Bo Davis has his work cut out for him
You don’t field the worst defense in program history, the unit that cost your championship-caliber offense a shot at the CFP, without making changes and that’s exactly what Brian Kelly did this offseason.
Big changes were needed and LSU brought in maybe the single best defensive line coach in the business: Bo Davis. Improvement will be made in 2024—because they can’t possibly be any worse—but how much the unit improves could be what determines whether or not LSU makes the expanded CFP, or is on the outside looking again.
*At Grand Valley State
**At East Mississippi Community College
***At Wisconsin
To put it simply, the defensive tackle is LSU’s single biggest question mark as we creep closer to the opener against USC. I’d have to put on the biggest pair of purple and gold glasses imaginable to say that LSU will be fine at DT in 2024.
After much handwringing about missing out on some marquee portal targets and not being able to get Maason Smith or Mekhi Wingo back, the coaching staff was able to add two big bodies out of the portal: Jay’Viar Suggs and Gio Paez. It’s safe to assume Paez, formerly of Wisconsin, can make the transition to the SEC. Suggs on the other hand is coming from D2’s Grand Valley State. Suggs will likely be a factor in the rotation simply out of necessity, but how he fares against Power 5 competition is anybody’s guess.
Paez and Suggs will team with returning vets Jacobain “Tank” Guillory and Jalen Lee. Guillory’s entering his fifth and final season as a Tiger and his play has improved each and every year. But in the four years leading up to this season he’s started a total of three games. Can he be a starter? He might not have a choice.
Defensive tackle might be the the number one position in college football you don’t want to have to rely on JUCO transfers and true freshman, but that’s the hand LSU will be playing with in 2024. Shone Washington is back in the SEC after spending 2023 at East Mississippi. A New Orleans native, Washington originally signed with Georgia and was on that Dawgs 2022 national championship team but barely saw the field. He had a good season at East but, like we said about Suggs, he’s taking a massive step up in competition.
Incoming five-star Dom McKinley might very well end up being the second coming of Glenn Dorsey, but he’s going to have to be relied upon in a way that’s not quite fair for a true freshman. He’s already got the build at 6’6” and 315, but I’m not sure how many reps an 18-year-old will win against 20/21/22 year olds who have spent multiple years in a collegiate weight program.
While you might have to squint to see a path for LSU to be successful on the interior, I’m strangely optimistic about LSU at the edge. I have never pretended to be a coach, nor will I ever, but I can’t help but wonder how much better would LSU’s defense had been in 2023 if they just, I don’t know,…played the more talented guys?
I am speaking specifically about Bradyn Swinson and Da’Shawn Womack who, in my opinion at least, were both criminally underused last season. We’ll never know how it would have worked out, but I feel like the Ole Miss or Alabama games go differently if Swinson or Womack were bigger parts of the rotation. Would they be shutouts? Of course not. But could they have helped LSU get a stop when they previously weren’t getting any stops? Probably, and I believe this new coaching regime will recognize who should be playing.
Sai’Vion Jones is entering his senior season and is now listed at 280 pounds. He’s got the physical tools but has yet to put it together. If there’s anyone who can benefit from new coaching, it’s Jones.
LSU’s got a couple of intriguing freshmen heading into the opener in four-stars Gabe Reliford and Kolaj Cobbins. Reliford was a big recruiting flip as the Tigers were able to snag him away from Texas A&M and a lot of the recruiting followers say that Reliford, not Dom McKinley, was the best defensive lineman in Louisiana last year. Cobbins didn’t have as much fanfare during his recruitment, but reports coming out camp have been he’s been unblockable and he’s really turning heads.