re: A Look at Options in the LSU Defensive Depth Chart (image)

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1. Valentine practiced on the 2014 team, reports out of camp were always very positive for him; "Dominant" thrown around quite a bit

2. If Godchaux is moving out to DE to take Lacoture's sport, that leaves us with Valentine, Gilmore, Alexander and Lawrence at nose. Alexander and Lawrence are very talented players, but only freshmen, they aren't going to start off the season as starters. Gilmore hasn't exactly shown much in his 3 previous years here, so unless Valentine comes in and is just a shell of former self, Valentine is looking like the starter at NT.

This doesnt mean if Valentine starts he plays 50 snaps a game, the NT spot IMO will be heavily rotated, and depending on situation we might only use a "true" NT on 50-60% of defensive snaps. Even less against spread teams.

Also, coaches dont bring in JUCOs to not make an impact right away, and consider Valentine is about the only guy they've seen kicked off the team they've taken back after a JUCO run, and he got in trouble at JUCO. So that goes to show what they think of him as a player to overlook all his previous transgressions.

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Excellent post. I think it's safe to assume TV will either start or be rotated in very often.

As far as the depth chart, It's amazing how much we actually look like a 3-4 now.