What I'm watching for in LSU's first spring media availability

LSU began its spring football season on Tuesday morning and held practice No. 2 on Thursday morning, but this time it will be open to the media for the first 20 minutes. This has been customary for LSU over the years, allowing people to get excited from the nuggets of information they get from these early practices.

Later on in the month the media will be able to view full practices and a spring game, to give us a more complete picture of what LSU has on its roster in 2024, but for now, we’ll have to make the most of the 20 minutes we have in person on Thursday. With that in mind, here’s a look at five things we’ll be looking forward to seeing on Thursday morning in that first media window.

1. Availability

We know Zy Alexander is sidelined for spring ball, but how many other players will be held out as well? Spring is usually a time for veterans to get anything they need rested and cleaned up before summer workouts. Veterans like Josh Williams, Garrett Dellinger, Miles Frazier, among others on offense should have a relatively light workload, but we’ll see how they look when we get out there tomorrow.

JK Johnson is back and practicing, so this will be our first look at him since he was injured at the start of fall camp in 2023. Ashton Stamps talked about how he played injured last season, so getting him back to 100 percent is important. Matthew Langlois is a name people have wondered about as well.

Transfer defensive backs Jyaire Brown and Jardin Gilbert missed most of last year with injuries, but will be key pieces to the defense in 2024 as it looks to rebuild the secondary under the new staff. The expectation is for both to be good to go this spring.

2. Energy

LSU’s new defensive coordinator Blake Baker has been heralded for his intensity and his ability to bring the energy every day for his defense. As the linebackers coach, he’s comfortable getting in player’s faces and showing them how everything is done. 

LSU media has seen Baker and secondary coach Corey Raymond in practices, but it will be our first time seeing defensive line coach Bo Davis, edge rushers coach Kevin Peoples, and safeties coach Jake Olsen in person.

Even beyond the coaches, which players are going to step up into leadership roles on both sides and bring the juice for spring ball?

3. Which LSU freshmen look the part?

Every year there are the freshmen who stand out without even seeing them in game situations. Maason Smith, Quency Wiggins, Kaleb Jackson, Harold Perkins, Will Campbell, Javien Toviano, just to name a few we saw on day one and agreed they had the tools to be great. Who will that be this year?

A lot of the top ranked prospects do not arrive until the summer months, but I think guys like Gabriel Reliford, Dashawn McBryde, and maybe Ahmad Breaux could stand out early on. Those are just some guesses, but we’ll see how the spring turns out and which freshmen end up proving themselves.

4. How does Hankton approach LSU’s wide receiver room?

This is something I think we’ll be able to get a good feel for even if we only have 20 minutes. Wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton has three key returners in Kyren Lacy, Aaron Anderson, and Chris Hilton. He has three unproven returners in Kyle Parker, Shelton Sampson, and Landon Ibiette, then he has two transfer additions in CJ Daniels and Zavion Thomas. None of his high school signees arrive until the summer.

LSU lost a vast majority of its receiving production last year, so even though there are players we assume are set to replace them, there’s nothing in stone at the moment. More than anything, I want to see how Hankton divides the snaps, drillwork, and opportunities for his room this spring. 

5. The depth

This is the first year I’m entering spring comfortable with LSU’s depth under Brian Kelly. The first two years felt patched together with players from the last regime or guys looking to transfer once they got beat out. This year feels like the first spring camp where we should be able to feel the fact Brian Kelly has now had three recruiting cycles under his belt and the overall depth of talent, development, and alignment should be elite.

There was a lot of talk from Kelly about the jump from year one to year two in terms of practices and understanding of what it’s like to work at LSU. Now, in year three, the depth will show, not only in terms of player quality, but overall buy-in and experience is going to play a huge factor in building LSU into a well-oiled machine.

Sure, the new coaches will have to work out the moving parts, but the overall cohesion is something I’m interested in seeing in person on Thursday.