GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
New players from the NCAA Transfer Portal are much like highly recruited and top ranked true freshmen joining a football program.
Fans, particularly recruiting junkies, tend to think they’re automatically better than what a team already has and often want to seem them play more than holdovers because they’re so new.
LSU’s portal newbies have been finding out that the Tigers’ veterans on the offensive line do not feel the same way as fans. They’re not budging.
BRIAN KELLY COMPLETE VIDEO PRESS CONFERENCE
This is why returning starting center DJ Chester, a redshirt freshman in 2024, is still practicing with the first team at center, even though transfer Braelin Moore, who was Virginia Tech’s starting center last season as a sophomore, was expected to move in at center with Chester moving to left guard before next season. Chester is LSU’s only returning regular starter from 2024.
Josh Thompson, who was Northwestern’s starting right guard last season as a junior and its starting right tackle in 2023, has also not moved No. 1 right tackle Weston Davis, a 2024 signee. Paul Mubenga, a redshirt freshman backup last season, remains at left guard, too. And 2024 signee Coen Echols has been running with the first team at right guard, where Bo Bordelon, a sophomore backup in 2024, has also been with the first team.
Moore was the No. 4 interior offensive linemen in the portal, according to 247Sports.com, which tabbed Thompson the No. 14 player overall in the portal and No. 2 interior offensive linemen.
“Well, it’s competitive,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said after practice Saturday. “We brought in Josh Thompson, and everyone else is saying, ‘Not so fast,’ too. So, there’s competitive battles throughout that entire front.”
Thompson did just get to LSU this past week, though, as Northwestern is on the quarter system and its last term did not end in time for him to practice with the Tigers in their first week of spring drills.
“We had another rotation in there today, and I know our guys feel the competition,” Kelly said. “When you create that kind of competition, it only brings out the best – the best in DJ, the best in Paul, Tyree Adams (starting left tackle), Weston. All those guys are in a position where nothing’s taken for granted. There’s no Will Campbell out there.”
Campbell was LSU’s starting left tackle from 2022-24 before putting his name in for next month’s NFL Draft, where he is expected to be a high first round pick.
“They’ve got to make progress every day,” Kelly said. “This is just a different year, and in this year, there’s going to be intense competition for those five positions all year. It’s not going to get to a certain date, and, ‘Well, there’s no competition any more.’ We have more than five guys who can play in the SEC there. So, the pressure will be on each and every week.”
NO ROOM AT THE LSU INN FOR JOHN EMERY JR.
Former LSU running back John Emery Jr. will remain a former LSU running back, Kelly said on Saturday, though he wishes him the best. Emery said on Twitter through a sports agency representing him last week that he will be returning to college football in 2025 for a seventh year after playing in parts of five seasons – 2019 and ’20 and from 2022-24 at LSU. But he played in just one game last year because of a knee injury before game two. He missed all of 2021 while academically ineligble.
The NCAA would likely have to grant him a waiver to play in 2025, if it has not already. He will have to find a taker, though, when the next portal window opens on April 16 and runs through April 25.
“No, we haven’t talked to John about it,” Kelly said. “It was the first that we heard. We love John. But sometimes, things happen, and we don’t know where it came from. But we’ll be supportive in any way that we can. But we’re set where we’re at in terms of the running back position. But love John, and we’ll be here to help and support him, if he’s given a seventh year. He’s certainly a young man that can help somebody in a power four (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference).”
Caden Durham, who led LSU in rushing as a true freshman last season, is expected to be the Tigers’ starter in 2025, but he is getting pushed in spring practice by true freshman early enrollee Harlem Berry – the No. 1 running back in the ’25 class from St. Martin’s High in Metairie. The Tigers also have Caleb Jackson, who will be a junior next season.
And LSU is hoping to get back Trey Holly, a 2023 signee from Union Parish High in Farmerville who is awaiting a July 7 trial on a felony gun charge after his involvement in a shooting that injured two people on Feb. 9, 2024. He has been suspended by LSU since.
In August practices, LSU will also have freshman JT Lindsey – the No. 7 running back in the nation from the 2025 class from Alexandria Senior High.
PRACTICE NOTES
TaMarcus Cooley, the No. 3 safety in the 2024-25 portal class, did not practice Saturday, but 2024 signee Joel Rogers of West Feliciana High looked very good. … Wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr., who will be a senior next season, continues to wow everyone.
LSU CLASS OF 2026 RANKED NO. 4
LSU landed its first five-star commitment for the Class of 2026 on Wednesday when No. 4-ranked overall prospect and No. 1 wide receiver Tristen Keys (6-foot-2, 180 pounds) of Hattiesburg High in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, pledged to the Tigers. Keys visited Miami on March 3 and was at Alabama’s Junior Day on Feb. 1.
The Tigers have eight commitments for that class, which is ranked No. 4 by 247Sports.com
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