Mike Norvell discusses the impact of LSU not having Maason Smith for season opener

Star LSU defensive lineman Maason Smith is going to be forced to miss the Tigers’ game against Florida State due to a suspension from the NCAA. That’s a loss that could have a big impact on the game, as Seminoles’ head coach Mike Norvell knows all too well.

Ahead of the game, Norvell praised Smith but did admit that LSU still has a very deep defensive line unit even without him.

“It’s one of the better defensive lines in the country,” Mike Norvell said. “And, obviously, it truly is unfortunate for that young man to miss this game. I mean, he’s a special player. In our game last year, I think it was the sixth, seventh play of the game when he got hurt.”

The NCAA suspended Maason Smith for taking place in an autograph signing shortly before NIL was within the rules. This led to a ton of backlash against the NCAA, with JD PicKell saying the decision lacked common sense and Andy Staples blasting the NCAA.

LSU reportedly looked into a Week 0 game so Smith could serve his suspension then and Brian Kelly admitted Smith would have been questionable even without the suspension.

“He’s one of those guys that, for everything I’ve ever known of him, I mean, he’s a guy that you want to root for and how he does things. It’s just unfortunate that he’s not gonna be able to be a part of this game, but it does make an impact because he is very, very impactful,” Mike Norvell said.

“When you look at their defensive line, I mean, this is a deep group. This is one that’s very talented. They know how to impact the quarterback and they’ve done a wonderful job throughout the years and even some of the other newcomers that have joined the program. Got a chance to see from their previous institution, this is going to be a deep group that definitely has talent.”

Paul Finebaum calls for the NCAA to show compassion in the Maason Smith case

Following the NCAA’s decision to suspend Maason Smith, analyst Paul Finebaum called for the NCAA to show compassion while noting that the NCAA has gone against its own rules before.

“When I started thinking about it a month before NIL, just show some compassion. Having seen Charlie Baker speak earlier this year in Washington DC and listening to him blame everything on the NCAA while he was the NCAA president, I walked out of there going, ‘This guy is a change agent. He’s going to do things differently.’ Two months later, I haven’t seen one thing different from the NCAA other than a bunch of hot air,” Finebaum said.

“I know it may be against the NCAA rules, but they went against their own rules at Penn State. This is where I’d like to see some leadership from Charlie Baker or someone up there saying, ‘You know what? Let’s mitigate this problem. We have a situation going on at North Carolina. We have the situation here. Let’s try to help the player.’ Instead, they continue to make it more difficult. We’re not talking about some crazy scheme here to funnel millions of dollars. We’re talking about a 30-day window where if somebody had done it, it would’ve been legal.”