Matt House reveals who is emerging on LSU's defensive line

The LSU defensive line has the potential to be quite good — and deep — in 2023. And defensive coordinator Matt House is already seeing a few players stand out this spring.

With more established players like Mekhi Wingo and Maason Smith sidelined for now with injuries, the LSU coaching staff has gotten to assess some other players in line to get in the rotation this year. It’s been guys like Jacobian Guillory or Sai’vion Jones that have shown the most so far.

“The guys that are on the field right now, I’m really, really pleased with Jacobian’s growth. He’s doing a nice job. I’m really, really pleased with Sai’vion’s growth. We still have Mekhi Wingo, he’s at every practice, he may not be on the field. We still have Maason Smith. He’s at every practice. I’m excited about the potential depth of that group. There’s a lot of guys that are growing and that’s exciting,” House said.

And with the two veterans in Smith and Wingo not healthy to take reps, it leaves the door open for younger players to keep getting looks and keep growing. That, to House, is the biggest benefit of spring ball.

You kind of have to go back and and in some ways you know, Mekhi played so many snaps for us. We know what he can be. Maason, I have a pretty good feel for what Maason can be because he did go through a whole training camp and a whole spring. I think what you see, too, is you get an opportunity to work with the guys that really need more reps. Not that those other guys don’t — they do — but it’s the next man up and it gives you a chance to see that growth,” House said.

He continued: “To me, the spring is all about the setting the stage for, fundamentally, how you’re going to approach the summer and then training camp. So I feel like we’re in a good spot with our growth there right now.”

Getting Smith back for the 2023 season is something that LSU head coach Brian Kelly was particularly excited about.

“It’ll be immense,” Kelly said. “Look, we had great edge presence last year, it was pretty obvious, with Harold (Perkins) and BJ (Ojulari). But you could fan one side and chip or move the back to the other because we didn’t have a great inside pass-rush presence.

“Now you put Maason to the inside? If you do that this year, I don’t know how many sacks he’ll have. You can’t single block him. We couldn’t.”