Football Friday Is Back!! | Can LSU's New RB Rotation Dominate the Trenches? | LSU-USC Final Preview

hey I'm hunt and this is hunt on LSU your channel for LSU fighting tiger Football Talk enjoy the video we want you to leave a comment below hit that like button and subscribe right below the video enjoy is LSU and Southern Cal as we get ready to start another football season coming up on Sunday night out in Sin City so let's just get into it um I'm not going to you know dance around and try to you know bury the lead here let's just talk LSU in Southern California the more I have looked at this game over the course of this week the more two things have become abundantly clear to me if you remove all the kind of cliches like Red Zone efficiency and the all present and all important turnover battle and the obvious things if if nobody if you get into the Red Zone and can't score you're going to be in bad shape if you turn the ball over four times you're going to be in bad shape that's the case in every game but for me in this game it it looks to me like it's boiling down to two things how well does us C throw it how well does LSU run it that to me tells the story if USC has some trouble through the air whether that's dealing with LSU's pass rush or you know not being productive in the passing game with the new quarterback in Miller Moss they're going to be in some trouble if LSU cannot establish a running game to help out their quarterback and to choose some clock and to get behind that big offensive line and lean they're going to be in some trouble trouble and it's evident that both of those teams really want to rely on those things Lincoln Riley is built that way he wants to spread the field he wants to throw the ball LSU is attempting to be built this way in 2024 to get behind their pads and run the football last year USC's rushing defense was atrocious it was absolutely awful you look at some of the outputs that they gave up and it was brutal Arizona ran for 203 on them Utah ran for 247 cal cal ran for 235 yards on them Washington ran for 316 on these guys 199 from UCLA Louisville ran for 220 you get the picture this was a a defense that had no answer for the running game last year and most of the guys that represented that front are back they have loaded up with transfers in the secondary but right now you look at what they're expected to start on the defensive front it is be Alexander right in the middle he's supposed to be their nose tackle he was there last year he's a former you know big-time recruit went to Georgia you know the story Anthony Lucas is on an end he's in his third year in college former five-star recruit he was part of that monster Texas A&M class that came in and has since dispersed all over the country and he's going to be up there up front for him the these are the guys that were on the team last year that couldn't stop the run at all now they bring in Danton Lynn as the defensive coordinator and he took over a bad UCLA defense and made them significantly better they were one of the better run defenses in college football last year under his leadership and so if you're a Southern Cal fan you look at that and you go well we got that guy did it at UCLA UCLA stinks we're USC he'll do it here he's got five star recruits to deal with and maybe that's true and maybe it's not you're hearing a lot of the same things with LSU and and Blake Baker a lot of the same things with LSU and Bo Davis but LSU is going to have to dominate at the point of attack and run the ball and that starts likely with bear Alexander at the nose dealing with DJ Chester LSU's new center and I talked about this a little bit yesterday if you go to Louisiana sports.net you can read my piece up on on key matchups today and put that up this morning and that's the first one I pointed to DJ Chester against bear Alexander yes absolutely you can help your center with a really strong nose tackle and Miles Frasier who's expected to play per Brian Kelly yesterday and Garrett delinger are are more than capable of helping out with DJ Chester but you don't really want to do that you'd rather have your Center who's big enough it's 6'6 and 325 PBS that's a big old Center to handle somebody one-on-one and be Alexander's a big old boy too He's listed at 6 6 3 313 but if Chester can handle that matchup more often than not and allow LSU's athletic and Veteran offensive linemen to get to their combo blocks to get to the second level and create some space for their running game then LSU is in business this is going to be a transformed offense for LSU in the running game you cannot operate the way you did last year we all know that it was fun I talked to Will Campbell on Tuesday and I asked Will Campbell what he thought about some of the struggles they had running the ball last year in some of the bigger games if you listen to me at all over the last 3 weeks you've heard me talk about the fact that LSU could not run the football on Florida state Alabama or Texas A&M last year could not run it and I asked Will Campbell about that and he said well if we had trouble running the ball Jaden just bust it for 90 I mean that's a a quick quip I get it and it was true for most of the time ask Florida but the fact is you don't have that anymore so you've got to get behind your pads and you've got to run the football you've got to be creative in the running game can't just be a Zone read game where you kind of find a hole here and there you could do that with Jaden Daniels you could do that with Clyde Edwards Air and that potent offense in in 2019 this offense is not built like that you've got to run the ball and I use air quotes here a little bit more traditionally you've got to get behind your pads you got to use some pulling offensive linemen you got to run power you got to run counter split Zone you got to do all that stuff and you've got to do it effectively it is my uh understanding from having a few conversations uh that the majority of the workload on Sunday is going to go to Josh Williams to start the game and Caleb Jackson those will be LSU's bcal backs in this game on Sunday John Emory is certainly available and you know obviously Kaden Durham is there I think they would prefer to go with the older guys in this first game but you're going to see a lot of Josh Williams and a lot of Caleb Jackson here is my uh Elementary theory on how I'd like that rotation to go I'm good with Josh Williams running the ball especially early in the game I don't think he's going to bust one for 80 yards at any point I don't think he's going to bust one for 65 yards at any point but I do think capable of churning up yards getting you into second and manageable running the clock and keeping you on schedule I want a a healthy and fresh Caleb Jackson in the third and fourth quarters you can run all you want in preseason conditioning game shape is different I want bear Alexander Anthony Lucas and all these defensive linemen with their hands on their knees at some point in the second half because they're sick and tired of Miles Frasier and Garrett delinger and Will Campbell and Emory Jones coming atam and atam and atam again that happened time and time again last year I just ra you all the stats for all those Pack 12 teams that ran it down USC's throat last year that's got to be Theo for this game for LSU you cannot sit there and ask Garrett NSM even though it's his fourth year and even though he's got a lot of talent and even though he's got good wide receivers you cannot ask him to throw the ball 47 times and try to keep up and score 45 points on this USC defense that's not fair to ask him to do that at this point I'm not suggesting he can't do it you have to avoid that own them at the line of scrimmage Lincoln Riley has not once in his career as a head coach put a defense out there that had a backbone not once I can't imagine that's going to just magically change coming up on Sunday this has been an offensive line group that has been given flower after flower after flower all spring all summer all talking season all the way up to now they've got to go earn it on Sunday knock them off the line of scrimmage in the first quarter the second quarter the third quarter the fourth quarter own them at the line of scrimmage that is the key for LSU and I quite honestly feel pretty good about it I have talked in Earnest about my concerns with LSU's Run game because of those three games last year make no mistake LSU's offense was the best in the country last year that had very little to do with the fact that they could really really run the ball Jaden Daniels was a magician with the football that's what made it go you could break down in protection you could have a bad play on first down you could struggle to run the ball with the running backs and he'd just make it work he knew where to go with the ball they were incredible with the Deep the Deep ball and the big plays and if he needed to break free and get you a first down on a 16 yard run he just do that too those days are over not with Garrett nosm at quarterback but they've got to transform the way they handle things offensively and based on will Campbell's tone and message on Tuesday I'm going to buy into it this is the time of year where everyone's optimism is through the roof and I'm here for it love it give it to me but I think they've got to pay it off coming up on Sunday and that is absolutely going to be the message and once USC commits to coming down there and making sure they've got things stopped okay pop them over the top you've got plenty of guys that can make those plays kyen Lacy can go get you a deep ball CJ Daniels can go get you a deep ball I think Kyle Parker's going to play a good bit doesn't look great on Chris Hilton we'll talk about that later but l will be able to hit plays down the field and certainly in the play action game with the tight end involved as well and everything will open up from that start but you've got to start there that was not the case at any point last year it starts on Sunday you heard T-Bob yelling and screaming this morning about the latte Sip and Surfer boys that LSU's playing on Sunday I don't know if that's quite the case with some of the guys on USC's defensive front I don't know how many lattes they drink I don't know how many how often they get out on the longboard but they didn't stop anybody last year and if they had brought in a whole slew of transfers on the defensive front I would look at that and maybe suggest okay that's a that's a real reason for transformation they got kind of the same dudes with a new coach secondary I'll give them they've made that over they've got a lot of really good players that they brought in in the secondary that's another reason I don't really want to test that the entirety of the game make those guys stand out on an island pound away right up front that's where LSU's got to start things that is absolutely Paramount in this ball game coming up on Sunday hey thanks for watching hunt on LSU before you get out of here do us a couple favors hit that like button leave your comments below and subscribe to the channel for all your fighting tiger football talk see you next time