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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
Those reptilian derelicts who remain dismissive of 2024 LSU's CFP National Championship chances will tell you Brian Kelly's Year III is marked by a team "in transition", losing far too much offensive production from 2023 (3 first round picks, a Heisman winning QB, and two 1A / 1B dynamos at receiver), seeing their Broyles Award finalist offensive coordinator leave for Notre Dame, while Kelly's staff features "new" co-offensive coordinators and a complete rehaul of the defensive staff....trying to erase & escape from the historic stain of 2023's worst ever program performance under prior defensive coordinator Matt House.....all as some national media members point out the not-so-factual line, "LSU's 2024 defense will still end up fielding most of the same players who produced the atrocity Tiger fans suffered through during 2023..."
If you chisel away, going even deeper, you'll hear Brian Kelly detractors blasting Kelly's "re-hiring" of Tiger assistants he fired upon arrival in late 2021 (Blake Baker, Corey Raymond, and Jake Olsen)....commonly calling Raymond "washed up" or Baker & Olsen "retreads".
You will see 2024 LSU become a forgotten entity during preseason, as the media focuses their attention on Kalen De Boer's Ryan Seacrest-esque takeover of Nick Saban's monolithic Alabama progrum, or Layne Kiffin's top heavy, transfer-filled squad aiming for a "win now" culmination only NIL blood money could provide, Kirby Smart's Georgia continue to be a feisty contender, nasty recruiting trail foe, as well as near-annual SEC Championship Game participant in their own backyard, then there's Texas and Oklahoma's conference debuts starting in a brash, bragadocious, naive manner.....even Mizzou's top 10 chances are being talked about far more than any On3 forum rumors of an alleged Eli Drinkwitz sex tape, a definite change in a comically ugly trend over the past 2 months....
Through it all, Brian Kelly's Year III Tigers will be largely ignored as a team who couldn't quite push both sides of the ball to a championship level in 2023, thus not worthy of their mosquito-sized attention spans....the way LSU failed their Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, Biletnikoff-robbed WR Malik Nabers, NCAA receiving scoring leader Brian Thomas Jr & All-American led O-line with the most pathetic defensive showings Tiger fans have ever witnessed is still present in the memory....
.....this is a team who are "simply not ready for primetime this year".....
.....a squad that is "putting the pieces of their roster back together for a big push in 2025"....merely a "tough night at that loud stadium of theirs" will be the outside expectations for Kelly and Co this fall.....
Rarely receiving much attention or belief from college football media's intellegentsia, throughout the country, surface level paper clutchers & pencil pushing talking point champions rant away at LSU's "raw first year starting quarterback", new offensive coordinator partnership, "gaping holes & uncertainty" along the interior defensive line & secondary, as well as the aforementioned new coaches narrative...hammering it all home by placing Alabama, Georgia, debutantes Texas, Ole Miss, and Mizzou ahead of LSU in some outlandish SEC Media Days picks....
....buried within an "unassailable conference".....
Echoing these "key reasons" as to why LSU's "2024 downfall is imminent", many media members claim these aforementioned factors will not only damn LSU out of 12 team CFP Playoff contention, most national outsider forecasts average around 6-8 wins for Kelly and Co....
.....sure....they see a new QB, the Heisman has left the building, their offensive coordinator went back home to the Midwest, and they say, "no way Nussmeier, Sloan, Hankton, Davis and Co can replicate that 2023 offense...right??"
On the other side of the ball, these analysts fixate on Matt House's treacherous defensive apocalypse while remaining unaware, uneducated or aloof to Blake Baker's drastic mentality, personnel, and formation changes this off-season....however, until success occurs on the field, the question will linger on the lips of many commentators, "....will LSU be able to overcome their shocking defensive frailities from 2023???"
Utilizing much of the same 2023 roster, surely a Blake Baker-led turnaround in just 9 months has to be "impossible"....right???
.....this post-SEC Media Days afterglow commentary, from all angles of the college football media pyramid, actually heaps a ton of disrespect towards 2024 LSU....but I'm sure Kelly's team or staff will not mind one bit.
In fact, I say bring on the criticism, let the national media underrate & overlook LSU, let them marinate on tired "Brian Kelly on the hot seat in Year III" narratives while the squad shut off the noise, and create their own:
Invent a bunker mentality, an Us Vs The World atmosphere, as the outside ignores one of the most sneaky deep rosters in America, the Tigers' staff possess the pedigree to answer each question this roster will pose amid a gauntlet schedule...
Although...take off the purple & gold shades....is the dismissive, ambivalent media vibe toward LSU's upcoming campaign warranted or simply more negative recruiting, captured at its most desperate, corrupt & corporate?
Alright, let's answer that right now, as much as possible, let's look at the realities of 2024 LSU and take inventory of their prospects:
How can you overlook, or in Paul Finebaum's case, barely even mention a team with the nation's #1 offensive line blocking for running back, tight end & receiver rooms chock full of elite players, starter-level personnel 3 (RB), 4 (TE) or even 6 (WR) men deep at each spot, led by a quarterback who's already appeared in 20 games, including a near 300 yard 2nd half substitute performance during the 2022 SEC Championship Game vs then-repeat National Champions Georgia, followed up in January 2024 when Nuss got his rocks off to the tune of 395 yards & 3 scores during a near perfect MVP destruction of Wisconsin's top 10 defense only 6 1/2 months ago, largely aided by three pivotal 2024 starters (Lacy, Hilton and Taylor)...a first year QB who supplied two 14 point comebacks to pull out the win, all coached by former QBs Coach Joe Sloan & WRs Coach Cortez Hankton, both showing no issues acclimating to their additional Co-OC roles thus far.....leading to a building confidence among the team & fanbase that was greatly helped by the pair's strong bowl game preview.....each Co-OC also sharing an enhanced multi-year chemistry with their respective position groups.....
.....then there's the much discussed defensive unit, a group littered with Sunday talent & younger veteran experience that was horribly misused by their last defensive coordinator, now coached by a newly tooled staff.
Based around Louisiana icons & LSU heroes aiming to reestablish the Tigers' traditionally powerhouse defenses (former Tiger Bo Davis, well regarded as the #1 D-line coach in the business & now the most expensive....prior Mizzou defensive coordinator & 2021 LSU LBs Coach Blake Baker is not only one of the rising coaching stars in the game, he's the man who's colossal recruiting vision brought Harold Perkins Jr to LSU.....Baker is joined by one of DBU's three main architects Corey Raymond, now hungrier than ever after a 2 year exile in Florida, alongside two of Baker's former Mizzou assistants: Kevin Peoples, a Broyles Award nominated edge rushing coach and 2021 LSU analyst Jake Olsen, a relatable, reliable, renegade young safeties chieftain)....
There are elements about this team that would easily trick you into believing 2024 LSU will not be ready for championship destiny....their youthful majority, lack of defensive chemistry, of course the fresh staff....the interior D-line's depleted resources.....
How in the hell will Kyren Lacy and Chris Hilton Jr adequately replace Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr???
How can first year starting QB Garrett Nussmeier even come close to following up Jayden Daniels' biblical Heisman display???
There is a simple answer to those kinds of questions regarding this current squad: they don't have to replace those guys directly or produce in the way Daniels, Nabers & Thomas were able to.....this LSU season looks to be more of a group effort, playing time dictated by performance levels & matchups.
In 2024, LSU hold plenty of depth at more key positions than one would initially realize, ensuring the Tigers don't always have to rely on merely one or two elite players at any one spot.
Kyren Lacy caught 7 touchdowns last year next to multiple 1,000 yard receivers....just one example of overlooked, yet effective production & experience among the roster.
....this is a different team than either of Brian Kelly's first two seasons....a great and wondrous beast of every opponent's burden altogether:
Perhaps LSU won't finish undefeated or pull off an astonishing campaign this fall, maybe some of what the national media say about the Tigers is true, yet they continue to overlook the fact this is a more complete team than 2023 or 2022....a more dedicated squad, a group that's more tight knit.
This is a team led by a rare, endangered batch of college football players who waited their turn, QB Nussmeier, DB Sage Ryan, DT Jacobian Guillory, WRs Lacy and Hilton, RBs Williams & Emery Jr; accordingly, under fresh leadership, all are beginning to capitalize on their opportunities.
This fighter's identity, backed by a youthful energy, continues to spread throughout the team as a way forward into the brush, machete in hand, slicing away at any and all opposition along their path...
By September, the noise will intensify as the USC opener beckons....
Once the first few snaps are fired off, the first few tackles fly, all of the comparison, preseason insanity, and obsessively critical, usually short sighted banter fades into the background as a new season, with laws unto itself, ultimately begins.
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
©️ 2024 Uninterrupted Writings Inc
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