Bruce Feldman: Maason Smith leads LSU line filled with 'legit freaks'

LSU is stacked on its defensive line, and Maason Smith is its crowning jewel.

With a strong season expected for Smith and his unit, college football insider Bruce Feldman joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss the reasoning behind ranking the Tigers DL so high on his annual preseason list of freaks heading into the 2023 season.

“He had a really good freshman year, then he kind of flashed and was very disruptive. … The numbers, at 6-foot-6, 315 [pounds] and over 19 MPH on the GPS, and just the length and everything else. He is 15 pounds bigger than he was last year. I would expect that this is a very dominant defensive line because there were two other guys that could have been on the freaks list as well in that group.”

Feldman also revealed that Smith was able to hit a high score in momentum — something LSU gauges in relation to body weight of 1,124 kg.m/s. That’s the test where the Tigers logged him at over 19 MPH at. Before his injury, he ran the drill at a 19.5 MPH clip, and has retained most of his speed after his knee injury, notching 19.2 MPH this fall despite holding more mass than before.

As Feldman alluded to, Smith isn’t the only player holding down LSU’s defensive front. Two more superstars join him in their efforts to terrorize SEC quarterbacks in 2023.

“The Tigers have three legit Freaks in their D-line room,” Feldman wrote during his freaks list In defensive end Sai’vion Jones, they have a 6-5, 280-pounder who can run 20.5 MPH and jump to 11 feet in the air. Defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo is explosive enough to generate 3100 watts of peak power on the power clean, but the top Tiger is Smith, a former five-star recruit.

“A Freshman All-American in 2021 after making five TFLs and four sacks in 2021, Smith injured his knee in the first quarter of the 2022 season opener against Florida State and was out for the season, but he’s primed for a big comeback.”

With Smith, Jones and Wingo holding down the trenches, the Tigers will look to remain dominant on the defensive end of the ball. As always, it starts with the front four.

“It’s going to be a fun defense,” Feldman said. “I think Matt House is a really good defensive coordinator, and he has a lot of pieces to work with, especially in the front. … They’re going to be a problem for quarterbacks just getting [the throw] off.”