By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – When it concerns the current open date roll call of available LSU cornerbacks for the 15th-ranked Tigers as they prepare for a Nov. 4 season-shifting showdown at No. 9 Alabama, LSU head coach Brian Kelly remained a man of mystery during his Tuesday afternoon press conference.
What about starting corner Zy Alexander, the Southeastern Louisiana transfer who was helped off the field last Saturday against Army after sustaining an injury on his first half-ending interception?
“He’s going to miss some time, he’s got a lower-body injury,” Kelly said. “(Starting defensive tackle) Mehki Wingo has a got a lower-body injury as well. Both those guys are missing, both are not practicing. We’ll see what happens next week.”
What’s going on with transfer cornerbacks Denver Harris of Texas A&M and Duce Chestnut of Syracuse? Harris wasn’t seen on the sideline against Army and Chestnut has been invisible for almost a month.
“I know a lot of people have questions about their status,” Kelly said. “All I can say is that they’re on scholarship. They’re enrolled in school. Right now, they’re not participating.
“They’re still in the program. They’re still in good standing. But they’re not able to play right now. So, let’s leave it at that. Let’s be patient and we’ll see what happens.”
For now, LSU’s cornerback mix (besides using sophomore safety Sage Ryan as a starting corner), according to Kelly are true freshmen Ashton Stamps, Javien Toviano and Jeremiah Hughes and sophomore Laterrance Welsh.
The combined number of starts this season for the latter four names is one – Stamps’ start vs. Ole Miss – before he injured a groin and missed the last three games.
“We feel like all of them are capable of playing championship football,” Kelly said. “It’s our job to get them ready. And they’re excited. We’re excited about working with them and we expect them to play well for us.
“They’ve been here (on campus) for a while. They know what our expectations and standards are. It’s not like we’re breaking the glass here and rolling them out.
“They’ve been observing, they’ve been part of it. They’ve been traveling, they know what it’s like, and we feel like they’re ready to play.
“I think that these guys, given the opportunity now, are prepared and ready to play. Now, it’s getting them ready to step on the field in front of 80 or 90,000 people against, a top-10 football team. It’s a little bit different there, but I’ve got great confidence in their ability.”
Even though the Tigers’ last two opponents Auburn and Army rank Nos. 121 and No. 127 respectively in passing offense among 130 FBS (Division 1-A) teams, Kelly said LSU’s defense (especially the secondary) has improved the last 2½ games dating back to the Tigers’ Oct. 7 win at Missouri.
“We got three interceptions in the back end of our secondary and two or three PBU’s (vs. Army, primarily a running team),” Kelly said. “We played good pass defense against Auburn (allowed 154 yards and a TD) and we had a couple of interceptions at Missouri (while also giving up 411 passing yards, 2 TDs).
“I think our defensive structure needed to be clearly defined (sticking to a 4-3 base defense), putting the pieces together in a manner that allowed our guys to trust each other, and do their jobs as 1/11th of the group. It allowed us to build confidence as a group.
“And then you got to make some plays, right? We made some plays. Structure, trust and making plays – those three components coming together – have allowed this defense to play better now.
“Again, we have a long way to go. We’re going to play some really good football teams. We have four games left and we put ourselves in a position. Now, we’ve got to see where we are over the last month.”
Here’s Kelly on other subjects:
On Alabama’s first-year offensive coordinator and QB coach Tommy Rees, who played QB for Kelly at Notre Dame from 2010-13 and was on his coaching staff including the last two seasons under Kelly as offensive coordinator:
“He’s just a very insightful, smart, intuitive football person. He knows the game. He brings much more than just being a guy that knows football. We’ve seen what he’s done with the (Alabama) quarterback, and he’s gotten better and better each week.
“I played (Rees) him as a true freshman and he was ready to play as a true freshman at Notre Dame. That says a lot about who he is as a person. He’s always been ahead of the curve when it comes to things like that.”
On the progress of the offensive line, even without starting right tackle Emery Jones Jr., who missed the Army game with an injured ankle:
“It’s probably much more about consistency and performance than it is any one individual. They’re really confident in what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. They communicate really well and pass off stunts, they work combinations really well. They just work as five really well.
“And even when you take an Emery Jones out of it, you know (Lance) Heard steps in there and it almost seems he’s been there, though he’s just a true freshman.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com