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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
Fired & replaced within days of Head Coach Brian Kelly's arrival, few would've believed LSU's 2021 LBs Coach would make a triumphant return just 3 years later......now rehired as the Tigers' defensive coordinator by that same Head Coach in a strange twist of fate...
You wouldn't have believed it....unless I told you that 2021 LBs Coach is Blake Baker, returning to replace the man (2022-2023 defensive coordinator / LBs Coach Matt House) who replaced him...
This offseason, Baker is experiencing a full circle moment, returning back to a state with plenty of familial & professional ties...the state where he went to college at Tulane.....the state where he met, fell in love & married his wife, a Mandeville native & LSU alum.....the place where he coached three different stints for two different programs.
Full of more swagger and venomous energy than most current college athletes, LSU's new defensive coordinator attacks his daily coaching with the same intensity & attention to detail he expects from his players....even going so far as wearing cleats during practices....stalking the practice field like a bull on parade, retaining that familiar Cheshire Cat grin.
Coach Baker's in-the-foxhole mentality made him a beloved and successful defensive coordinator at Missouri, where he took over right after his early 2022 firing by Coach Kelly, taking 2021 LSU defensive analyst Jake Olsen with him to Columbia.
At Mizzou, Baker assembled a strong staff that would raise the recruiting & on field standards of the long suffering Missouri defense, delivering significant results & improved performances each year of his 2 season reign (inheriting Mizzou's 113th ranked 2021 defense and jumping to 56th that next fall during his first campaign in charge), ultimately supplying Mizzou with their fantastic 2023 defensive unit.
Ranking 33rd nationally in total defense, 5th inside the SEC, giving up fewer total yards & touchdowns than Nick Saban's final Alabama defense, Mizzou finished their high octane season cooking Ohio State 14-3 (the first time the Buckeyes failed to score an offensive touchdown in 7 years).
Ending his time at Mizzou on a high, Baker's defense greatly assisted Mizzou's final #8 ranking, watching 5 defensive players drafted within the first 5 rounds, including 1st Round edge rusher Darius Robinson.
Baker, Broyles Award nominated edge rushing coach Kevin Peoples, as well as safeties coach Jake Olsen delivered in a major way last season....establishing an aggressive, hell bent for leather defense which stood in stark contrast to Matt House's soft, perpetually lost, and historically awful coaching job from last fall.
Athletic Director Scott Woodward was watching intently....
There to greet him warmly on the Mizzou sidelines, Woodward was on hand in Columbia to see Baker's defense square off vs Heisman-winning LSU QB Jayden Daniels' freight train offense.....and when comparing Baker's defensive ethos against those of Matt House, the future direction of LSU's defense was all too clear for Woodward.
Coach Baker had to be the man to revive a new era of defensive greatness at LSU....washing away the prior 5 years of uncharacteristic defensive ineptitude....a time where even worrying signs of a leaky defense & an offense-first horizon creeped into view during the Tigers' G.O.A.T 2019 campaign.
But Coach Blake Baker understood one thing very clearly: even among the worst ever LSU defenses, those embattled squads still featured Sunday players all over their depth chart....last year was no different; Baker accepted the LSU job because he believes he's the right man to activate those future NFL stars on LSU's current squad.
Tragically, during this past 5 year stretch of diminishing defensive returns, some incredible Tiger defenders were wasted by mismanagement or were altogether swallowed up by the bad habits & poor performances surrounding them.
Some fell prey to the Biblical amount of defensive injuries over that span (see 2021 injuries), poor coaching decisions regarding their primary position / playing time, or they underperformed and never fulfilled their own potential....could Coach Baker turn that other layer of defensive negativity around?
Throughout LSU history, year in, year out, the Tigers were nearly entitled to great defenses, but it's not the case anymore....and in 2023, throughout a long, 13 game red wedding of sorts where you wondered if Matt House was actually trolling all of us, we saw the stark truth once again, just as we endured for most of 2021, 2020 and in big spots of 2022.
From 2019-2023, LSU allowed 14 opponents to score 40+ points, while 22 different programs dropped at least 35 on LSU over that span. In contrast, from 2012-2018, LSU defenses only surrendered 3 games of 40+ points & 5 games where the defense gave up 35 or more.....clearly there was a few factors that changed LSU's defensive fortunes.
Trying to balance our newfound offensive prowess, fast tempo offenses, and skilled, elite level QBs while making the wrong hires at defensive coordinator since Dave Aranda departed, as well as a lack of recruiting or roster management foresight left the Tigers in dire straights at key positions, digging around the bottom of the transfer portal barrel for "bodies" to fill gaping holes (specifically 2022 when Kelly brought in 6 defensive backs via the portal, followed by our mostly unsuccessful DT search this past offseason)...a desperate strategy which ultimately cost LSU games.
It was a downward trend LSU fans believed would end at the start of each season, however, after 13 ugly, pathetic defensive showings last fall, it wasn't a fluke anymore...
....2021 and 2020 wasn't an aberration, it was becoming the rule....and something had to be done immediately to stop the sliding of LSU's traditionally powerhouse defense, lest Kelly and Co start to lose more games, the defensive struggles become etched fact upon our foreheads & the Tigers start to lose elite recruits.
LSU needed a defensive savior....more than that, the Tigers needed a leader who could relate to their talented, but confidence-crushed players:
When Baker arrived back in Baton Rouge, I was reminded of how many Tigers he was already familiar with from coaching at LSU in 2021 (holding relationships with key veterans such as linebacker Greg Penn III, Sage Ryan, Major Burns, Jacobian Guillory among others), let alone being the primary (and successful) recruiter of Harold Perkins.
Bringing Peoples and Olsen along from Missouri, while Woodward & Kelly hired back Corey Raymond & finally captured Bo Davis, the Tigers may just have the top defensive coaching staff on their sidelines, a factor which will go a long way during 2024's gauntlet of a campaign.
Besides fostering a general aggressive, all action on-field identity, as they grow their tightening bonds with their players, Baker, Raymond, Davis, Peoples and Olsen's in-game adjustments, personnel decisions, and their hands-on presence should usher in a bold, exciting new chapter of LSU defense....a season where the tables just might actually begin to turn.
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
©️ 2024 Uninterrupted Writings Inc
We have a very strong defensive staff. If they get their message across, we can expect a very competitive defense.