Despite win, LSU has a few issues to clean up in 2019

The LSU Tigers proved a couple of things this past New Year’s Day when they disposed of the previously unbeaten University of Central Florida Knights 40-32 in the Play Station Fiesta Bowl.
First, they proved that they can overcome adversity. LSU was without a slew of starting defensive players due to injuries, suspensions and players skipping out for the NFL Draft. Even though the Tigers were down to only six defensive backs the entire second half and had key players in the front seven missing, LSU still limited the usually high flying UCF offense to 250 total yards.
Secondly, LSU proved all prognosticators wrong by winning 10 games on the year (the first time since 2013), and finishing in the top 10 of the college football polls. At the start of the season, most college football “experts” had the Tigers at six or seven wins tops.
A 10 win season is impressive with any program around the country. But, don’t get it twisted, there were a lot of bumps along the road for LSU. Not scoring against Alabama and the seven overtime heartbreaking loss to Texas A&M come to mind.
However, the biggest bumps during the course of the year came in the form of the number of suspensions that cropped up. Beginning with Ed Ingram, the Tigers had to part ways with a few other players and were forced to suspend players from games.
Now, it is not unusual for programs throughout the country to have to get rid of athletes that cannot follow the rules or who have killed their eligibility with self-inflicted wounds. But, it seems that in the past few seasons, LSU has had more than their fair share of departures.
Suspensions are a two-edged sword for head coaches. On the one hand, as the person in charge of the overall atmosphere of the program, head coaches are looked at with a ton of scrutiny when the optics of said program become fogged with unfavorable situations.
But, at the same time, it is difficult to be responsible for the actions of 18-22 year old young men who have a mind and conscious of their own. Like a parent, head coaches preach their sermons to these young men and hope that when they leave the nest, they would adhere to good judgement.
How is that problem solved? It is a hard to come to an easy solution. LSU head coach Ed Orgeron and his staff will need to evaluate possible solutions and try and come up with the best answer available.
Besides the off field issues the Tigers struggled with this season, there were some on field issues that must been seen about in the next seven months leading up to the 2019 season. One of the most important issues is the replacement of a number of key players that will be lost to graduation and the calling of the NFL.
Personnel wise, LSU does not loose a whole lot on the offensive side of the ball. Yes, the departure of Nick Brossette will definitely hurt the ground game, but the Tigers still have a plethora of talent in the stable at the running back position.
Getting quarterback Joe Burrow back will be a big plus. Burrow showed his moxie in the Fiesta Bowl after getting drilled on an interception return by UCF. The now senior transfer threw for 394 yards and four touchdowns, with most of that coming after the hit.
Up front will be a concern for the Tigers. LSU’s offensive line did not have a great year and went through a number of line-up changes this season. That has and will need to be addressed in the signing process.
As far as receivers are concerned, the Tigers have a corps of talented hands coming back. The LSU wide outs improved a lot this year and look to continue that improvement.
Defensively, the Tigers will take a big hit. Devin White’s leadership and play will be sorely missed if he goes to the NFL, as will the play of Greedy Williams. Never-the-less, LSU has some truly talented players returning on that side of the ball and the Fiesta Bowl showed that.
Players like Patrick Queen and Jacob Phillips, along with Rashad Lawrence came to play on Tuesday and proved that the Tiger defense will still have some get up and go in 2019.