2019 College Football Season Preview: LSU Tigers
2019 College Football Season Preview: LSU Tigers
In the weeks leading up to the season, I’ll be previewing some of the top programs in college football. Today I cover Louisiana State University. Unless noted, all stats according to sports-reference.com
2019 Coaches Poll Ranking: 6
2018 AP Final Ranking: 6
2018 Record: 11-3
Coach: Ed Orgeron
Conference: Southeastern Conference (SEC)
Summary: The last time LSU has beaten Alabama was in 2011, when they beat Alabama 9-6 in Tuscaloosa. This victory was short-lived, though, as the Tigers saw their victory avenged by the Tide in the national championship that same year to the tune of a 21-0 victory for Alabama. Since then, LSU has seen season after promising season ruined by their foes from the East, while Alabama has gone on to have one of the greatest runs in college football history. This year, the Tigers hope to break this trend and ride a potentially-dominating defense and returning quarterback Joe Burrow to an SEC title and potentially a playoff spot.
Leading the defense is arguably the best safety in the nation in Grant Delpit, a Jim Thorpe Award candidate (awarded to the country’s top defensive back) and Pro Football Focus’ twenty-fifth-ranked college player this season. The junior had five interceptions, a fumble recovery and five sacks. The scary thing? Delpit isn’t even the highest ranked-player on that Pro Football Focus list. That would be Kristian Fulton, a senior cornerback. Though personally I think Delpit is better (PFF admits that it dropped Delpit a little bit due to tackling issues), both highlight a defense with the potential to lead the country. On the other side of the ball, Joe Burrow hopes to prove that he’s the quarterback to lead the Tigers to their first-ever college football playoff. Fortunately, he’ll have help, starting with new passing game coordinator Joe Brady. Brady has promised a more RPO-based offense, which Burrow has said makes him more comfortable than the pro-style system he was in before. He’ll also have his four top receivers back, headlined by Justin Jefferson, who contributed over 900 yards from scrimmage as a Sophomore. Outside of those four, the tigers also have sophomore Terrace Marshall Jr., a five-star receiver in high school who could break out this season. At running back, the offense will have to replace a 1000 yard rusher in Nick Brossette, but Clyde Edwards-Helaire returns, who was second on the team with 658 rushing yards. So basically, everybody’s back on this offense, and that could be huge. This team has some talent, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, and experience on the offensive side of the ball. But can they beat Alabama?
Most Valuable Player: Grant Delpit, S Delpit is expected by many to lead arguably the most talented defense in the nation, and could be a key cog in LSU’s title hopes. A unanimous All-America selection in 2018, Delpit was awarded for his efforts by his coaches when they assigned him number 7 for 2019 (for a quick summary of what that means, click here). According to Pro Football Focus, Delpit allowed an incredible 57.3 passer rating last year. The craziest part? Delpit was only a sophomore last year. As an encore, the safety could truly light the football world on fire, and a playoff spot would be a fitting conclusion to a great career.
Biggest Game: Nov. 2019, at Alabama As mentioned above, LSU has lost to Alabama every time the two teams have met since 2011, and the Tigers have consistently had otherwise-good seasons derailed by their traditional loss to the Tide every year. This season, Alabama enters with yet another highly talented roster and equally high expectations. LSU, meanwhile, has had every season prediction begun with “unless they can beat Bama…” The Tigers have a dominating defense and an offense with exciting upside. Ed Orgeron needs to start winning these games.
Honorable Mention: Since obviously a game against Alabama would be essentially any team’s biggest game, I also wanted to mention the September 7th matchup with the Texas Longhorns in Texas. Texas is excited and ambitious this season off of a defeat of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, and this will be an important “yardstick” game to determine if LSU is for real this year.
One Big Question: How will the offense look? I already addressed the Alabama question, but there is a lot of hype surrounding LSU’s new Passing Game Coordinator Joe Brady and his promised update to the LSU offense. If the new-look offense results in a huge season for Joe Burrow, this could become the year that LSU finally put it all together and made a postseason run. If it’s more of the same, or a different process with the same results, this could go down as yet another year in which LSU was long on hopes and short on success.
My prediction: 11-2, miss the SEC Championship I do think LSU will beat Texas, and I think that this could potentially be the year that LSU really challenges Alabama for SEC West supremacy. But as I said in my Alabama preview, I can’t pick against the trend until I’m proven wrong. Speaking of trends, LSU always seems to drop a head-scratcher to an unranked team, whether that’s Texas A&M last year, Troy the year before, or Auburn the year before that. They also play #8 Florida, which could play as a second or third loss. This year has potential, but LSU will need to prove that it has more than that.
For my previous season previews:
#1 Clemson
#2 Alabama
#3 Georgia
#4 Oklahoma
-Alex Spieldenner
Instagram: alex_spieldenner
Twitter: @aspieldenner