Brian Kelly explains why LSU does not post a depth chart

As fall camp wears on and teams continue to host scrimmages, the depth charts take shape and fans begin to get a better idea of what their team will be working with this fall.

Of course, not every school puts out explicit depth charts. Some leave it until the last second, intentionally.

“We’ve purposely not put out one, like if you went into our locker room we don’t have a depth chart,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “My experience is once you put up a depth chart, you can go one of two ways. You can become really selfish or really upset. I just kind of stay away from them and we just kind of let them go out and compete every day.”

Indeed, the mental considerations that come into play once you release a depth chart are something coaches constantly grapple with.

A player who is named the starter might start to take his foot off the gas a little bit, feeling comfortable in his positioning on the roster. Likewise, a player who finds himself further down the depth chart can become disgruntled. And in the era of the transfer portal, that can spell trouble.

Still, while Kelly didn’t have an explicit answer to a question about the team’s depth chart at running back, he did provide a general outline.

“It’s going to take care of itself when we get to the season,” Kelly said. “I just think that the running back room itself, we know you can’t play eight guys. I just think that experience versus inexperience is going to win out in that room. That’ll take care of itself.”

Maason Smith dealing with ankle sprain

While Kelly didn’t provide much info on his team’s depth chart, one player you can definitely expect to be a starter if he’s healthy is defensive tackle Maason Smith.

Unfortunately Smith has been limited in fall camp by an ankle sprain.

“He’s been banged up a little bit,” Kelly said. “Nothing that, you know, I don’t think we’re overly concerned with, there’s no structural damage to any joints or things of that nature. But look, he’s been out for a year. Everything hurts a little bit more after coming back into it.

“We’ve got to be careful with him. But, again, I think (head athletic trainer) Owen Stanley and Maason have a really good relationship in terms of what can I do and what I can’t do. He had an ankle sprain, nothing that we were really too concerned with. But we’re concerned with everything when you have a player of his caliber. So we’re going to be careful with him.”

LSU’s depth chart will likely be released sometime before a Week 1 game against Florida State. That game will be played on Sept. 3.