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SEC Sports
It’s not an exaggeration to say that LSU’s 2019 team put itself in the conversation for the best squad in college football history, as the 15-0 Tigers had absolutely everything: a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Joe Burrow, countless NFL draft picks, a strong staff and great balance across the board. Can LSU keep the momentum going this fall? That’s up for debate.
It’s difficult to replace so much NFL talent right away, although LSU certainly has recruited well in recent years. The Tigers do get Alabama at home and have a promising new starting quarterback in Myles Brennan, but there are a lot of new faces.
247Sports national college football reporter Brandon Marcello has been predicting the order of finish in each Power Five conference this week, and he explained why he picked LSU to finish third in the SEC West this season with a significant gap between the Tigers and Alabama.
“Everybody kind of assumes that LSU and Alabama are the two teams in the SEC West best built to have a huge loss of players to the draft and then they’re able to build up,” Marcello said on the College Football Daily podcast. “Alabama can. LSU’s not quite there yet under Ed Orgeron. I don’t care what anybody says — there’s going to be a drop-off this year. It’s just gonna happen.
“... Myles Brennan is going to be a good quarterback. He is a good quarterback. He’s not Joe Burrow. He’s not Tua (Tagovailoa). He’s gonna be, maybe, one of the top three quarterbacks, maybe No. 4, in the SEC. But LSU loses way too much, (and) the schedule’s tough.”
One of Marcello’s key points didn’t have anything to do with LSU’s roster but instead involved the staff. Co-offensive coordinator Joe Brady was seen as a key part of the Tigers’ improvement in the passing game last fall, and he left to take over the main offensive coordinator role for the Carolina Panthers.
That double lack of continuity has Marcello concerned in the short term, although that doesn’t mean the Tigers aren’t here to stay. For this year, however, Marcello also had LSU behind Auburn, his pick to finish second.
“I just don’t understand this idea that LSU is gonna continue challenging immediately in the SEC West after losing 14 players to the draft,” Marcello said. "Joe Burrow was a once-in-a-generation quarterback at LSU. We’re talking about a place that obviously, it has been well-chronicled in the Les Miles era and even in the early years of Ed Orgeron, of not taking advantage of their talent at receiver. Well, they did that and much more last year with Joe Burrow at quarterback, but not just that — they had Joe Brady kind of tweaking the passing game for them and their schemes as a co-offensive coordinator. He’s gone as well. Running back — they’ve gotta figure out what’s going on there, as well. I think they’ll be OK. But you just can’t lose that many players unless you are just completely stacked with guys and have developed players that are immediately able to come in and start and be tremendously effective. I don’t think LSU’s quite there yet.”
