Trojans Scouting Report | Can LSU's Defense Handle Lincoln Riley's Explosive USC Offense?

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 at this point I think you can just about taste it like it's just about here a lot of folks heading to Las Vegas today or tomorrow a lot of folks kind of checking out on their work responsibilities as football season approaches a lot of folks going to get into the fridge for a cold pop tonight and watch a little college football uh it's it's here we're we're we're here you got Jimmy and Charlie in Vegas Matt's going to do a little bit of work from the airport on AFR this afternoon and then fly up there you'll have OTV from Vegas tomorrow morning so we have made it uh we are here it's LSU in USC and we are certainly ready to talk about that I want to get into this Southern Cal offense a little bit today as we start things here um you know Lincoln Riley has a reputation in college football and I think if you were to ask 10 college football fans about Lincoln Riley they would all give you some variation of the same answer um been a head coach of two BigTime programs score a lot of points win a lot of Heisman Trophies defenses aren't very good hasn't won the big game that's kind of what Lincoln Riley's MO is and it's probably Fair because we've got a pretty large sample size here it's not something that's been boiled down to like 2 years we've seen Lincoln Riley in action now for about a decade on the big stage in college football as a coordinator or a head coach but I wanted to go a little bit more more in depth into what Lincoln Riley is because as I've told you a lot like I don't spend a lot of time watching non SEC games I just don't have a lot of time to do it on my Saturdays I've got to prep and then I've got to get to campus and then I've got to do a 2-hour pregame show and then LSU play for 4 hours and then I've got to do an hour and a half postgame show and so for that time of seven or eight hours it's hard for me to watch other games so when I do I'm watching Alabama Old Miss I'm watching Auburn Georgia I'm watching Florida Tennessee I'm not usually watching Oklahoma Iowa State or USC against Colorado like I that I don't do a lot of that so to sit here and and tell you that I've watched a ton of Lincoln Riley offense would would not be true but I have done a lot of research over the last week and Lincoln Riley has the best offensive body of work in college football collectively in the last 10 years he does you're talking about a guy who became the offensive coordinator at East Carolina as very very young coach and he set more than 50 school records at East Carolina they were in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense in passing yardage in third down efficiency they were great on offense at East Carolina so Bob Stoops called and said hey need you to come up to Oklahoma and when I think of Lincoln riy at Oklahoma I think of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray I think of the air raid I think of them scoring a ton of points I think of those two Heisman Trophies I think of that Rose Bowl against Georgia um and obviously I think of Jaylen Herz in the end there with LSU in 2019 where their defense couldn't stop anybody at all but Lincoln Riley's offenses were a little bit more than just kler Murray and just Baker Mayfield and just Jaylen Herz and just the air raid far from it I mean Joe Mixon set an Oklahoma allpurpose yardage record under Lincoln Riley s perine became Oklahoma's career rushing leader under Lincoln Riley now I get it there are a lot of you that are listening to me they're going I don't care if Oklahoma can run the ball against Kansas and Baylor that's not real football and that's fine like I don't I'm not going to fight that I I would not stand here and tell you that I think the Big 12 is putting out 85 Bears style defenses but it does tell me that like he does want to run the ball he does want a modom of balance and Brian Kelly talked on Monday about making USC one-dimensional how do how do we make them one-dimensional and there were a couple teams that were kind of able to do that last year to an extent and they were the two teams that held USC to season low Point totals that was 20 points two times it was against Notre Dame and it was against UCLA and against Notre Dame when you look at the the rushing numbers they ran for over 120 yards in that game and that looks fine but it took them a ton of carries to get to it the rushing yardage when it was all set and done per carry was under three yards per carry against Notre Dame that's stopping the run and UCLA absolutely swallowed USC's running game whole they had 22 carries in that game for three yards three yards so there were two teams that were able to shut down the run and make things onedimensional in the past and they were able to slow things down against USC that's goal number one but we we know that USC is not going to hand the ball to Woody Marx 26 times in this game Woody Marx was a Mike Leech back at Mississippi State who was better in the passing game anyway it's it's the passing game that is the scariest Strat that you C has and I'll be candid with you like y'all y'all know I I made some waves yesterday on my show and um but look I'm I feel okay about LSU up front on defense I feel good about the linebackers I feel okay about the front I feel great about the offensive line I feel great about the running backs feel good about the wide receivers and I feel good about Garrett nire there's really only one piece to this team that still gives me the heebie GBS and y'all know that's the corners I just I'm just a little concerned I am I don't see Patrick Peterson I don't see Morris clayber I don't see travius white I don't see Derek Stingley I don't see Christian Fon I don't see Jaylen Mills I don't see theal Simon like I see some guys that are at best unproven at worst have been part of some really bad defenses so I'm concerned about that and I'm I'll I'll be honest about it but I wanted to look at USC's receivers and kind of see what that group looked like and I came up with an LSU comp for these guys to kind of help you because I you as the LSU fan if I run down and I say oh Zachariah BR dece Robinson jacobe Lane McKai lemon and kyen H Hudson you go well I never heard of any of those people who cares like so I don't want to do that I'm G to give you a comp for these guys and just to kind of give you an idea of what these guys look like in pads now keep in mind this group is not a proven group that's coming back this has not been a group that's been productive USC four of their top six pass catchers from last year those guys are gone all I'm looking at in terms of these guys is potential because they don't have a lot of proven on the- field statistics and highlights to go from some but not a ton these were not the primary guys last year for CID Williams they will be for Miller Moss number one on the list absolutely number one on the list is Zachariah Branch 100% he's 5' 10 175 PBS you heard yesterday we had mark culan on he called him a human joystick and I watched some highlights from Zachariah Branch from last year the LSU comped immediately leapt off the screen for me was Skyler green he's under sized at 5'10 but he is incredibly smooth and Shifty yall remember Skyler some of you that are real young may not but if you remember Skyler he was a little undersized he was the number three wide receiver on the 03 team you had Michael Clayton you had Dey Henderson and they got Skyler green the ball in the screen game he scored a touchdown on the Jet Sweep in the national championship game and he was a great punt returner as good a punt returner as I've ever seen at LSU and that's what Zachariah Branch reminds me of he's so Shifty and smooth and slippery they get in the ball around the line of scrimmage a lot he runs back kick andon punts that's you got to watch this guy I mean he's going to be a factor in the game Duce Robinson is a sophomore and He's listed as a wide receiver by UC us USC if you look at like Phil Steel's preview that I've got here if you look at his recruiting profile He's listed as the tight end it's cuz he's massive he's 6'6 215 lbs he was the number one tight end of the country in the 2023 class and I know that none of you have seen this player but you all know who I'm talking about he does remind me a little bit of try s green he's just huge I don't know if he runs quite as well I don't know if he jumps quite as well but I can't think of an LSU wide receiver that that pops right to my mind that was 66 215 like Stefan Sullivan was pretty big but he wasn't the number one player in the nation coming out of high school his position like Duce Robinson is this dude's legit he's a big big Target for USC for sure um they got jacobe Lane who's another sophomore all these guys are sophomores zachari branch is a sophomore Duce Robinson's a sophomore jacobe Lane's a sophomore he's 64 195 and has this crazy vertical leap that everybody's talked about that I've read up on he kind of reminds me frame wise of Malachi Dupri pretty big pretty long a little bit skinny but has he's got some some highlights on the Reel where he goes up and makes catches in the end zone above people and that's kind of what you're looking for there the only like real veteran that I see on this receiving core is Kon Hudson who he's a junior maybe it's because he wears number 10 and jeray jenkins's name just kind of popped in my name because the 10 was there but he's like 61 and he doesn't run super awesome and he wasn't a 100 star recruit and he hasn't been wildly productive in three years but they threw him the ball a few times and he made some plays and that's kind of what jeray jingen do for a really long time here in Baton Rouge so that's kind of those are high-end comps I I'm not going to compare anybody to kadon Boone and uh James Wright and um like I said Stefan so like I don't I'm not going to compare guys to LSU's fourth team wide receivers who didn't play very much I'm talking about the high end of these guys potential that's what they look like in pad so it's a balanced receiving core that Lincoln Riley's got and candidly like I'm a little concerned about LSU's ability to cover and we all have seen that but you you've got to if you're if you're being on the optimistic side which I'm going to try to be for the next 48 hours then you look at what LSU's defense did against the tiger offense a lot of camp in the 111s and you hold out hope that that this defense is going to create enough issues at the point of attack is going to get back there against a young I shouldn't say young probably inexperienced is better word for Millard Moss quarterback and you can cover some of these guys who are not necessarily proven stud receivers they've got a lot of stars by their name in high school and there sophomores that are expected to show up and and be great players this year that's their you know Desa Wan back for LSU in a different position um but that's kind of what it looks like and I expect USC most of the night to spread the field and to try to get it to these guys a lot of times around the line of scrimmage especially Zachariah Branch but sometimes down the field wherever Lincoln Riley sees it fit to try to take a chance and he's he's gained enough credibility over the course of this decade to understand that like the guy the players change but the results generally stay the same I mean you're talking about in points per game Lincoln Riley I'll just go backwards from 2023 moving backwards he was they were third in the country last year at 41.8 points per game they were third the year before that at 41.4 so about the exact same the two Caleb Williams years out in Southern California the last year at Oklahoma where he had Rattler and Caleb Williams they were eighth in the country in scoring offense at 39.1 points per game go back to 2020 sixth in the country 4 3 ppgs 2019 that was the jayen Herz team that LSU played they were sixth in the country in points per game they scored 42 a game the year before that they were best in the country number one in the nation in 2018 that was the year Kyler Murray was the quarterback they scored 48 points per game in top the country and then in 2017 third so if I go back in chronological order about the guy the offenses in terms of scoring that he's put out there third third eighth 6th 6th 1 third that's really really good and I just I feel like as I sit here today and we're starting to talk about this game like LSU's offense is going to have to go score because no matter how good you feel about LSU's revamped defense with a new coaching staff and guys in different roles and a little bit of a talent influx and some guys growing up and the aggressive nature of things no matter how good you feel about that looking at those statistics not over one year not over one game not over one matchup last year this is a total of seven years I just combed through at two different schools with five different quarterbacks and every single year Lincoln Riley's offenses are in the top eight in the country every year so to sit here and suggest that oh well I think the div's going to be really good they might be able to hold him to like 20 points I don't see it I think LSU can win the game still weighing my pick for tomorrow I absolutely think LSU can win the game but it's going to take 35 points to do it in my eye we'll talk more about this this team as we uh as we move through the the next 24 hours or I guess 26 hours we'll be done talking about the game on these Airwaves but it's a really good offense I'm hopeful that LSU's defense is there to answer the bell and that will transition nicely into our next segment because I talked to Harold Perkins on Tuesday I talked to Greg Pinn on Tuesday and they kind of discussed some of the different things that they've been working on and some of the different things that they've implemented Harold Perkins was really uh timid in answering the questions because he didn't want to reveal anything he's like look they're listening I can't tell yall any of this stuff but we did get enough out of them about some of the things that they're trying to accomplish on defense and it pequ my interest I've got a site up uh a a piece up on Louisiana sports.net on it 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