Has LSU football earned the benefit of the doubt if they have a down year?
LSU football won it all in 2019 but isn’t expected to repeat as champions in 2020.
This is what happens when a college football team wins a national title. Many top players graduate or opt to go pro a year or two early. Some of the best coaches and coordinators on the staff are picked for better higher-paying jobs than the ones that got them this opportunity. For that reason, should we consider giving the LSU Tigers a pass in 2020?
Heading into a season, we’re not entirely sure if we’ll have or not, LSU feels like somewhere between the second to the fourth-best team in its own division. The Bayou Bengals will likely be looking up at the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC West. How they fare against the Auburn Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies will decide where they finish in the division.
LSU tied a record with 14 NFL Draft picks in the 2020 draft.
Overall, LSU is one of about 20 teams in the Power 5, including the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, that can reach the College Football Playoff. There are six teams in the SEC who can do it: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, the Florida Gators, the Georgia Bulldogs and that’s it. Sorry, Tennessee Volunteers fans. Your day in the sun will be coming here shortly, but not in 2020, unfortunately.
As for if LSU can win the national championship for the second year in a row, maybe one can argue they are in a group of 12 teams that can possibly do it. However, the Bayou Bengals are definitely in the bottom-third of that dirty dozen. It could happen, but they’re about as likely as the Golden Domers to pull it off. Winning two playoff games is difficult, no matter how talented you are.
When you lose the greatest player in program history in 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow to the Cincinnati Bengals, it doesn’t matter how good Myles Brennan could be, he’s not filling those shoes right away in 2020. Add in the other 13 LSU players who were drafted, including five others who went in the first round like Burrow, and you’ve got some holes to fill if you’re LSU.
And it’s not just the players. LSU lost a pair of incredibly important coaches to their success from a season ago. Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda now leads the Baylor Bears after Matt Rhule left Waco for the NFL‘s Carolina Panthers. Following Rhule to Charlotte was Joe Brady, the famous passing game coordinator for LSU. He will now be Rhule’s offensive coordinator in Carolina.
While head coach Ed Orgeron is so excited about the two guys replacing Aranda and Brady in Bo Pelini and Scott Linehan, there will be an adjustment period for those two excellent coaches. Both have been head coaches and coordinators before and maybe overqualified for their respective roles this year. However, they have to assimilate to the culture Coach O has built in Baton Rouge.
So what are our expectations for LSU this season, assuming we have one? The Bayou Bengals should vie for a New Year’s Six bowl and have at least six SEC wins in an eight-game slate. They need to finish in the AP Top 25 and they need to upset someone, whether that’s Alabama, Florida or someone else. If LSU wants to stay a top-10 program, they need to play like one in 2020.
Though they’ll get a pass on not winning it all, LSU doesn’t get a pass on major regression this fall.
For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.