Excited for season. With that being said, for guys who study us more than I do...

Just trying to get better insight from someone who knows better. Don’t be a douche friend, we are all here for the same reason.

In the off season you should be worried about the defense. And the offense. And special teams. And since this is CFB... grades too. That's what the off season is for. Not intentionally trying to be obtuse, but you don't know, for sure, until you see it against an opponent. Until then, yes everybody assume slightly better than the worst. Or at least coaches do.

What you are talking about is what is seen basically in every scrimmage every (except for Woody Hayes' scrimmages).

So having said that, and what you are describing has been seen a thousand times before with a hundred teams, some do just fine. Some don't.

So the moral of the story is: What you are describing tells you nothing, good or bad. Foreboding or promising. It is not a good measure of game performance.

Leading up to a scrimmage there are plenty of full-contact live action drills, single, one-on-one, squad vs. squad. That is where coaches identify personnel weaknesses and areas to work on. In these drills is where starter vs. 2nd string is determined. So if they show the ability to get it done there, but in a run-through scrimmage where "vanilla" and "3/4 speed" is the order of the day (for good reason) it doesn't look the same it's not info to go by.

By the time there are scrimmages they've picked the best of the best, gold & purple by regular practices and drills. A scrimmage is another separate but related phase. But who can tackle has already been determined by that point.

The defense is kinda young on the back end.
This def isn't the lsu defense of last year