re: Gonna be an ugly football season

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Money talks and LSU fans don't wanna spend. Well, they dont wanna spend their own money.

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Perhaps it is a case of LSU not wanting to OVERSPEND for average players?

Like it or not, college coaches now have to take on the role of GM...in a marketplace where there is no salary cap or even employment contracts. So he has to evaluate every NIL consideration. Let's say LSU is paying $150k for guys like Guillory, McKinley, Reliford, etc. Let's also say they are paying some of their higher rated defensive players (like Perkins) a bit more. Maybe $300k. Then here comes an average, late offseason add at DT who leverages your desperation into a $500k NIL deal. He's now your highest paid defensive player. An "ok" player who has never played a snap for you. Whether he comes out and dominates or can't even put his helmet on the right way, his NIL deal has now "reset the market" for your team. If mediocre players are getting $500k, the stars on your team are going to demand much more.

The DT situation is not ideal going into the season. No one is going to deny that. But LSU does have bodies (not unlike the 2014 season where the DL started off bad, but progressively got better as the season went along). Showing you are willing to grossly overpay out of desperation could have FAR reaching effects well beyond just this season.

Should LSU have tried to do more to mitigate this situation? From the outside looking in, yes. But overpaying for mediocre talent doesn't fix the issue long term. It arguably makes this worse.