LSU could be without all four transfer corners vs. Alabama

No. 15 LSU (6-2) heads to Tuscaloosa for a matchup with No. 9 Alabama (7-1) on Saturday, Nov. 4 for a 6:45 p.m. CT kickoff that will be televised on CBS.

The Tigers enter the bye week ahead of Alabama with the NCAA’s best offense in a number of statistical categories, but the defense has seen plenty of road bumps this fall.

LSU has the No. 12 scoring defense among the 14 teams in the SEC, allowing 26.5 points per game. The Tigers also rank No. 91 of 133 teams in total defense with an average of 395 yards allowed per game.

While the defense has improved in recent games, including a strong second half in a win over Missouri before solid showings against Auburn and Army, the progress made could be halted as a result of news at the cornerback position.

LSU returned just one scholarship cornerback from the 2022 roster in Laterrance Welch, and with only one cornerback signee in the 2023 class, the Tigers went heavy on the NCAA Transfer Portal by adding four cornerbacks to the roster.

Now, all four could be unavailable when LSU heads to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 4.

LSU’s transfer cornerback haul hits a wall

The Tigers inked one of the top cornerback hauls from the portal, adding a former five-star in Texas A&M’s Denver Harris, an All-ACC performer in Syracuse’s Duce Chestnut, a former Top 100 prospect who started multiple games at Ohio State in JK Johnson and an FCS All-American in Southeastern’s Zy Alexander.

As things stand now, none of the four are available for LSU’s matchup with Alabama.

Johnson suffered an injury in fall camp that led to season-ending surgery, leaving the Tigers without one of the four transfers when the season opened against Florida State.

Now, Alexander joins him on the injury list after suffering a leg injury following an interception just before halftime in the win over Army.

On Wednesday, LSU head coach Brian Kelly said Alexander remains sidelined, making his status for Alabama uncertain. Alexander leads all LSU cornerbacks with 418 snaps played this season.

“It’s going to cause him to miss time, and we’ll have a better indication of that over the next couple of weeks,” Kelly said.

Chestnut and Alexander played plenty at cornerback in the opening game loss to the Seminoles, and while Alexander went on to start in every game this season, Chestnut seemingly fell out of favor as his snap count went down each week.

After appearing in the first four games, Chestnut has not appeared in the team’s past four games.

Harris was not made available for the opener against FSU, but he started the next three games for the Tigers. Over the past four games, Harris has been in and out of the mix after seeing action in two games, but being held out for the team’s two other wins, including this past weekend’s win over Army.

Kelly said Chestnut and Harris are still on roster, but both appear to be facing an uphill climb to return to the field.

“All I can tell you is they’re on scholarship, they’re enrolled in school, but right now, they are not participating,” Kelly said on Tuesday evening. “They’re still in the program. They’re still in good standing. But they are not able to play right now. Let’s leave it at that. Let’s be patient. We’ll see what happens down the road.”

When asked for further explanation on the status of both, Kelly remained mum on Wednesday, saying both were dealing with internal program issues that he couldn’t discuss in detail.

“They’re not with us now, so I’d prefer to just talk about guys that are with us,” Kelly said.

Who is up next at cornerback for the Tigers?

If all four transfers are available, the Tigers are down to three scholarship cornerbacks, a preferred walk-on and a safety who will move to cornerback to help alleviate depth concerns.

Sage Ryan, a converted safety who started at cornerback against FSU, has been first to the field at cornerback the past four games, and he’s certainly set to be in the starting 11 on defense when LSU faces Alabama. Ryan has logged 334 snaps this season, and he’s the highest-graded pass defender among LSU’s cornerback, per PFF.

The lone other cornerback who has started a game this season is true freshman Ashton Stamps, who signed with the Tigers as a safety. Stamps has been unavailable the past two games as he worked through an injury. Kelly said Stamps would be ready to play against the Tide, but the former Rummel star is still relatively inexperienced with just 57 college snaps under his belt.

Of the cornerbacks beyond Ryan, redshirt freshman Laterrance Welch has logged the most snaps this season (72), though he has yet to get a starting nod across eight games played.

True freshmen Jeremiah Hughes has played 37 snaps in eight games, while another true freshman in Ryan Robinson Jr., a preferred walk-on addition, has seen 16 snaps.

Kelly said the Tigers will also work true freshman Javien Toviano in at cornerback after the former four-star safety saw action at both safety and cornerback this offseason. Toviano has recorded 47 snaps this season at safety.

While Johnson has been sidelined all season, the trio of transfers in Alexander, Harris and Chestnut have combined for 716 snaps in eight games. Now, Kelly and the Tigers have 11 days to find the right formula to make up for the impact made by LSU’s transfer cornerbacks.