LSU Running Back Room After John Emery's Injury: Can Josh Williams and Kaleb Jackson Step Up?

um but the return game for LSU I mean they almost broke off broke the opening kickoff was almost taken to the house I don't say taking that but he almost had he not gotten swiped he had a chance to go it was a crease yeah and so and that's the guy that you want hitting the crease um what do we feel about Josh Williams being returning returning it back there no I think he's back there as the as a off returner yeah yeah but the problem is they're going to kick it to him because they don't want to kick switch it up we'll switch it up that's no big deal I've seen that happen a lot I've been a part of that uh yeah we're what what's going to happen throughout the week they're going to scheme it up as best they can and figure out like hey what are you doing most likely then I would imagine at some point they're going to see who's back there who do we not want to kick to you have the all SEC guy back there and are the off guy they might try to kick it there and then you'll just switch them that's no big deal that's just a little bit of a it's it's an extra blocker somebody who's willing to get back there and block and actually do something I'm okay with it okay because that's what remember whenever they put lonard for back one time he ran back he gets another Dame in the Bull game he also started off as a kick returner his first game all a sudden he took it to the house like damn lard Fett going up on a Tuesday I saw Le fornite in Vegas in a suit on the in the like open collar suit bottom of the casino only reason I knew it was him was because he got the bald ass head with a big ass beard he's a big human being I was like damn that's for just hanging out by himself he'll get sign somewhere some point this year week he didn't get signed last year though did he no not last year but he's been working out him and Jarvis neither one of them got got sign last year no it's okay um yeah but time anyway much to your dismay the kicking game actually was not a liability kicker made both field goals a long one longer one sish somewhere 45 47 something like that but made it with ease um no pun returns they were short but no pun returns was a huge thing especially with the return they had uh we had two returns we had two pwn returns no not just fair catches and we almost had a kickoff return to the so that's positive that's a good thing uh that we saw this weekend but with John emry going down how do we like our running back rooms situation right now I mean you got to insert someone who hasn't you know really been doctrinated indoctrinated at this level yet but I you know there it's LSU man they're going to bring in Talent there there's some guys they're going to have to mix and match and figure out what things work and how they work for each guy like you have guys like Josh Williams you have guys like Caleb Jackson and kayen Durham those are three different types of Runners they do three different types of things you're going to have to start finding ways to utilize what they do best in the in the game that they play and getting them on the field and kind of rotating them out that way I don't think you're really going to be able to go so much with the hot hand unless you're literally just able to crack him over the head a couple times with the same type of run or the same type of scheme um so it'll be interesting to see how they do it much like we talked about how much they were going to be moving guys in and out of the defensive front in that front seven the running back room is going to play a lot the same right now I think going forward and you're going to have to see some guys kind of graduate to to that next level to see him get there I personally would love to see Caleb Jackson take that that that I personally would love to see him kind of take over and start be kind of start kind of becoming the the lead back if you will up there we will see in due time they got about three good weeks three strong games and three opportunities to figure it out before you get your next huge test let me ask you this huge test let me ask you this what why do you think Brian Kelly doesn't have the confidence in Caleb Jackson right now to give him the majority of the carries you think it was because hey obviously emry you know ran the ball really well so you're going to play the hot hand I think Caleb Jackson only had what four carries yeah the majority of the time when you get backs that get to this level and they're not on the field a lot like let's be honest Caleb Jackson doesn't get here because he forgot how to run the football it's not because of what he is or isn't doing usually with the football it's the checks the passing Game Pass Pro is he running the right routes is he is he blocking in the right spots is he good at understanding the checks and where is he's supposed to be in in those situations that's usually the separator of getting into him because you got to remember a lot of those kids in high school they're so damn dominant right and it's usually out of the Huddle into the play like this is what you got or they can literally just turn around and tell them like it's that easy sometimes you can't hear at this level so it's it's hard to have that kind of communication um I would imagine that's probably got a lot to do it but that's where he needs to graduate that's where he needs to go to the next level and if he can do that I think he'll start seeing what he can do as a runner if that makes any sense I'm just looking at the group text that Lloyd made a mess up with about the guy who tours ACL Princeton Princeton that was I wrong yes you wrong my phone's dead that's that's a good out that's a get out there um who who then who tore their ACL was it not Princeton malaru malaru oh I said in banga that was pretty close I was going off the road oh you were huh yeah I mean they definitely play different sides of the ball yeah two different people to be honest honestly you said it at first and I'm like damn that's weird as hell left tackle on the kickoff team oh they had they had iy Jones out there a left tackle on the kickoff team you remember he's a freshman against Florida I do remember tackle on the kickoff team that was you said it I'm like damn that's weird as hell but okay whatever yeah you were wrong that was PM pulmanary um we'll get to him we'll get to him yeah at some point he's going to make it he fixed it he fixed it just in time um but back to the running back I agree with you I think that's why I brought the question up because it's not just the skill of of getting the ball and running the football and gaining yards with the football it's everything that goes with it I think that what I like the most is you saw nus kind of check down check down and throw it to his running backs I think three times throughout the game Cale Jackson was one of them had a nine yard reception got a first down John emry first down and Josh Williams got a first down on a catch out of the back field I think you're gonna see a lot of that Brian Kelly in his press conference today talked about how uh mentioned kind of what we talked about yesterday they've got to figure out a way to keep the end at Bay when you're doing your rpos right if it's a run pass option and your quarterback is not a threat to run and you hand it off the defensive end is going to crash every single time and that running back is going to get taken out of the game it's going to put you in a position where it's you lose some of that um creativity and use some of that element of surprise he did mention that nus Meyer is very is athletic enough to pull the ball and run obviously not Jaden Daniel's style but gain yards and become a weapon in that sense but there's an issue with that you have an issue with some of that why do you think that maybe he's hesitant on letting him pull it and run it well for everybody who doesn't know when you have a run pass option you have a read man there is someone you are reading that read man is unblocked all the time so if it's usually the end or that first person outside of the end however it goes if you don't have the threat of keeping him at Bay which is the the opportunity to run or somebody or or a throw right behind it he is going to crash down every time it just blow up the play in the back field that's literally what it is which we saw lastek that's just old school football that's all it really is um it's that that's what happens now when you have somebody like nus me who hasn't who doesn't present like the real threat of run for you right now for them for LSU I don't I'm not sure they're sold on wanting to do it as much obviously the N wan to do it as much but it's not necessarily so much because he can't run the ball like Jaden Daniels did last year it's because of you got to think what what do we have behind them well we have a first year guy in the system who's a transfer from Vanderbilt and then we have young freshman and young kids behind him that have not stepped on the field at this level so it's really tough to sit here and say if we get this ball in his hand and he's running a lot more you expose him to a lot more opportunity for injury and if that were to happen well what do you have playing behind him as a quarterback position I think kind of being the the the conundrum that they're in right now with that situation but you're going to have to present some more of a threat in that situation if you want that kind of run to be effective that's what they need to figure out yep and Brian K mentioned that that's part of the conversation he said that they're going to allow him to run um part of the danger of him running is him getting hurt right there was a threat of that from Jaden obviously Jaden is a little more elusive it was more athletic of as far as getting out of the pocket and running and making people miss and now he got hit a lot well you got to remember Jaden's made a lifetime a running dude that's always been a part of his game being somewhat mobile he is a pocket passer and that's what he's done that's where he's made his game guys that have that have a history of running like a long history of running they're just they're a little more used to getting hit they're a little more used to protecting themselves they're a little more used to finding ways to not get hit so like that situation is different it's it's just a different situation if you saw I mean if Garrett NM gets into the open field like Jaden ders that you'll see a whole lot of looking around like yeah let me make sure I'm in I'm in the clear a lot more sliding and Jay Daniel is going I'm going 80 right and look but I still think he has the ability to do it and it's like Jared said it's a great point because you wanted to see it and if they didn't want to do it in the first game of the year it means that they definitely were trying to avoid it but now that it became such a a focal point now of what obviously you lose John you have to have some sort of facet of a running game if it's going to be Garrett NM showing something else so it makes it easy to run the backs now that's on the table they wanted to not have to do this well you you got to think too you got like the other little side part of it is is I think you can only learn so much by practicing against your own team and Camp right so like you get you can push each other around as much but it's nothing the same as when you get an actual real game and there's real bad intentions on the other side if you will right so I think they went into the season seeing with the with the mindset of we feel good about our running game which you should cuz you still ran for over a 100 in the game we feel good about our running game let's see where we're at without having to use this from the start because we don't think that this is that this needs to be a vital part of our game I think that they saw in that game that hey we popped a couple and maybe we'll continue to pop a couple out through the year but what we don't want is it to be so predictable in situations to where we get put in bad down and distances because we're so predictable with it so I think that's going to be the change on no doubt and I think a part of it last year was um you had us as the backup which you were confident and if something were to happen confident throwing him this year you have a true backup where like hey you don't know what you're getting you don't know what you're going to get the the starter is the guy and he's obviously the starter and he's Head and Shoulders above the next guys not necessarily just talent wise like I think Colin Hurley and those guys are super talented they don't have the experiences you don't want a true freshman or you don't want a guy coming in from vanity that came in as a starter from VY and now comes here as a backup you don't want him taking many reps I'm not saying that in the mean way no no no but I me it's real like if it's one thing if you came in as a transfer and you came in to be the starter and you were getting all the ones reps you have that Rapport you've built some of that he doesn't have that the number one was going to be the number one he came in as they backup so he doesn't have all those ton of reps to where if something happens on the on the fly in a game all of a sudden we got to throw him out there and he doesn't have that much experience with this group of guys so it it makes it a little tougher to say let's just run our quarterback wild and we don't give a damn because we got somebody back here that's it makes it a little tougher yeah think if you you can't I mean we talked about injuries obviously earlier in the year where you with the Jacobian gillery stare scare where it was man you're thin on defensive line if you lose him there's not another position on the planet for LSU where if you lose your quarterback if you lose n especially after what you saw in game one of him that the started 30 or 39 302 yards two touchdowns if you lose that you can flush this thing a no year three Brian Kelly like he'd probably be so relieved if it happened what what didn't have to worry about any of these expectations anymore like I got a perfect think you think that that's how it works here that would never be that and he would get cooked in the National too qu that um that would be such that's such a wild thought it's like thank God yeah just pulled the fire alarm at school like oh I don't have to take the test yeah no it's going to look it's going to be interesting like it's it's it's GNA be fun you're not g to see a ton of design runs or explosive runs honestly right and you're not gonna be able to see a lot you're not be a to look this week coming up and say oh they figured it out right it's just hey you're playing Nicholls you better put it on them and do what you need to do we talked about this for last two years on the show after you was game one the best thing you can do in game two against the team it was like Southern and it was Nicholls this year and whoever it was the uh year before you got to go out there and you take care of make sure the game's over at halftime you're not going to be evaluate a ton but but you will be you you you'll be able to evaluate if they I I there's two to me there's a couple marks of like good teams to me that that means a lot especially in football because you only get to do this [ __ ] one time a week right so for me when you're facing an inferior opponent in football and you go out and you take care of business the way you're supposed to to me that tells me a lot more than you being able to win in close games against teams that you were supposed to be good in the sense of and I and I mean this in the sense of well I hope to hell you can play up against another ranked team in front of a 100,000 that's supposed to be just as good as you I I hope you can because that means that's what you came here for what means to me when I when I look at a team and see how they prepare and if they're ready and if they can take the Challenge from week to week is is when you bring that team in that's not supposed to be good you make sure they're out of there early in the game that means you came here and you took care of business that means I know I have a mature team who's ready to take on the rigors of the season as opposed to oh man like we had to go ahead sweat this out through three quarters they ain't ready I can't get them to do what they need to do missed assignments nobody's locked in nobody's paying attention to what there's there's no attention to detail that's tough because now you got to go back the next week and try to coach that [ __ ] into him again so like I I'm I love seeing bad teams come in and you beat the mess out of them early because that lets me know you you took care of business ready and it gives people like the AJ swans the Colin Hurley whoever else in these backups to where if something did happen they have game experience right that's what they're supposed to be there for you play these games for those guys to be able to get in at the end to be able to get some experience no doubt and then you move on to the next weekend you then you finally start getting a challenge of like hey you got some guys that teams that have athletes on the other end that could maybe compete with some of the guys you got South Carolina UCLA that those games are going to be some of the markers where like all right let me see what they've done the adjustments they've made because now you'll have two games of film they'll have two two games of scouting LSU how are they going to make the adjustments on these rpos how are they going to make these adjustments with how how much is nus going to pull it if if they don't want nus running the ball how are they going to keep the the the readed man at bay that's that's what I'm looking forward to watching and seeing the adjustments that are being made because I think if you go back and watch the game again um you're going to see the Crea creativity and and you're going to see that LSU was very prepared and the play calls and the game call and the way they approached the game was very well thought thought out and honestly executed pretty well for the most part um we talked about some of the Bon head mistakes and and the penalties and those types of things but as far as like hey preparation um scouting reports game plans and executing game plan they did that pretty good uh it's just a couple things here and there in big games like that that's how that's what when team one team loses sometimes it's not a bunch of mistakes it's only a couple what would be take me into the time machine if LSU was able to win that game where it felt like they were for a good portion of that that fourth that fourth quarter like what would be the talking points the fourth quarter after the game yeah if fell you would won what would people be focused on like what would wait wait but you're talking from a lot of different standpoints like who like who are talking points for who and from what standpoint because you got to be a little more Target I think I think if if it went let's say let's say it was 17113 LSU gets the fourth and N stop no personal foul penalty they go down there and they score a touchdown put it away hold them hold them whether they give up a touchdown after that or give more points and they end up winning the game I think the Nar the the the conversation is LSU was able to finally finish a game defense made a stop when they needed to and the defense looked way better than they had the years before um and I think that the conversation will be a NM becoming a winner you know yeah it feels like you gloss over a little bit of all the things that you focus on the I guess the reasons why you didn't win but it just feels like you play the result gets played so easily when if it's a win you gloss over a lot of things that LSU probably didn't do as good as it should have and they would have those answers but because of the fact that you lost it becomes a much different story when LSU played well enough to win that football game that's the conundrum of being a really good team and to consistently do it over and over again I think a lot of people have heard sa and talk about stuff like this a lot because like you said fliping around they win that game there's not as much chatter on the outside so people don't hear players on the inside the building they don't hear the nonsense that you hear right now you also don't have players thinking they did anything wrong because guess what we won a game we found a way to win the game losses like this bring out usually the best and are the absolute worst in a team because it kind of lets you know who they are as people and where their character really is and I would suspect that they're gonna go out there and clean some stuff up just by watching what Kelly has done with this team or with these teams over the last two years what he's done to be able to rectify things and get them back on track I would suspect you'll start seeing a lot better team but yeah man like it's it's hard because when you win it's hard to get guys to lock back in on Monday because they feel here you know and that's the they want to eat the cheese they want to listen to everything everyone wants to patch you on your back you don't want to pay attention to anything I'm good enough we'll figure it out no you're not you're actually not you you didn't get it done so I I think losses like this kind of bring you back down Earth a little bit and I suspect that they'll be a lot better and it'll be better for them going forward it just gives them really razor thin margins the rest of the year what what do you think the the talking points will be like what do you think oh I think How To Go reverse how they end up pulling that game off what do you think the conversation's like everything that you're focused on as to why you didn't like things that you didn't do would be well get ready when they do this like Caleb Jackson had five carries for 16 yards wait till he gets going like wait till you have you know Josh Williams and you know a better situation or you start running screens you start do like that was just a that was a a little bit of what LSU can do offensively and then you start H that obviously the defense deserves all the praise in the world but then that's when you start being like Oh the defense is 10 times better than it was last year I don't here's the thing too like and if you clean some things up like this is a really special team and I still think that no as far as for play calling and as far as for all of that stuff I I don't think you can look at it like that and I simply don't think you can look at it like that because I can sit here and say well [ __ ] do you think USC emptied the clip and gave you the full Playbook no they didn't my point is both teams are in that situation to start the game but like he alluded in that postgame press conference the ability to finish and I think now that's going to be more of a conversation from start to finish is going to be something that's really under the magnifying glass for them something they put together who's that fall on falls directly on the head coach it does cuz you have we make one of this quote all the time but it's true attitude reflects leadership like the attitude comes down from the top if you have an if you want something done you've got to bring that from the top down know the expectation yes that expectation the urgency the discipline the responsibility the accountability all of that everything that Brian Kelly preaches which I know he believes in I know he's preaching it but that comes from the top down I'm not saying he's not doing it but he may need to do it more because look they are significantly better this year than they were I think LSU in week two this year is in a way better position than LSU was in week two last year even with three first rounders on their offense I think they're a more complete team in week two this year than they were last year defense is much better I think offense is still really good and different look offense but are still really good and I think there's not as many question marks but the results ended up being similar with a loss I think you were winning the game with 55 minutes into the game you're winning right and so you just have to finish you almost did it almost doesn't matter and so I think that there's going to be a a real emphasis on hey can't [ __ ] do that anymore because y'all are good enough no more than good enough like y'all should have won that game they're probably watching film o what do you think film was like I mean you you alluded to a little while ago but if you I guarantee you they watched that film and they're probably sitting there saying that's a crying shame he lost that game and they're probably sitting there saying there's probably like three plays where it turned the game not oh we we did all of this wrong and it was up and down and in and out and we got outplayed there's probably three plays where they're like I literally wish we could have these three plays back and we'd be one and0 right now yeah that's the difference but that's the difference cuz you don't know when those three plays are going to come you don't know when those opportunities will be at hand you don't know if it's the second and 10 or if it's the third and one or if it's the first and 15 that