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Five losses won’t fly in Baton Rouge.
Tigers fans don’t take kindly to seeing their defense gashed by the likes of Notre Dame in a mid-tier bowl game, and nobody likes watching the kind of quarterback play LSU suffered through last year. The weaknesses to be addressed are obvious.
But so are the strengths.
LSU should boast one of the nation’s best groups of defensive backs, features a Heisman Trophy contender at running back, and boasts of a pair of big-play threats just waiting to be fully utilized in the passing game.
There may not team in the country with a starker contrast between its strengths and weaknesses. Here’s our look at the best and the worst of the Tigers entering the 2015 season.
LSU TIGERS: 2015 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
PROJECTED OFFENSIVE STARTERS
Strength: Leonard Fournette
The last SEC running back with this much hype leading into a season? Probably Leonard Fournette one year ago. But unlike 2014, there’s nothing standing between Fournette and 20-plus touches per game this year.
The Tigers took the cautious approach last season with their ballyhooed freshman, easing him into the starter’s role. Fournette didn’t see substantial action in a close contest until the seventh game of the year, but once he seized the role, there was no question who the Tigers’ go-to back was. He topped 140 rushing yards three times in the final seven games, including back-to-back contests to close out the season.
With his place atop the running back hierarchy now secured, there’s no limit to what Fournette might accomplish this season.
Weakness: Quarterback
Uncertainty at quarterback is perhaps the primary reason nobody knows quite what to make of the 2015 Tigers. It feels like the fan base has given up Anthony Jennings and pinned its collective hopes on the rise of sophomore Brandon Harris. Whomever gets the call will have to show improvement over last year’s poor showing. Competent quarterback play could be the difference between 7-5 (or worse) and 11-1 (or better).
PROJECTED DEFENSIVE STARTERS
Strength: Kendell Beckwith
We’ve only gotten a taste of what Beckwith might be capable of. After seizing the starting spot midway through 2014, he flashed all-conference potential — if not more.
The arrival of Kevin Steele could mean big things for the linebackers in general, and Beckwith is the clear standout of the group. Steele brings with him a more linebacker-centric approach to defense, as opposed to the DB-heavy philosophy employed under previous defensive coordinator John Chavis.
If Beckwith takes to his expanded responsibilities, it could have a profound impact for the Tigers defense.
Weakness: No. 2 cornerback
Ok, it feels premature to call this position a weakness. We’ll grant you that. But one gets the distinct impression that’s the view opposing offensive coordinators will take when surveying the Tigers defense. LSU is well-stocked in the defensive backfield; few are going to relish the idea of throwing at returning cornerback Tre’Davious White, and the Tigers have a pair of future NFL players at safety. So the untested corner who assumes the only vacancy in the secondary can expect to be tested early. Sophomore Ed Paris and true freshmen Donte Jackson and Kevin Toliver are the leading candidates, with Jackson already garnering whispers of “first-round potential.”
POSITION UNITS
Strength: Defensive backs
Who is DBU? This year’s group should do its part to make sure LSU retains the crown. Other than the aforementioned question at the second cornerback position, the secondary is stocked again, with safety Jalen Mills as the leader of the group. The senior flirted with the NFL after last season, but has returned for a fourth year as a starter. After starting a cornerback during the first 26 games of his career, he moved to safety last season and returns to the position this year.
He’s joined by Jamal Adams, a freshman All-American last year, who had 66 tackles playing in nickel packages while Mills slid down to cover the slot.
Weakness: Defensive ends
The Tigers have a reputation for producing long, lean pass rushers who give offensive tackles fits and quarterbacks sore ribs. That wasn’t the case last year, when the Tigers finished 13th in the conference in total sacks. This year they’ll be breaking in a new pair of starters to replace departed Danielle Hunter and Jermauria Rasco.
Favorites to winning first-team reps include Tashawn Bowen and Lewis Neal, neither of whom has started a game to this point in their careers. Keep an eye on Arden Key, though; the freshman is turning heads since arriving on campus this summer.
SCHEDULE
Strength: Every game in between Auburn and Alabama
The Tigers will face Mississippi State and Auburn in Weeks 2 and 3, respectively, but if they survive that combination, they could be sitting pretty through October. Certainly, South Carolina and Florida can’t be penciled in as sure wins, but both are predicted to be also-rans in the East this year. And while a trip to the Carrier Dome on the heels of the Auburn game could qualify as a trap, if the Tigers are going field the team they expect this fall, dispatching of Syracuse shouldn’t be an issue, regardless of the venue.
Weakness: November
Odds are we won’t truly know what to make of the Tigers’ season until it hits the homestretch. November opens with a trip to Alabama and includes three more dates with conferences rivals that could push for a division crown in the wide-open SEC West. Arkansas (Nov. 14) and Texas A&M (Nov. 28) have both generated significant preseason buzz, and if Ole Miss (Nov. 21) solves its quarterback question, the Rebels should have a defense that will allow them to play with anybody.
FAN BASE
Strength: Food
Yeah, it might be cliché. But if it is, it’s for good reason. Food is just better in Louisiana, and that goes double once you get below I-10.
Weakness: Lack of familiarity with other states’ open container laws
Louisiana folks are often stunned to learn that the rest of the country doesn’t allow bar patrons to stroll through town with fresh drinks in hand. Equally confounding: why hasn’t the rest of world hasn’t caught on to drive-through daiquiris and “go-cups?”
OK. Don’t answer.
Brent Holloway is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Georgia, LSU and Mississippi State.
