LSU concluded its spring football on Saturday after the Bayou Bengals participated in the annual L Club spring game at Tiger Stadium.
For Brian Kelly and his staff, this program is an opportunity to see the growth they have made in recent weeks, with non-negotiable improvements that must be criticized before the season opener against USC in September. gave.
LSU will prepare for summer workouts before fall camp begins in August as the program finalizes rotations and schemes.
Saturday's spring game featured significant scoring from both sides of the ball, but the dominance from Garrett Nussmeier's new offensive line was certainly impressive.
Observations from Saturday's spring game:
dominated by Gabriel Reliford
The obvious takeaway from Saturday's spring game was an impressive performance from early enrollee defensive lineman Gabriel Reliford. The youngster shined on the second team, and while he couldn't match the first-team tackles of LSU's Will Campbell and Emery Jones, it was a big show for him.
Reliford finished the day with two sacks and several QB hurries for the LSU defense, proving he can be an important piece of this defense as an EDGE this fall. Reliford was a question mark this offseason as to whether he could be part of the inside defensive end, but his place as an outside passer rusher is now clear. The twitching speed spoke for itself.
Ricky Collins is QB2
Collins took the lead in the backup quarterback battle on Saturday, beating second-team transfer AJ Swan from Vanderbilt. The redshirt freshman looked solid Saturday and used his athleticism to his advantage.
In Swann's case, he struggled. It was obvious that his throws were off, and he didn't look as comfortable in the pocket as Collins. As a player still learning the scheme, he will take advantage of this offseason, but it's clear that Collins has earned the spot next to Garrett Nussmeier here.
Nussmeyer Bold, CJ Daniels impressed
Redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Nussmeyer will assume QB1 duties this fall with a deep roster of talent, including wide receiver CJ Daniels, a Liberty transfer. The first-year Tiger showed off his elite playmaking ability, route running and more on Saturday. He's been a second-team player and will be a starter alongside Kylen Lacy by the fall.
Lacy played his part, Aaron Anderson showed some speed, and Shelton Sampson Jr. was certainly targeted a few times. Coach Nussmeier will be free to choose which players he wants on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what LSU does with Chris Hilton Jr. He dropped spectacularly during the spring game, but it will be very interesting to see if he scores No. 1 during fall camp in August.
Special Award: Defense Requires Effort
From poor coverage to gaps on the defensive line, it's clear there is work to be done on defense, and Brian Kelly acknowledged it in his postgame thoughts.
On the defensive side… “We know the fundamental principles of defense in terms of reliability, energy, what we want to do. All the important things are there as a foundation. Then we have to execute. We have to get help in our defensive tackles. We will deal with that and then figure out what the corner situation is going to be,” Kelly said. “I think I'll answer those two questions. I think this defense is going to be a solid defense.”
Regarding the broken news… “We can't let the ball fly over our heads. We've had some coverage mistakes, but we can't keep making them. One of them was Cover 2, we went into Cover 3, we played Cover 2. You can't afford to make a mistake like that and it would cost you a chance to be on the field, so we played our best and we were playing where we were supposed to be. I got too carried away and lost in those situations,” Kelly said.
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