FINAL SPRING 2025 TAKEAWAYS: GOOD PROBLEMS, A FEW BIG QUESTIONS, AND SOLID OPTIONS FOR BRIAN KELLY'S 4TH YEAR TIGERS

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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

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In a wild era of turbulence and first-time happenings across the college football landscape, Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers just went through a Spring camp featuring a few bizarre firsts;

2025 will be remembered as the Spring that gave us the first ever cancelation of the L Club Spring Game, instead replaced by an open practice & autograph signing, joining a number of other top programs who followed Matt Rhule & Nebraska's lead to move on from Spring Games altogether.

For the first time under Head Coach Kelly, there is strong continuity within the locker room as well as the staff, while the squad underwent the greatest portal shopping spree in Kelly's tenure, signing 16 mostly elite veterans to help his younger team.

However, much like any other Spring camp on the Ponderosa, LSU continue to work out their kinks, identify their best personnel, then allow the iron to sharpen. But above all else, the entire squad's 2025 success or failure may hinge on one Tiger....the quarterback:

A 3RD HEISMAN QB /

ANOTHER 21st CENTURY OFFENSIVE JUGGERNAUT AT LSU???

📸 ©️ Gus Stark, LSU Sports

Approaching yet another year with the same starting QB (for the 2nd time out of 4 seasons at the helm) Garrett Nussmeier, Brian Kelly and QBs Coach / Co-OC Joe Sloan maintain a track record of hitting paydirt before with multi-year starting QBs at LSU:

The last time Kelly started a QB for consecutive seasons, his signal caller won the Heisman, on his way to becoming the 2024 NFL Draft's 2nd overall pick....

Nothing we witness during a Spring practice or film study will tell us what kind of a season Nussmeier will produce in 2025, but if he can learn from his years of prior experience on both sides of the winning & losing coin, properly season his NFL arm, & take advantage of LSU's upgraded receiving options, then the history of 2nd year starting QB imperialism (Russell, Mettenberger, Burrow, and Daniels) may just repeat itself....culminating in the NussBus rolling back to Baton Rouge next January carrying some hardware...

📸 ©️ Gus Stark, LSU Sports

That said, you have to feel excited heading into Nussmeier's Year 2, with his father Doug winning a Super Bowl during the offseason. Of course, Nuss was there to witness the moment inside the New Orleans Superdome, and his father, now taking a job inside the state with the Saints, will be doing everything he can to catch some games during his son's last LSU stand....but don't sleep on the competitive factor, as well:

"Dad got his ring....now it's my turn..." kinda dynamics....

The story of LSU's success or failure in 2025 will ultimately come down to Garrett Nussmeier's growth at the position, his decision making, as well as whether Nuss will be able to elevate his supporting cast.........not only aiming to elevate his steambreathing cavalcade of skill position thoroughbreds, but orchestrating the viability, reliability, and cohesion of his mostly new offensive line.

AN UNPREDICTABLE OL

Brad Davis' offensive line is without a doubt one of two position groups I am concerned about....at least until we see them gel on field:

Will the offensive axis of Joe Sloan & Cortez Hankton, working alongside TEs Coach / running game guru Alex Atkins, be able to sustain some kind of rushing attack for Nussmeier to lean on???

In the 1-2 backfield punch of Caden Durham's explosive lightning and Kaleb Jackson's pummeling thunder, backed by true freshman super-weapon Harlem Berry, led by a fantastic staff upgrade in Atkins, LSU might just possess a winning formula on the ground.

Specifically when it concerns the dual threat usage of tight end Bauer Sharp and certified red zone menace Trey'Dez Green; These recent play packages always set up a tight end blocking, releasing, and slipping away into space from the trenches for an easy catch and run.

The play selection is varying so far, and we aren't getting to see everything they're doing, and sure, it is a long time before the season kicks off, although, what we've seen thus far is very promising.

Destyn Hill & Barion Brown joke around during a rest moment at Spring practices. (©️ LSU Sports)

Adding new wrinkles like backup QB Jujuan Johnson taking on wildcat responsibilities or WR / return man Zavion Thomas being utilized in a Percy Harvin-esque backfield role (a position where he scored a rare opening red zone TD last year vs UCLA)....we are beginning to see a proper offense....

All of these new offensive directions should help alleviate the nonstop pressure on Nussmeier's throwing arm from last fall, where he placed 2nd in the country with 525 passing attempts.

Of course Sloan / Hankton will aim for balance, yet the fact remains:

LSU will be starting a generational passing talent at quarterback, entering Year 5 on campus, while the roster is replete with high octane receiving weapons that are starting to bring out the best in Nussmeier.....this Joe Sloan / Cortez Hankton offense should definitely be capable of throwing the ball all over the yard on opponents....

📸 ©️ Gus Stark, LSU Sports

Speed is everywhere you look in Hankton's WRU '25 room, sporting pace demons Barion Brown, Zavion Thomas, and 2024's leading Tiger receiver Aaron Anderson, alongside former track champion & downfield target man Chris Hilton Jr, former 10 TD / 1,000 yard wide out at Oklahoma (Nic Anderson), second year stud Kylan Billiot, freshman star TaRon Francis, and Louisiana native transfer Destyn Hill arriving after a few years at Florida State, this room contains almost every single receiving profile one could want....and that doesn't even count Trey'Dez Green's hybrid TE/WR majesty.

STILL IMPROVING, OR ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING TIGERS DEFENSE???

Elsewhere, outside of LSU's stable quarterback position & an offense stacked with weapons of various athletic profiles, Blake Baker's young defense appear to be faster, stronger, deeper, and more aggressive to the ball, quicker in reaction time, showing anticipation, creating turnovers, supplying pressure into the backfield, and most important of all, Baker's 2025 defense moves well together as a unit during their best moments, many of which arrived during the back half of Spring practices.

Regardless of promise or how things look now in Spring, it's hard to tell exactly what level of defense LSU will put on the field this fall, or just how good they can be with their added arsenal of solid to potentially elite transfer pieces (Delane, Pyburn, Payton, Cooley, Butler, and Mitchell);

Plus, the overall formations, intensity levels & primary personnel within Baker's defense will change accordingly once free range defensive powerhouse Harold Perkins and soon-to-be All-American linebacker Whit Weeks return to full health from serious injuries this June.

Now just returning following a torn achilles in September, starting DT Jacobian Guillory was also back training fully over the past few weeks of Spring camp, too.

Regarding LSU's 2025 defense, there is still so much to be decided, a lot to be ironed out, position battles to be settled, and the overall shape of the unit will most likely take until Fall Camp to accurately (fully) assess.

But if last year's extremely inexperienced, injury-ravaged, bone thin defensive unit were able to place 61st in total defense nationally by the end of a 4 loss campaign, then there is no reason why Baker's second season at LSU can't be another campaign of rising progress...

This fall, in a quarterback-weak SEC, a defense ranking anywhere in the top 50 could help this potential juggernaut offense finish games in dominant fashion...making opponents chase a scoreline, which would further play into the strengths of the Tigers' speedy, quite possibly elite front seven.....if all the pieces fall together.

There is a lot to be excited about for 2025 LSU football, yet there remains a list of ominous questions on the cusp of Fall Camp...some that could decide the fortunes of Brian Kelly's 4th year squad:

Safety....

.....bone thin, two solid starting pieces (Tamarcus Cooley & Javien Toviano) that should be an upgrade on 2024, and a third injured returning starter from last campaign (Jardin Gilbert) and a few young promising prospects (Dashawn Spears, Joel Rogers), but I'm left wondering....will this be the first productive, reliable safety unit LSU has deployed in 5 years? Or yet another middling unit full of poor tackling, a lack of discipline against the run while routinely beaten over the middle & over the top???

Despite my increased faith in LSU's upgraded safety room, as well as the hiring of former Miami defensive coordinator Lance Guidry (as an analyst working closely with young position coach Jake Olsen to fine tune his group), I have to see it to believe it this season....

Offensive line.....

....with enough potential starting combinations or position swapping to give OL Coach Brad Davis a daily migraine, LSU's offensive front is without a doubt the position group receiving the most concern and overriding question marks this offseason.

While I still believe LSU fans will see any combination of Tyree Adams, Braelin Moore, DJ Chester, Weston Davis, Josh Thompson, and Paul Mubenga as the 6 man nucleus (5 starters + a swing man, these names representing the most experienced Tigers within Brad Davis' confounding OL room), we're still not sure whether DJ Chester will hold on to his center spot, or get moved to guard to accommodate Braelin Moore's switch under center, we still aren't sure if Josh Thompson will battle his way to a starting spot at either right tackle or right guard, and we're definitely not sure first team starting bookend tackles Tyree Adams & Weston Davis (starting most of Spring) are up to the task of a full season gauntlet...most of these named Tigers haven't seen meaningful on field collegiate action and won't until Week 1 @ Clemson....a hell of a harsh way to make your college football debut....

Will 2024 returning starters Chester and Mubenga be able to capitalize off of their horrendous experience last fall and rise above their positional challengers?

There could be roles set aside for extremely young but outrageously gifted OL studs Carius Curne, Coen Echols, or Solomon Thomas, especially if LSU's offensive line fails to generate push, rhythm or cohesion.

But much like Lance Guidry's hire was Brian Kelly's way of helping Jake Olsen tighten up his position room, pulling Alex Atkins away from Florida State may prove to be the move of the offseason, with his new rushing concepts utilizing the athleticism of Davis' O-line in concert with carefully coordinated tight end blocking assistance.

We're seeing counters, stretch runs to the outside, plenty of pulling action from LSU's offensive line throughout Spring practices. Alongside the creative backfield usage of Jujuan Johnson & Zavion Thomas, these are all plays of deception that could greatly mask any O-line deficiencies in 1 v 1 matchups, as well as being the perfect plays for home run hitting RB Caden Durham.

Because Kelly & Sloan appear embarrassed by the lack of any running game over much of their shared 4 year LSU tenure (outside of QB Jayden Daniels & Durham for stretches last fall), because they spent big to hire Atkins (who's work with the TEs goes hand in hand with the O-line), because Atkins' successful ground schemes are already beginning to find their home in Baton Rouge, because LSU possess such a strong main back in Durham, you have to think LSU's O-line axis of Davis & Atkins will solve the rushing conundrum that's haunted the Tigers since Clyde Edwards-Helaire left for the NFL in January 2020 (not counting Ty Davis-Price's brilliant, rogue 1,000 yard season amid an atrocious offensive line season in 2021).

But will they be able to protect Garrett Nussmeier in the passing game, as the 2024 unit were able to do for the most part???

Regardless of their running game flaws, the 2022-2024 Tigers O-line of Campbell, Jones, Dellinger and Frazier excelled at pass blocking at an unheard of rate, only allowing 8 sacks and 17 QB hits.

Always overlooked, usually taken for granted, the offensive line is the focal point of a successful offense...and last season, after two years of dual threat wonderkid Jayden Daniels almost negating offensive line play with his boundless speed and vision, we were shaken to our core by offensive line issues and injuries....plaguing and derailing a promising offense into a complete husk of empty yards and countless missed opportunities.

....IN CONCLUSION

Okay wow, we went deep into the weeds there...let's pull it back:

As much as there are cornerstone players on this squad, who's individual success or failure could decide the fate of LSU's 2025 Tigers, Nussmeier, Weeks, Perkins, Durham, Guillory, Hilton Jr....this is a "team's kinda team"....position groups where the sum is greater than the individual parts, playcalling and schemes that are predicated on the team unit moving as one....

I think it's a great symbol for the emotional makeup of Brian Kelly's 4th year squad, at least as it stands right now: intense, competitive, us vs the world, professionalism, and.....locker room camaraderie on a scale we haven't witnessed in the Kelly era, with many of the Tigers' 15 out of state transfer signees already standing apart as vocal leaders & steady-handed talismen for Kelly & his staff to rely on.....

So, right now, I think the main thing to remember is.....we don't know the full picture of this team yet, with so much yet to happen, but one thing we do know???

This is once again another Brian Kelly squad moving towards a championship, heading in the right direction.....but will it be another year of inches or miles???

Would another year of inches be quick enough to satisfy Athletic Director Scott Woodward and the LSU boosters???

Has LSU ever hired a coach, in any sport, and given them a guaranteed 5-10 year timetable to win a championship???

Think about that for a minute, whether you love or hate Brian Kelly.....

In my estimation, since the college football playoff expanded to 12 teams, LSU should be there every single season...and there is really no excuse for LSU to miss the entirety of the playoffs.

...regardless of what happens, injuries, opt outs, transfers, poor decisions by assistant coaches, or even bad performances, Brian Kelly must understand he has a CFP mandate in Year 4.....that mandate may not be enforced by LSU's athletic department just yet, but it sure as hell is sealed within the minds of LSU's rabid fanbase.

Fielding this squad of players, that quarterback, possibly the deepest receiving room in WRU memory, coached by the SEC's 2nd highest paid coaching staff, it must be emphasized: a first round or quarterfinal playoff defeat should be the least LSU produces in 2025.

If a CFP appearance isn't possible this winter, it won't just be another hard luck season....it would expose a failure to adapt, an overall incapability, a carelessness that would mean all the time, money spent, relationships formed, changes adapted, and work undertaken building Kelly's LSU program might just be for all the wrong reasons....every reason except winning.

By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

©️ 2025 Uninterrupted Writings Inc