LSU Running Game Starts Up Front

By Hunt Palmer

The perceived strength of LSU’s offensive line has dominated the late summer months.

Various watch lists, pre-season All-American honors and mock drafts have junior tackles Will Campbell and Emory Jones front and center. The duo promises to be among college football’s best. Add in the senior pair of guards, Garrett Dellinger and Miles Frazier, and LSU boasts an offensive front that has started 110 college football games.

But a question remains. Can LSU block for the running game?

A glance at the 2023 statistics would suggest the answer is yes. However, a deeper dive might tell a slightly different story.

LSU finished the season rushing for 2,659 yards, just four yards shy of Tennessee’s Southeastern Conference lead. The Tigers averaged 6.1 yards per carry, best in the league by more than half a yard.

Only 11 teams in America ran the ball for more yards than LSU. So where might the problem lie? Orlando, FL, and Tuscaloosa, AL, for starters.

In the season opener last season against Florida State, a defensive front that featured a pair of Top 40 NFL Draft selections Jared Verse and Braden Fiske, the Tigers mounted almost zero rushing attack.

Aside from one Josh Williams 35-yard scamper before halftime, the LSU running backs combined for 11 carries and 19 yards. Fast forward two months to Bryant-Denny Stadium, and the story read the same. Logan Diggs, Williams and John Emery Jr., totaled 35 yards on 13 carries.

The third defensive line LSU saw last year that featured a formidable challenge littered with likely NFL players was the finale against Texas A&M. The Tiger backs managed 36 yards on 15 tries.

All added up, that’s 29 carries for 90 yards, a far cry from 6.1 yards per carry. Of course, having the Heisman Trophy winner rush for 347 yards on those three occasions makes up for things, but Jayden Daniels will be taking snaps for the Commanders this fall.

Garrett Nussmeier doesn’t figure to offer the same threat on the ground. It’ll be up to the much-lauded offensive front and newly minted offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan, to make sure things are done a little bit differently when the lights come on in Las Vegas. Leaning on a simple zone running scheme with the most elusive quarterback in the country isn’t an option.

“We have a lot different of players than we had last year,” Campbell said. “Being able to be more diverse in the run game and showing different schemes is only going to help us, and we’re going to be really good at all of them. The biggest thing for us is just dominating up front.”

Williams, Emery and sophomore Kaleb Jackon will likely be the top three ball carries. Williams offers a steady presence and an elite understanding of the position. Emery is recovering from a torn ACL he suffered against Florida in November. He’s been a full participant in training camp thus far after looking into the transfer portal in the spring. Head coach Brian Kelly and running backs coach Frank Wilson welcomed the St. Rose native back.

“He really did an incredible job rehabbing from the injury. Like compliance-wise. He was very committed to playing again,” Kelly said. “If he was kind of so, so about playing — he was committed. He was gonna play.”

Jackson may offer the highest upside of any of the backs on the roster, but he’s still learning the nuances of pass protection and route running.

“When Kaleb was able to get the football and was able to break the first and second level, he’s a punishing back,” Sloan said. “He is a powerful human. The big thing is the growth from being a freshman. It’s not just get the ball and run … and remember, he got here last summer, so he wasn’t an early enrollee. So everything was moving fast. His talent was showing, but now you are seeing how he is a complete running back who is starting to come into his own”

While Nussmeier has shown the ability to move the football through the air, a formidable and consistent rushing attack is a new starting quarterback’s best friend. And as the Tiger defense undergoes a makeover, an LSU offense that controls the football would really help things out.

“If our offensive line has the ability to understand what they’re seeing, process that information and attack it violently and put them in different situations to be successful, use their ability to be physical and to run, we’re gonna do it,” Sloan said. “A lot of times when you’re calling plays, you’re thinking ‘I gotta protect this guy or this guy.’ I think we’ve been able to challenge them in a lot of different ways to make sure we can put the ball in the belly of the back a little bit.”