re: Scary thought on offense

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And add DJ Chester to that picture as well even though he's not a Louisiana kid. I believe he's another in the 6'6" 315 range and a true freshman. Sounds like he's definitely been getting noticed too.

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I know he’s really good and has been moved to backup Center, but that profile is a tackle 100%. Could play guard if both tackle spots are filled. Just hard for me to see a 6’6” 2nd year guy playing Center. Not that he’s not good enough to start at some places at tackle even as a true freshman, but with Will, Emory, and Lance, I think LG is his fastest route to starting. And that’s assuming Dellinger goes pro, which he might not. He may surprise me and wind up starting at Center next year, but he’d have to be an absolute freak both mentally and physically.

But this brings me to a point I’ve meant to address since Kelly said he thought we were a year away from having the depth to compete for championships. I think a lot of people took that out of context, thinking he was saying we couldn’t win it this year. He knows we can, but it will take special players doing special things in big moments like Jaylen, Perkins, Malik, Smith and Wingo, Taylor, etc…We’re not at the plug and play depth level of Georgia and Bama, but we’re close enough where our special players can be special and make up the difference.

I’ve always thought that programs win championships, but players win games. It’s not a perfect saying, but healthy, established programs, with depth developed and cultivated inside the program (like Bama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Clemson of the past decade or so) will always be in a position to win championships. It just takes the magical chemistry of the special players to show up in the big moments to win individual games. Like Burrow, Chase, Jets, and Clyde. That team had developed the depth and cultivated the culture of the program to compete, but needed the “dudes” to be dudes when it mattered most. And luckily for us, they did every time. But coaches can’t really control that—they can control the depth, development, and culture. But at some point, the dudes have to go out and do the damn thing.

So I think that’s what BK was talking about. He will have the overall program ready to compete for championships annually in the next year or 2, where we just show up and win 9-10 games by just rolling the ball out. But after that, it’s up to the players to make it happen. And we just might have enough of those this year to overcome the gap in depth between us and Bama and Georgia. We can win the NC, but it’s gonna take special players making special plays in special moments. And it’s hard to know who’s gonna be special when you start recruiting them at 16,17 years old.

I got off topic. Back to the OL. I think BK wants to have an old team, but especially an old OL. That’s why he targets tall, athletic OLs that may be undersized to play right away, but with the nutrition system and strength and conditioning programs he’s implemented, he knows he can transform them into grown arse men beasts by the time they’re 20, 21, 22. There will be stud outliers like Will, Emory, and Heard that are just too good to keep off the field. But I think his vision is to have 3rd and 4th year men manning his OL who were recruited out of high school, bought into the culture, and are willing to stick around until they’re upperclassmen to start. He thinks he can get the buy in like Saban got when we were all perplexed when he had guys coming back for their 4th and sometimes 5th years when our were bouncing after 3. Without looking, I’d bet almost anything that BK’s OL—and maybe overall team—were older than just about every team they played. There’s s big difference between a 22-year-old man and a 19-year-old kid lined up against them, no matter the younger player’s talent. If he can cultivate that on the lines, in the secondary, and at QB, that is a recipe for annual championship contending. Just have to have special play makers once in a while to get over the hump and win the games necessary to win championships. Maybe easier said than done in the era of the transfer portal and NIL, but I think that’s BK’s vision and he believes he can sell it. He knows he has to rely on the portal these 1st few years to plug holes, but I guarantee he sees a world where he has a team mostly comprised of his recruits that have bought in and are willing to stick around long enough to develop in the program for their long-term football benefit, and maybe more importantly, they’re long-term benefit as men after their football careers inevitably end.

I’ve pointed this out before—and there’s more than one way to skin a cat—but look back at our SEC Championship seasons and our national championship seasons (and the 2011 team, which is probably the 2nd best in program history and likely one of the best 10 teams of all time, despite not finishing it off:

2001—Rohan Davey—23-year-old SR

2003—Matt Mauch—24-year-old JR

2007—Matt Flynn—22-year-old 5th year SR

2011—Jarrett Lee—22-year-old 5th year SR./ Jordan Jefferson—21-year-old 4th year SR and 4 year starter

2019—Joe Burrow—5th year SR who turned 23 in December

There are outliers that can win young, but part of the formula for LSU’s particular success is having an experienced, old, mature QB leading.

2023—22-year old 5th year SR (turns 23 in December) who never had to redshirt and has already started 40 games for P5 teams before this season has even begun.

That’s no coincidence. Age, experience, and overall maturity matters at that position more than any others. Jayden has that that could make him just special enough to lead us to another one of those magical seasons. Let’s see if he can.

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This could be your line in 2024

LT Campbell 36 overall recruit
LG Dellinger 91 overall recruit
C Chester 120 overall recruit
RG Jones 110 overall recruit
RT Heard 15 overall recruit

This is the type of insanely talented OL we've always wanted.

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That's pretty damn impressive. Nuss will be a happy man.

Feels good to have real lineman instead of all of these patchwork players we've had in the past