Defense Position Breakdown-CBs

[Fishhead]

I'm going to separate CBs and Safeties for the purposes of...I don't know, because it makes me feel better about life.

 

Let's start with the CB position.  Last season it took some solid transfer portal recruiting and a lot of good fortune to assemble a defensive backfield. But it actually worked out pretty well!  Now here we are again and we're right back where we were.  Did some good portal picking and we're waiting for the good fortune part of it.  So far we're off to a rocky start. 

LSU picked up two huge transfer gets in Denver Harris and JK Johnson.  Neither are currently practicing with the team with only a week left in camp.  
JK is out for an extended period of time due to injury (hearing a fracture in his leg) and Denver Harris is being, well, Denver Harris.  

The #1 CB in the country coming out of high school (#2 player overall), Harris couldn't even keep it together to play in his HS team's championship game.  He was suspended for the first game of the season last year at TAMU, yet still somehow managed to play himself into a mid-season All American as a true freshman.  He's that talented.  But then the train went off the tracks and he was suspended the rest of the season there. 

Brian Kelly decided to take a chance on the young man, but laid out rules for Denver to follow, and evidently he can't do it.  The chief issue I'm hearing is he's a horrible teammate.  He would prefer to stand over a teammate after making a play on him and talk shlt rather than help him up.  Then there's "The Fight".   Yes, there's ALWAYS fights at practice/camp.  It's a hundred and ninety seven degrees and the humidity matches it.  There's going to be tempers flaring.  But this particular fight went beyond a normal practice fight among teammates, and worse, it left the practice field with several star players (including Harris) and continued in the locker room.  I swear, I'd rather he just roll one up and burn one like he did at TAMU than fight with Harold Perkins, Kyren Lacy, and Malik Nabers.  That's all we need is Perkins breaking a hand on Harris' face or Malik spraining an ankle upside his head.  

So where does that leave us?  Harris is "tending to personal issues",  JK is on the mend, and we have a problem at CB.  Yes, DBU has a problem at CB.

Zy Alexander- Zy transfers in from Southeastern Louisiana University up there in Hammond and looks to have locked down a starting role right away.  He comes in after starting 3 years at SELU and garnering All-American honors at the FCS level, but now it's the big leagues.  So far in spring and fall camp, nobody has been able to supplant him.  He's going to start for LSU when we suit up against FSU in a couple weeks.  At the FCS level, he had a propensity to house it when he picked a ball off, so let's hope that translates to this level.  

Duce Chestnut- Another transfer, coming in from Syracuse.  Duce has loads of experience at D-1 and in a power 5 conference, and has a history of intercepting the ball from the first QB we face this season, Jordan Travis of FSU.  Duce was a freshman AA in '21 and honorable mention All ACC last season as a sophomore.  Syracuse sported the nation's #14 pass defense and he was a big part of that.  He housed a pick last year as well.  

That's your starting CBs.  My concerns with them lie in the huge step up in competition, especially for Zy, and the fact both are somewhat undersized, especially Duce.  Duce isn't "small", but he's not even listed at 6' tall, which means he's probably well below 6' tall.  LSUSports.net lists him at 5'11".  I'd like to stand next to him to check that, but he's over 200 lbs.  That means he won't likely get pushed around, but damn...he's a CB?
Zy is tall enough at 6'2", but light.  Hopefully he's been able to add some bulk and LSU has him listed at 188, so maybe he has. 

Let's look at the rest of the unit...

Laterrance Welch- I don't follow recruiting like I used to because I value my sanity.  But I did follow this kid's recruitment, primarily because I knew we HAD to land him.  We needed CBs and he's an in-state guy who popped on film.  
He's in his 2nd year at LSU now and after the spring game, I truly expected he would nail down one of the starter spots with the departure of Garner and Bernard-Converse after 2022.  But here we are a couple weeks from the opener and it hasn't happened.  Last season he played in all 13 games, but almost 100% of that playing time was on special teams.
Not giving up on him and very glad we have him for depth.  But I hope to see him continue his development, because he has the size and has shown flashes of ability.  Just has to put it all together. 

Ashton Stamps-It's not often a true freshman comes in a makes a splash, especially when that true freshman wasn't highly regarded in the recruiting cycle.  But here is an example.  I think Louisiana prospects are often underrated by the recruiting services, but I'm not sure how it happened here with Stamps.  He played at Rummel High School in my hometown of Metairie, LA and was a 5A All-State performer.  He did come in undersized though, so maybe that was the issue.  Not to worry though.  My man has added about 20 lbs since arriving at LSU and has a helluva chip on his shoulder with something to prove!  
I have directly asked a person who has attended every practice during the media portion, "who is THE true freshman most likely to contribute early?",  and the answer was a quick "Oh, Stamps by far".  They weren't talking about just on special teams either.  But with that said, Stamps blocked 3 FGs his senior year of HS, so I wouldn't doubt him playing a part there as well. 

I have seen videos of him from the spring practicing against/with a certain former LSU Tiger receiver named....
Justin Jefferson!  The top receiver in the NFL at the moment!  And Ashton was holding his own with Jets!  

But the thing that sold me on this guy enough to make me pull the trigger on him as my official mancrush here on GDT...
He plays piano and drums in his spare time!  This is my dude...don't be crushing on him!

I have discussed 6 CBs in this segment.  It's not that we only have 6 on the roster, but believe me, if we get beyond these 6, we're in SERIOUS trouble.  I didn't mention the others because there is zero expectation of other CBs on the roster playing at all.  MAYBE on special teams, but highly unlikely.  

The saving grace...which may be a hindrance to Denver Harris.  
Harris is not currently with the team because he can't get his head on straight.  But even when he WAS with the team, not only was he not running with the ones, he wasn't even always running with the TWOs.  Clearly the most physically gifted of the group, but he's a man to man CB, and we're running a ton of zone this season.  This is by design I'm sure due to the lack of proven quality depth.  
And that's the saving grace.  Zone.  The CBs we have don't have to be on an island.  There will be safety help, and even linebacker help (a guy like Omar Speights who is EXCELLENT in coverage).  Not my favorite kind of defense, but a necessity this season.  

It's all good though, we just start the season against a Heisman candidate QB and likely the best overall receiving room in the country lol.  
Better hope that DL can get pressure on the QB or we could be in a shootout against FSU week one.  

Safeties next

 

[Herb]

Harold Perkins might be covering receivers on the edge.  Lol.

[Fishhead]

3 minutes ago, Herb said:

Harold Perkins might be covering receivers on the edge.  Lol.

Seriously, Speights is known for it.  He's a well rounded dude