By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – By this time next week as LSU starts its ReliaQuest Bowl practices Monday, the Tigers’ offense should be guided by:
1. A Heisman Trophy winning quarterback.
2. A quarterback who was robbed of winning the Heisman.
3. Backup QB turned starter Garrett Nussmeier.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly said in a Tuesday morning press conference that Heisman finalist Jayden Daniels hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll play for the 13th ranked Tigers in the Jan. 1 Tampa-based bowl against Wisconsin.
“Everybody would love to see Jayden Daniels play one last time,” said Kelly, who spoke to Daniels on Monday after Daniels was gone for a few days due to a death in his family.
“I’m coach, but I’m a fan. He’s got to make a decision, and clearly, I see both sides of it.
“So, we’ll provide him all things necessary to make informed decision. But he hasn’t gotten to that level yet.”
Kelly said he conducted exit interviews with every player on the team last week.
“I think we have a really good sense of the players that will be available for the bowl game,” Kelly said. “For me to stand here and tell you exactly what those players are, I couldn’t do that.”
Four LSU players – none of them starters – have already announced in their social media accounts they are entering the transfer portal.
They are running backs junior Armoni Goodwin and sophomore Tre’ Bradford, sophomore cornerback Laterrance Welsh and sophomore defensive tackle Bryce Langston.
Kelly also said transfer cornerbacks Duce Chestnut and Denver Harris, who have been suspended by Kelly for most of the season, will not play in the bowl game.
Kelly said his team will have 15 bowl practices in Baton Rouge.
“Next week is going to be a full week of development, technique work and repetition for younger guys that need more development,” Kelly said. “The following week, we’ll get to work on Wisconsin and then duplicate that work when we get down to the bowl site.”
Kelly will also evaluate his coaching staff next week. The defensive assistants, led by coordinator Matt House, have been under fire all season. LSU is ranked 101st out of 130 FBS (Division 1-A) teams in total defense (allowing 409.2 yards per game) and 77th in scoring defense (27.8 ppg allowed).
“We’re here to win championships, and our defense did not play to the level that our standard is set,” Kelly said. “I’m not happy about it. Nobody’s happy about it. Our fans shouldn’t be happy about it.
“We started addressing our defensive shortcomings after the Mississippi game. This process has been ongoing and it’s one where we can feel the pain of everybody. It (the defense) has got to better and it will be better.
“We have to do things to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
It certainly sounds from Kelly like defensive staff changes are imminent.
“I’m not afraid to make those decisions,” Kelly said.
“I was three games into a season in 2016 at Notre Dame, and I had to fire my defensive coordinator (Brian Van Gorder) and he was in my wedding.
“It’s not personal, but I know it has a personal end of it, where families are involved, and they may have to pull their kids out of school and they may have to move and that’s difficult. But at the end of the day, the decisions that I have to make are in the best interest of LSU football program and the pursuit of a national championship.”
This week, Kelly and his staff are concentrating solely on recruiting. The transfer portal officially opened two days ago on Monday and the Dec. 20 early signing day is exactly two weeks away.
Kelly has emphasized he wants to start building his recruiting classes from freshman signees. He went all in on the portal in his 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes to raise depleted scholarship numbers left by previous head coach Ed Orgeron.
“We were taking literally numbers to right the relative to our defensive structure,” Kelly said. “We took 15 from the portal last year, 13 played on defense. That group was not a close-knit group. Because they were from different parts, they hadn’t played together. We saw how they played early in the season. We saw how they played later in the season.
“Right now, we’re counting 10 out of our 11 (defensive) players with the most snaps coming back next year.
“Some might say, ‘Well, that’s not such a great thing.’ We think it is because you have experience. We didn’t have that last year.”
LSU has transfer commitments from two junior college defensive linemen. They are former Georgia signee Shone Washington of East Mississippi Community College and former Alabama signee lineman Antonio Alfano of Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Community College, who was the nation’s No. 5 rated high school recruit in 2019.
The Tigers have already made an offer to North Texas graduate transfer receiver Ja’Mori Maclin, a former Missouri signee. He had 57 catches for 1,004 yards and 11 TDs this past season.
LSU has also contacted North Carolina State sophomore transfer quarterback MJ Morris. In his two-season career, Morris completed 115 of 199 passes for 1,367 yards, 14 TDs and 6 interceptions in 9 games. He also rushed for 103 yards and 1 TD in 81 carries.
“I think there’s 1,183 (players) in the transfer portal as of 11 o’ clock last night. I don’t follow it, it’s just something I do as a hobby,” Kelly joked.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com