Report: LSU looked into Week Zero game to avoid Maason Smith suspension vs. Florida State

LSU will be without star defensive tackle Maason Smith for its top-10 season opening showdown against Florida State, but not for lack of effort on the part of the Tigers.

Smith was suspended for one game by the NCAA over impermissible benefits stemming from a summer 2021 autograph signing.

The program filed an appeal of the one-game suspension with the NCAA but was denied, with the NCAA noting that there would not be a grandfather clause extended to Smith.

Not only that, but LSU also attempted to look into scheduling a Week Zero game so that Smith could serve his one-game suspension then, rather than against Florida State, according to a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. They simply couldn’t make the logistics work in time.

“We looked at all the options out there, certainly, and wanted to make sure that we examined everything that was possible,” coach Brian Kelly told Yahoo! Sports. “We looked at everything. We looked at a Week Zero game to bring in another opponent prior to Florida State. We looked at every imaginable option, but time ran out.”

Smith was suspended after participating in an autograph session with LSU receiver Kayshon Boutte in the summer of 2021, some weeks before NIL regulation took effect and doing so would no longer have been an infraction.

Thus the NCAA deemed it an impermissible benefit, and Smith was suspended for a game.

Because Smith suffered a season-ending injury last season, injured in the opener against Florida State, he was not able to serve the suspension when the ruling came down from the NCAA. Instead, the Maason Smith suspension will be served in this year’s season opener, on Sept. 3.

Smith had been limited anyway by a sprained ankle in fall camp, so it’s unclear how much he would have been able to play against the Seminoles.

“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.”

Smith emerged as a star for LSU during the 2021 season, when he was named an FWAA Freshman All-American and a Freshman All-SEC selection.

He earned those honors after racking up 19 tackles, 5.0 tackles for a loss and 4.0 sacks.

The good news for LSU is the Maason Smith suspension will only last one game and he’ll be back for a game against Grambling State on Sept. 9.