt LSU in multiple ways on the offensive side. It hurt you in the red zone. It hurt Garrett Nussmeier. There seemed to be no real commitment to running the ball at points this season. They would go away from it quickly. Nussmeier had a great first season starting, but a passing game can only get you so far without a compliment. You lacked the compliment the majority of the season, and given the preseason narrative and conversations it was very surprising to me. 

Paul O’Neill, Video Producer, After Further Review: What surprised me most about this LSU football team was the continued lack of preparedness for the running quarterbacks. I understand where you may have been caught off guard when Texas A&M benched Conner Weigman in favor of Marcel Reed, but you still should have prepared for that possibility. What was more shocking was you had two weeks to prepare for Alabama and Jalen Milroe, and the same thing happened. What made matters worse was Milroe ran all over you a year ago. The lack of adjustment by Brian Kelly, Blake Baker and the coaching staff was baffling. Maybe the coaching staff did make adjustments, and LSU just didn’t have the talent on defense to make those plays when needed.  I guess the biggest surprise for me was that it happened against every quarterback you faced with rushing ability. LaNorris Sellers, Marcel Reed, Jalen Milroe, DJ Lagway, Diego Pavia, and Jackon Arnold. They all ran all over you. I do believe LSU will be more talented on defense next year, and the coaching staff will make the necessary adjustments for the running quarterbacks in the future.

Matt Moscona, Host, After Further Review: It’s obviously the struggles in the run game. Will Campbell said before the USC game, “I’m telling everybody right now, we’re going to run the football.” I believed him. We were both wrong. LSU finished dead last in the SEC and 107^th nationally in rushing offense.