- Brian Kelly requested the query all of us had on our brains: What, precisely, did LSU do to organize for Alabama, and why did not it work?
- Till LSU elevates its personnel, anticipate Tigers to fall wanting greatness.
- LSU did not have the horses to run with Alabama. That is why the Tide are in place for CFP bid, and LSU is not.
BATON ROUGE, La. – Brian Kelly requested the query all of us had on our brains.
The best way the No. 13 Tigers performed Saturday in a 42-13 tail-kicking by No. 11 Alabama, you would possibly’ve thought LSU discovered of its opponent 90 seconds earlier than kickoff.
In reality, LSU had two weeks to organize for Alabama.
May’ve fooled me.
“Should you’re watching the sport, you’re like, ‘What did these guys do for 2 weeks?’” Kelly stated after a loss that kneecapped LSU’s playoff possibilities.
“We’ve got a scheme to cease the quarterback. We didn’t get it executed. I take duty for it.”
Alabama’s star quarterback Jalen Milroe galloped via LSU’s protection.
He accomplished his first seven passes. He repeatedly sprinted into the top zone with consolation within the data that the Tigers had no one who would lay a hand on him.
Milroe picked the Tigers clear and left them for bones, and it’s the identical unhappy story for LSU’s protection, a yearslong wart.
“He’s received a superpower in relation to working the soccer,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer stated of his quarterback.
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Pair that superpower with an LSU protection that’s tremendous pitiful at stopping working quarterbacks, and also you get a blowout like this one.
The best way to enhance LSU soccer protection? Begin with personnel
Kelly fired his defensive coordinator after final season, when LSU fielded the SEC’s worst protection this aspect of Vanderbilt.
In marched Blake Baker to run the protection, a rent that generated fanfare. Baker beforehand galvanized Missouri’s protection.
And but, this loss introduced as a close to repeat of Alabama’s romp over LSU final season, when the Crimson Tide additionally scored 42 factors, and Milroe ran wild via the night time.
I doubt Baker overdosed on silly tablets within the offseason, so, what provides?
Merely, LSU’s protection doesn’t have sufficient good personnel. LSU (6-3) lacks the horses to run with Alabama (7-2).
Bear in mind the bodily freaks from the Nick Saban and Les Miles eras of LSU soccer? This protection doesn’t possess many guys like that.
Which begs the query: Why not? And, can Kelly populate his roster with the mandatory opponent-wreckers earlier than subsequent season?
As Kelly assembles a 2025 recruiting class that ranks No. 4 nationally, he’d additionally do effectively to buy just a few confirmed veteran defenders within the winter switch sweepstakes. I’m not speaking about heat our bodies to spherical out the roster. LSU wants just a few A-listers to spearhead a defensive rebirth.
LSU’s flop on offense Saturday might be defined by three turnovers and red-zone woes, however the defensive woes go deeper.
LSU’s deficiencies remind me of the place Ole Miss stood final yr.
Georgia uncovered the Rebels’ personnel final November in a rout of Ole Miss, after which Lane Kiffin took inventory of this system’s weaknesses, baited the hook, and fished within the switch portal for options.
Backed by Ole Miss’ well-heeled NIL collective, Kiffin recognized and secured a military of high quality transfers to remodel an Ole Miss protection that restricted Georgia to 10 factors in a victory Saturday.
Kelly reveals no urge for food to problem for Kiffin’s “Portal King” credentials, however he wants to amass just a few fellas with miles on the tires who know how you can battle within the SEC.
How Alabama neutralized the one factor LSU protection does effectively
This protection does one factor effectively, and one factor solely: It rushes the quarterback.
Alabama neutralized LSU’s cross rush with a run-oriented assault, holding the ball on the bottom greater than 70% of the time.
Alabama knew higher than to station Milroe within the pocket for long-developing cross performs. Texas A&M reminded us two weeks in the past that LSU can’t sort out cellular quarterbacks within the open subject. Seems, LSU did not repair the issue.
When Milroe did require his arm, he made sensible, environment friendly choices, uncorked the ball shortly, and persistently discovered open targets, typically over the center of the sector throughout the comfortable stomach of LSU’s protection.
He grew to become a third-down magician. LSU moved the chains 10 occasions on 13 third-down tries.
Add in LSU’s turnovers and some premature Tigers penalties, and a blowout is born.
LSU isn’t as unhealthy because it seemed – it beat playoff-contending Ole Miss on this very constructing lower than a month in the past – however the defensive deficiencies persist as a bugaboo that holds again LSU from the playoff.
“We’re dissatisfied, (as a result of) whenever you placed on a jersey for LSU, there’s an ordinary of soccer that these three letters in your jersey (signify),” Kelly stated. “We didn’t stay as much as that.”
Though I can admire the sentiment of Kelly’s remark, LSU additionally lacks the roster required to constantly stay as much as that customary.
DBU step by step morphed into DB-P.U.
No linebacker places concern in any opponent.
Not sufficient disruptors reside in LSU’s defensive entrance.
It falls squarely on Kelly and his employees to raise the two-deep earlier than a pivotal 12 months 4 for Kelly’s tenure.
As a result of, if LSU does not make the mandatory personnel enhancements, we’ll ask this similar query subsequent yr: What, precisely, did you spend your time doing?
(This story was up to date to vary a video.)
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Community’s nationwide faculty soccer columnist. E-mail him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and observe him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to learn all of his columns.