LSU football: 5 questions Coach O’s LSU Tigers must answer in 2020
These LSU football questions loom large for the defending champs.
LSU football reached the mountaintop a season ago behind one of the greatest seasons college football has ever seen. Quarterback Joe Burrow broke one record after another en route to winning the Heisman Trophy and submitting a perfect 15-0 season that resulted in a National Championship. But the encore performance for head coach Ed Orgeron will now be fascinating in 2020.
There were 14 players drafted from last year’s championship-winning squad and several others went undrafted. That leaves some big holes for the Tigers to fill as they look to assert themselves atop the SEC West and the college football world at large once again. And with that comes several major questions that Orgeron and his staff, who is now without mastermind Joe Brady after he also left for the NFL, must find answers to.
Can LSU football replace Joe Burrow and the 14 other NFL Draft picks from the national championship team? It’s the biggest question in college football, but we’ve got four more for Coach O’s LSU Tigers.
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5. How will the Tigers replace Edwards-Helaire in the backfield?
Because of how phenomenal Burrow was under center, it feels as if LSU’s starting running back last season, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, didn’t get all of the love he truly deserved for his performance. Sure, he eventually got his due as he was the first running back taken in the 2020 NFL Draft (No. 32 overall to the Chiefs) but his impact on the high-octane offense went overshadowed.
Edwards-Helaire rushed for 1,414 yards on 215 carries last season with 16 touchdowns to his credit. He was also a hefty contributor as a pass-catcher, notching 55 receptions — third on the team — for 453 yards and another score. Now that Edwards-Helaire is in Kansas City, however, the Tigers must find a way to replace his elite production.
In truth, it might be more of a committee in the backfield than what we saw in the 2019 season from LSU. At the head of that group may be Chris Curry, who made a little noise with a big game in the College Football Playoff semifinal win over Oklahoma. Then again, Tyrion Davis-Price was the second-leading running back in rushing yards last season with 295 yards.
The committee in the backfield will likely trickle down to Curry and Davis-Price each filling a certain role. The latter is more of a power back while Curry has a little more shiftiness and juice. What will be interesting, though, is if the sum of their parts can equal what Edwards-Helaire gave the offense a season ago.