By CODY WORSHAM
Tiger Rag Editor
Camp kicked off Thursday morning at LSU, and the Tigers took the field in the morning with a mostly veteran group.
In between snapping photos, here’s what I saw:
Young Linebackers
Dave Aranda split up his linebackers into middle linebackers and outside. In the middle, Kendell Beckwith, Donnie Alexander, and Duke Riley worked with Devin White. White stuck close to Kendell Beckwith, pulling him aside a couple of times to ask him questions about drills or technique, and Beckwith was glad to answer. That’s an interesting mentor-mentee dynamic to monitor. Les Miles has spoken highly of White, saying he’ll likely play in every game this season, and when White was going through the gauntlet drill — running down a tunnel of passers and catching passes from each side — Miles singled White out, telling him to pick up the pace. LSU expects a lot of the freshman, who is still transitioning from the position he was recruited at: running back.
Michael Divinity also worked with the veterans on the first day. Divinity was a highly prized middle linebacker prospect who played in the spring, too.
Defensive Line Depth
LSU’s got some veteran bodies up front, which has been an issue in recent years past. A lot of familiar faces took the field on Thursday morning.
Christian LaCouture, Davon Godchaux, and Lewis Neal are all back as starters from a year ago, adjusting to new positions. Not much news on that front — all we saw were a few drills. But working with them were Frank Herron, Greg Gilmore, and a bulked up Deondre Clark, who looks to have added weight to adjust to the 3-man front Aranda will utilize.
Outside Linebackers/Secondary
In the hurry of grabbing as many photos of guys as possible, I didn’t see Tashawn Bower out there. Working with the outside linebackers were Arden Key, Corey Thompson, and Isaiah Washington, and some of the safeties sprinkled in with them during period work, like John Battle and Rickey Jefferson.
Didn’t see any freshmen defensive backs out there, either. The secondary was all vets: Battle, Jefferson, Kevin Toliver, Jamal Adams, Tre’Davious White, Dwayne Thomas, Donte Jackson, and Ed Paris. Let’s play two-deep with these guys, purely speculatively.
CB: Tre’Davious White, Ed Paris
SS: Jamal Adams, John Battle
FS: Rickey Jefferson, Dwayne Thomas
CB: Kevin Toliver, Donte Jackson
That’s a pretty good group. You can see how it will be tough for a freshman to crack that top eight.
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