LSU football coach Brian Kelly saw resolve from his defense during a Wednesday practice that featured a red zone period. The defense came up with some stops, including a turnover.
“You need a mindset defensively on how we are going to play this,” Kelly said. “Is it they’re going to score, or let’s find a way to keep them out of the red zone?”
“I saw some good things defensively,” Kelly said. “The resolve that we’re looking for that we’re going to dig down, bite hard on our mouthguard and find a way to keep them out.”
But this doesn’t mean LSU’s defensive is completely fixed. Kelly says the defense is still a work in progress when it comes to getting lined up correctly, communicating effectively and executing the fundamentals.
“We’re demanding the right things, we’re asking for the right things from our players, we’re certainly getting upticks in performances from players across the board, but as a unit, eleven together that’s the next thing we got to see an improvement in,” Kelly said.
Kelly said a depth chart has yet to be established in the defensive secondary, but says the next few days will be what he calls moving day as jobs will be won as the Tigers close in on two weeks before their season opener.
One guy that has likely locked down a starting spot is sophomore cornerback Ashton Stamps. Kelly says the former Rummel Raider leads the team in PBUs during camp and he’s certainly taken a step forward in his development.
“He feels comfortable being out there, he’s moving well, he’s pain-free, he had some nagging injuries last year, so I just think he feels confident out there, he’s stronger, he’s had a really good year in the weight room and I think his confidence is high that he can play in the SEC against the very best, because he goes against them every day.”
He’s also wearing jersey number one this year. Stamps had that number his senior season at Rummel, and former Raider greats Ja’Marr Chase and Kristian Fulton also had that jersey number.
Battle for starting punter is tight
One of the tighter position battles during this camp is at punter. Redshirt junior Peyton Todd is competing with Louisiana Tech transfer Blake Ochsendorf. Kelly says both guys lack consistency.
“We’ll see a couple of incredible big kicks, than we’ll see one that is certainly not effective enough, so we’ll let those guys continue to challenge each other but I think it’s going to sort itself out, and if we got to play them both, we’re going to play them both,” Kelly said.
Injury update
Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jacobian Guillory was back at practice Wednesday after missing a good portion of Tuesday’s practice so trainers could examine his left knee. Freshman wide receiver Jelani Watkins has a foot and ankle sprain, but it’s not considered serious.
