College Football News Preview 2020: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the LSU Tigers season with what you need to know.
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Schedule Analysis
– LSU Previews 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2019 Record: 15-0 overall, 8-0
Head Coach: Ed Orgeron, 5th year, 40-9
2019 CFN Final Opinion Ranking: 1
2019 CFN Final Season Formula Ranking: 1
2019 CFN Preview Ranking: 7
No one knows what’s going to happen to the 2020 college football season. We’ll take a general look at where each team stands – doing it without spring ball to go by – while crossing our fingers that we’ll all have some well-deserved fun this fall. Hoping you and yours are safe and healthy.
5. College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Offense 3 Things To Know
– How the hell do you follow THAT? It was among the most efficient and effective offenses of all-time, leading the nation with 569 yards and 48.4 points per game. It was unstoppable when it got rolling, put up 42 points or more in 12 of the 15 games, and …
Everyone left.
Offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger is still around, and Scott Linehan is a good, veteran coach to step in for Joe Brady as the passing game coordinator, but how do you possibly replace eight draft picks, four starters on the offensive line, five of the top eight receivers, the leading rusher – who finished third on the team in receptions – and … that guy.
CFN in 60 Video: LSU Tigers Preview
– Remember, this time last year, Joe Burrow wasn’t Joe Burrow. He was a good, promising veteran quarterback who might be a mid-round draft pick with a little bit of luck. No one could’ve seen that the greatest season ever by any college quarterback was coming. All he did was hit 76% of his throw for 5,671 yards with 60 touchdowns and six interceptions, and he ran for five scores, too.
He won the Heisman, he won the SEC Championship, he won the Heisman, and he became the No. 1 overall draft pick ahead of Chase Young and Jeff Okudah – all-timer prospects for their respective positions.
The junior saw a little time last year – throwing for 353 yards and a touchdown with a pick – and he’s got the skills and upside to come up with a huge season by any normal and reasonable standards.
Myles Brennan doesn’t have to be Joe Burrow, but anything he does will pale in comparison. It’s Brennan or bust when it comes to experience with a slew of talented-but-untested freshmen – Max Johnson and TJ Finley are true, and Peter Parrish is redshirt – fighting for the No. 2 job.
The biggest overall plus is another loaded receiving corps.
Justin Jefferson is done, and TE Thaddeus Moss left early, but Ja’Marr Chase is coming off an 84-catch, 1,780-yard, 20 touchdown season, Terrace Marshall caught 46 passes for 671 yards and 13 scores, and on the way are a whole lot of talented wideouts from the recruiting class to restock the shelves, along with superstar tight end prospect Arik Gilbert.
– Three starters from the offensive line were drafted, and another graduated. The cupboard is hardly bare – Ed Orgeron offensive lines are always going to be good – but this is a bigger deal to figure out than any other part of the O.
Austin Deculus is back to man one tackle job, but it’s 6-7, 314-pound Dare Rosenthal who has the biggest upside. He left school for personal reasons, but he’s expected to be back for the season – he should end up shining at left tackle. Junior Ed Ingram should be solid at left guard.
Who will they all block for?
Clyde Edwards-Helaire wasn’t exactly the unsung cog in the system, but he certainly took a backseat in national coverage to Burrow and all the great receivers. He ran for 1,414 yards and 16 scores, and caught 55 passes for 453 yards and a touchdown. Now he’ll be doing his thing for the Kansas City Chiefs after being taken in the first round.
It’ll be a true running back-by-committee approach – and it’ll work just fine. 226-pound battering ram sophomore Tyrion Davis-Price was third on the team with 295 yards and six scores, former superstar recruit John Emery ran for 188 yards and four touchdowns, and 215-pound Chris Curry ran for 90 yards in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl win over Oklahoma. They’ll all get their chances.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Defense 3 Things To Know
4. College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Defense 3 Things To Know
– Like the offensive side, the defense has a ton of key parts needing to be replaced. However, getting Bo Pelini as the new defensive coordinator was terrific, and there’s more than enough NFL talent returning to be terrific after finishing 31st in the nation in total defense and 32nd in scoring D.
The stats were a bit skewed with every team needing to bomb away in an attempt to stay alive in games. However, losing six starters to the NFL draft is going to hurt no matter what.
The defensive line is in the best shape early on, even though Pelini is changing things up with a four-man front. Glen Logan is a veteran on the inside, and 6-3, 346-pound Tyler Shelvin should be rock again on the nose. Now the ends have to show up – it’ll be an open audition for true ends, and not just hybrid outside linebackers.
– On the down side, losing K’Lavon Chaisson, Patrick Queen and Jacob Phillips from the linebacking corps hurts. However, the move to the 4-3 takes the pressure off finding four starters who can fill the gaps.
Damone Clark is a good sized junior who’ll likely take over for Queen in the middle – be stunned if he doesn’t at least come close to leading the team in tackles – but 6-2, 194-pound sophomore Marcel Brooks should be the disruptive force now that he’ll get a bigger role.
– It doesn’t help to lose talents like S Grant Delpit and CB Kristian Fulton, but the Tigers might have the best defensive back pair in the country in CB Derek Stingley and S JaCoby Stevens.
There are more than enough next-level options to work on the other side of Stingley, including superstar recruit Elias Ricks who might just be the next Stingley. The corners will be terrific.
Replacing Delpit will be a whole lot harder, needing Mo Hampton to do a whole lot more after making ten stops behind the new Cleveland Brown.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Top LSU Tigers Players
College Football News Preview 2020: Top LSU Tigers Players
Best LSU Tigers Offensive Player
WR JaMarr Chase, Jr.
The 2019 Biletnikoff winner as the nation’s best receiver, Chase exploded with 84 catches for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns, averaging over 21 yards per grab.
The 6-1, 200-pounder isn’t necessarily a true blazer – he’ll run around 4.5ish range at the NFL Combine – but he makes every play on every contested downfield play, and he’s deadly when he gets the ball in his hands on the move.
Steady, he caught two touchdown passes or more in six of the last 12 games, and he overcame two relatively light performances in the SEC Championship against Georgia and the CFP semifinal against Oklahoma to rip up Clemson with nine catches for 221 yards and two scores. Now he’s the unquestioned No. 1 guy.
2. WR Terrace Marshall, Jr.
3. QB Myles Brennan, Jr.
4. OT Dare Rosenthal, Soph.
5. TE Arik Gilbert, Fr.
Best LSU Tigers Defensive Player
CB Derek Stingley, Soph.
Grant Delpit won the Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back, but he wasn’t even the best defensive back on his own team. The 6-1, 190-pound Stingley stepped on the field as a true freshman and became an instant star, earning All-America and All-SEC honors.
He came up with 38 tackles, but his real worth was as one of the nation’s top lockdown corners, coming up with six picks and breaking up 15 passes. Don’t expect the numbers to be nearly as good – no one will dare throw his way.
2. S JaCoby Stevens, Sr.
3. LB Damone Clark, Jr.
4. DT Tyler Shelvin, Jr.
5. CB Elias Ricks, Fr.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Keys To The Season
College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The LSU Tigers Offense
Get the running game going right away. The call has already gone out that nothing stops.
Forgetting all the personnel losses along with the tweaks in the coaching staff, the downfield passing game that was so unstoppable is being asked to keep on rolling. That’s fine – and LSU has the weapons to do that – but the offense will still have to rely on the pounding ground attack despite losing Clyde Edwards-Helaire and with a rebuilt line.
Joe Burrow was always brilliant, but in the tight battles with Florida, Auburn and Alabama, the ground game helped take control when the offense needed to settle things down a bit.
Again, Burrow was amazing and always came through when needed, but the Tigers averaged over nine yards per carry against Florida, and they hammered away at Auburn when they needed to – running 46 times – in the 23-20 fight.
The backs are going to be really, really good, and if they can all combine to give LSU a ground game that’s better than 60th in the nation, look out.
Biggest Key To The LSU Tigers Defense
Find pass rushing defensive ends. There weren’t many real complaints about the defense in the dream season – even though the offense was the star of the show – but the 37 sacks were a wee bit light over 15 games considering all the talent on the field.
The D swarmed all over Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond and Sam Ehlinger of Texas, but those were the only two games with more than three sacks.
Again, this is nitpicking just a wee bit – the pass rush was hardly an issue – but if you’re willing to accept that K’Lavon Chiasson was really more of an outside linebacker than a hybrid end, the top five sackers came from the back seven. Neil Farrell was the top sacking lineman, and he only came up with three.
Defensive coordinator Bo Pelini will change things up to a 4-3 alignment, but the Tigers don’t have a slew of sure-thing pass rushing defensive ends who fit the normal mold. They’re there, but they’ll have to emerge.
Key LSU Tigers Player To A Successful Season
QB Myles Brennan, Jr.
It’s not like they’re just dragging the guy out of geology class and asking him to do something miraculous. No, he’s a former superstar recruit who could’ve gone anywhere … and he’s being asked to do something miraculous.
For all the talk that no one can replace Joe Burrow and that the passing game will obviously take a step back, maybe he can step right in and keep it all going.
Oklahoma showed that a great system with a great quarterback can work, with Jalen Hurts taking over for Kyler Murray, who took over for Baker Mayfield. So why can’t an LSU team with this much superstar receiver talent and with the right system keep the high-level production going, too?
Brennan has NFL size, accuracy, and he’s got an even stronger arm than Burrow. Now he’ll get a chance to show it all off.
Key Game To The LSU Tigers Season
Alabama, Nov. 7
It’s not just that this might determine the SEC West championship, it’s that if LSU loses, just assume that there’s no possible shot at winning the division. With road games at Florida, Auburn and Texas A&M, there can’t be any misfires at home.
The Tigers have to own Death Valley, and that includes winning the early game against Texas, and that definitely means beating the Crimson Tide for the second year in a row after dropping eight straight in the series.
– LSU Tigers Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 LSU Fun Stats
– 1st Quarter Scoring: LSU 166 – Opponents 54
– Average Passing Yards Per Game: LSU 401.6 – Opponents 222.73
– 3rd Down Conversions: LSU 91-of-183 (49.7%) – Opponents 63-of-213 (29.6%)
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
1. College Football News Preview 2020: LSU Tigers Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
CFN in 60 Video: LSU Tigers Preview
Oh yeah, poor LSU.
That was a fun run when everything came together in one magical, all-timer of a season, but that was an aberration, right? After all, who can reasonably expect all that production and all that domination again after losing 14 players to the NFL draft and a slew of other key starters.
But here’s the thing – talent replaces talent at a place like LSU.
Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson – they’ve all suffered massive personnel losses and had to undergo wholesale changes from time to time over their respective great runs, and the fun kept on going.
After years of great recruiting, there’s still NFL talent across the board. The wide receivers are ridiculous, the defensive backs are ridiculous, and the overall athleticism is ridiculous.
For just about anyone else, though, the schedule is an automatic 8-4 for a great team, and 6-6 or worse for an okay one.
But the schedule looked too hard to win a national championship in 2019, too.
Set The LSU Tigers Regular Season Win Total At … 10
Bet at BetMGM Win Total Line: 9
Alabama and Texas are better, and they’re both going to be a problem, even in Baton Rouge.
The road games at Florida, Auburn, and – don’t laugh after last year’s 50-7 nailbiter – Texas A&M are all nasty.
Assume Mississippi State will be dangerous with the Mike Leach passing game kicking in. Assume Ole Miss will be a little more concerning, and assume that South Carolina really might be a problem. However, al three of those games are in Death Valley.
LSU will be too good to biff a game it shouldn’t, and out of Texas, Alabama, at Florida, at Auburn, and at Texas A&M, figure it goes 3-2.
If it goes 4-1 or better against that group, 1) don’t be shocked, and 2) it’ll be off to the College Football Playoff again.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Schedule Analysis
