D-Line: DE- Ta'Quon Graham- Junior, DE- Malcolm Roach- Senior, NT- Gerald Wilbon- Senior: The Texas D-Line will be recovering from the loss of Charles Omenihu who was a elite pass rusher. Texas fans are confindent that Roach will have a re-surging year and become their go-to pass rusher. Gerald Wilbon has done basically nothing in his 3 prior seasons with only 19 tackles combined. However fans are confident that he takes a huge step in his senior season. Finally, Graham had 2 sacks last season along with 14 tackles, so they will need much more production from him.
EDIT: Keondre Coburn has reportedly earned the starting spot over Wilbon. Coburn is a redshirt freshman who recorded 2 tackles last year in his redshirt season.

My Take: This is an underwhelming D-Line depth chart in terms of returning production, so I like our chances. Roach is the most accomplished on the D-Line, but in the past two seasons he has not lived up to his freshman campaign, where he recorded 3 sacks. They hope that he can return to is prior form. They, for some reason, have confidence in Wilbon saying he pushed around Georgia a lot, but he only recorded 1 tackle in the game. I'm not high on their D-line and I honestly think that we will have the advantage, but they still could disrupt some plays. It will be intresting to see Roach and McCulloch (The Buck OLB) take on Deculus and Charles.

LB: Buck- Jeffrey McCulloch- Senior, MLB- Ayodele Adeoye- Freshman, OLB- Joseph Ossai- Sophomore: Texas fans feel that Linebacker is the weakness of the defense after losing Breckyn Hager, Anthony Wheeler, and Gary Johnson who were the heart of their defense. All the guys I listed as starters are still in position battles so it is still TBA on who starts, but it is clear that it will be a weakness. LB has dominated the talk on their boards, and it seems like it will be a hope for the best situation.

My Take: Linebacker is definitely going to be a weakness for Texas. All you have to do is look at the "FR" next to their projected starting MLB and see that there may be some growing pains. If LSU is interested in using RPO's, I would suggest that Texas would be a great team to start against. Texas fans are confident because they say that these newer guys are more highly rated than the previous guys, so they lose experience for talent which may be a good thing. I beg to differ because it takes in game experience for guys to gel. Devin White did not start his first season for LSU because he needed time to learn.

CB: Anthony Cook- Sophomore, Jalen Greene- Sophomore: Texas fans really like their corners coming into the season because both were highly rated recruits. They think both of these guys will need a little time to gel but once they do they will be the best duo in the country. Both guys played in almost every game last year, but it was because of their special teams involvement.

My Take: My take on these two are completely different than Texas fans. I think they are delusional in their talking about these two guys. They are right that both came out of high school highly touted, but all the good news ends there. Cook started one game last season against Oklahoma State (Because of an injury) where he defended OKSt's Tylan Wallace who had 222 receiving yards. It was clear all last year that Cook wasn't quite ready for primetime, but he will be thrown in the spotlight this upcoming year. Greene didn't get many snaps at corner last year, so I don't have any stories to tell. I think that this will be the key area for LSU to attack. If they put their guys in man to man coverage to stop the run, the pass will be there, but if they protect the pass the run should be there.

S: Caden Sterns- Sophomore, Brandon Jones- Senior: This is probably the best safety duo in the entire country. Both of these guys are absolutely insane players. Caden Sterns, who was once a LSU commit, showed out last season and is poised for another massive year. Sterns, crazy enough, plays a lot like Delpit, and is also on track to become a top 10 pick in the 2021 NFL draft. Jones is not quite as talented as Sterns but far good enough to hold his own. Both of these guys are play-makers and we definitely could see them make a few plays against LSU. (I share the same opinions as Texas fans here so their opinion is mine)

Defensive Gameplan:
Sam Ehlinger is a really good quarterback that will force you to cover the air and ground. He may be inconsistent in his middle and long passes, but he can still easily rip you apart. If I'm LSU I would take the "you will have to beat my best players" approach to the game. I would make sure to stop the Texas running game and force Ehlinger and the receiving core to beat your best position group. If you take the run out of a power spread concept, it becomes easier to cover.

Offensive Gameplan:
Texas's weakness is going to be their front 7. I think we will be able to run the ball, but if they do stack the box our receivers should be good enough to beat their corners 1v1. Their advantage is the play-makers they have at safety and they will put those guys all over the field like we do with Delpit. I think we should have no problem moving the ball on their defense, but if we are not clicking Texas can definitely take advantage.

How will the game go?
I really don't know. This can be a grind it out type of game because Texas plays great and the crowd throws fuel on the fire. Or LSU could do what they did to Miami last season. This game can go either way, but at the end of the day LSU is clearly more talented and more experienced, so that should give you hope. My hope is that the offense doesn't come out and things just aren't clicking, while Texas is just on fire on that given night. Basically a fear a perfect storm like Ohio State at Purdue last year. Basically saying, if we come out and play our game we will have no problem with them, but things do happen.

My Prediction
LSU: 34
Texas: 22

This post was edited on 9/5/19 at 5:36 pm

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