re: BK: 10 of 11 defensive players with most snaps will return next year

While it's beneficial to have returning experience, I still believe talent was significantly lacking at multiple starting positions.

Hopefully this gets addressed over the off-season.

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Yea, because the biggest issue imo was none of these guys really played together or in this system before this season

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That’s not an excuse for how bad they were. And if that were the case, then they would have gotten better as the year progressed, and I don’t think anyone has seen any progression.

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Sure, coaching is to blame some.

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A lot of the blame, as well as the personnel decisions.
Speights has no business playing linebacker for LSU.


I don’t see this as a good thing. I’d rather hear about better recruits and transfer players coming in to take the place of the guys that sucked, which was most of them.

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Assuming Andre Sam is the 1 who won't be, that would seem to imply at least Maason will be back (and Major, ha), but maybe also Wingo

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Does Burns have another year left? What about Penn? Sam?

Do we have a list of the 11 players with the most snaps because it seems like at least a couple are out of eligibility right? But the Covid year makes it hard to track

Is that a good thing?

He played?

For everyone saying "I hope they are backups", or hopefully we get talent from the transfer portal". Do you not believe players on the defensive side can't get better from 1 year to the next just like players on the offensive side? Because I remember 2 average quarterbacks that took a huge leap forward in just 1 year.

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There are several guys on our defense who could walk right into the NFL and not just make a roster but play. Perkins, Wingo and Penn are three

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I would like to politely ask you share whatever drugs you're on with the rest of us.

Don't usually like crapping on a player, but I kinda hope that Burns is the 11th player. Grad transfer out maybe?

Burns' ceiling

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I think safety is the only position that truly lacks talent.

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Dear Lord you cannot be serious?

There were easy missed tackles/dudes out of position/blown assignments at every level during every single game

Yeah the coaching and schemes weren't good enough but we lack enough "dudes" at every level as well.

Never seen so many missed tackles. Just 1 tackle would have won the OM game. One tackle.

Defense was #116 (out of 130 teams) in third-down conversion at .453. Run or pass they couldn't get off the field and often gave up third and very long.

Perkins is great and Whit Weeks has potential but Penn isn't great and Speights was the weakest + worst LSU LB I've ever seen. They need a LB in the portal.

Also need better stronger Interior DL. DL were giving up 1-2 yards every play before an 80-year-old coach told them to line up closer to the ball--that's insane. Perhaps Maason was still playing partially injured but he was a non-factor and stood still when double-teamed. Everyone hopes he returns and shows more than the rare flash of talent but DL depth will be key in 2024.

The DEs show promise but how many times did we see them give up huge plays by over-pursuing the QB or getting blocked inside and losing the edge? These errors continued well into the season and hurt in critical games like Ole Miss and Alabama.

Deadly combination of piss-poor portal talent evaluation, losing Greg Brooks, and hiring a high school coach to be your DB coach put the defensive backfield in the ditch. But lack of leadership and poor play by Ryan and others kept it there.

And whilst we do need Safeties (calling A&M there) I don't know anyone who wouldn't argue that we need Cornerback upgrades as well. Sage Ryan changed positions but he was utterly dreadful (wrong angles and many missed tackles) more often than mediocre or serviceable. Toviano will be very good; I expect he'd start next year.

All that bitching aside, I look forward to seeing the Defensive leaf turn to the new coaches and portal Tigers so everyone feels confident about 2024.