Imbalances are simply part of football and LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly knows this very well. And he knows that if you are not prepared to explain a disagreement, you can be quickly exposed.
That’s especially true for players in the SEC, where the individual talent is not only arguably the best, but also the most extensive. So as the season approaches and Kelly considers the contingencies, he won’t simply practice as usual in the likely event that LSU brings in some new or young talent – especially on offense – that might struggle.
“If there’s a first-year tackle out there going up against an All-SEC player, we’ve got to help him,” Kelly said Saturday. “We’ve got to be able to do something. We can’t just call plays like it doesn’t exist. It does exist. If we get into a potential situation where we might have trouble blocking a certain player, we’ve got to have answers for that. If we get into a situation where we’re having trouble putting protections in place, we’ve got to be able to look at that from the sideline and maybe call it from the sideline. So it’s practice all the time and it’s not just one-sided.”
Kelly specifically talked about bringing some young offensive linemen into the lineup for a practice game and seeing how they fare against the starting defensive linemen.
Of course there were some shortcomings.
“And today we had problems in certain aspects of the offense because we had some young players out there,” Kelly said. “They had Weston Davis voted against Brady SwinsonThere will be a discrepancy. You will Paul Mubenga inside against Jacobian Guillorythere will be some problems. But it is also about how you build the depth of your football team. You need those sandpaper moments, if you will, for the offense when they find themselves and build the depth. We know about Emery (Jones). We know what he can do. We wanted to see Delly (Garrett Dellinger) It gives us more depth and versatility at the center position.”
And while these obstacles may look dire from the outside, Kelly believes testing younger players now will pay off in the long run.
“And look, like I told our football team, it’s also a great experience as a coach, for our staff and my staff on offense. If we ever get into those situations, you have to play a game knowing that there might be a mismatch. And then you have to adjust accordingly,” Kelly said.
