New Look LSU Defense Ready for Challenge

By Hunt Palmer

Over the last decade, no coach in college football has produced more consistently high-powered offenses than Lincoln Riley.

The results and awards illustrate that clearly.

Riley has called plays for three Heisman Trophy winners in the last seven seasons. All three went on to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Riley’s resume includes more than Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Caleb Williams, though.

Under his guidance as offensive coordinator, East Carolina set more than 50 school records. The Pirates reached the Top 10 nationally in categories such as scoring offense, passing yardage and third down efficiency.

His stint at ECU catapulted him to Oklahoma where his offenses were more than an air raid. Running back Joe Mixon set a Sooner all-purpose yardage record in 2016, and Samaje Perine became OU’s career rushing leader.

The schools and players changed year over year, but the production doesn’t.

“Certainly it’s been a prolific offense,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said Monday. “Lincoln Riley is an outstanding football coach. His pedigree, in terms of winning games, at Oklahoma and then at USC has been through the offense. We’ve got to do a great job of making them one-dimensional. If they are balanced offensively, they are very difficult to defend.”

Kelly’s comments can be categorized a cliché’ but that doesn’t make them untrue. Twice last season Riley’s Trojans were held to a season low 20 points. The first was against a Notre Dame defense that held the USC running game to under three yards per carry. The second was against new USC defensive coordinator D’anton Lynn whose UCLA defense completely swallowed the USC run game.

USC ran for three total yards on 22 carries.

Last season the LSU defense finished 13^th of 14 SEC teams in rushing defense. Only Vanderbilt allowed more yards on the ground. Nearly all of the defensive staff has been replaced entering 2024, and the returning players feel like things will be different this season.

“Communication has improved, especially pre-snap,” said senior linebacker Greg Penn. “Talking to each other, alerting guys what could come. Even off the field. Guys are wanting to meet. Do extra film. We want to see things the same as a whole defense so it can make us play faster on the field.”

Tiger defenders and coaches are all saying the right things as the season approaches. Ultimately it will be the team’s play that has the final word.

Riley’s offense will provide a stern test from the start.

LSU’s goal seems clear. The Tigers feel the advantage shifts to the defense when third down rolls around.

“(The defense is) trying to be more attacking,” Penn said. “Creating loss of yardage plays so we can get to the prowler front. Try to get a (tackle for loss) on first down so we can create second and long, third and long so that we can get to our prowler front so we can get off the field on third down which we struggled with last year.”

The prowler look features some of LSU’s best pass rushers like Brayden Swinson, Da’Shawn Womack and Harold Perkins while taking some of the bigger-bodied defensive linemen out of the game. Bigger ends like Paris Shand may move inside to create some pass rush from the interior.

“(Defensive coordinator) Coach Baker calls the prowler front ‘his baby,’” Penn joked. “He creates a lot of different mismatches, so it’s really good.”

Chief among those mismatches figures to be Perkins who has terrorized offensive tackles for two seasons. At times, the linebacker has been asked to drop into coverage or play a stack linebacker position that makes it more difficult to make plays in the backfield.

That likely won’t be the case on obvious passing downs.

“Coach Baker gets freaky with that,” Perkins said with a wry smile. “You never know where the person can come from. It may look the same, but it’s going to be different every time. Whatever he calls, I just go out there and execute.”

Perkins not only executed, but he electrified as a freshman. He burst onto the college football scene with seven and a half sacks. Last year that number dipped to five and a half.

If the Tigers are going to neutralize USC’s prolific offense, Perkins figures to be a big piece of that.

Riley announced last week that Miller Moss would be the starting quarterback in the opener. Moss has attempted 92 passes in his college career, mostly seeing time in mop up duty as a reserve. Baker’s aggressive approach figures to attempt to turn up the heat on the first-year starter.

The Tiger defense has spent the late summer unable to finish plays in the backfield against the quarterback. The non-contact jerseys come off on Sunday.

Asked how excited he is to hit an opposing quarterback, Perkins looked up with a grin.

“It’s going to feel good.”