LSU must 'soften the blow' against Florida State receivers

Plenty of college football fans are eagerly waiting for the start of the 2023 season, as is On3’s J.D. PicKell. But before the start of the year, the college football expert has taken some time to break down some of the key matchups in the early part of the season. Recently, on an episode of The Hard Count, PicKell went over the blockbuster matchup between LSU and Florida State in Week 1.

The Tigers are looking to get revenge over the Seminoles for their narrow loss to them in last year’s week 1 matchup. But for LSU to exact revenge, they need to be leery of and plan accordingly for Florida State’s monstrous pass catchers.

“We’ve prefaced it a little bit as a point of concern, point of curiosity rather, for our good friends in Baton Rouge, the pass catchers of Florida State against these new pieces in the secondary for LSU,” said PicKell. “LSU went and got themselves four cornerbacks through the transfer portal. All guys that I believe can play, all guys that I have high expectations for. Florida State, now, the size of those pass-catchers has been a matchup talking point for teams heading into this year. Because you got some size with Keon Coleman, a guy through the portal, Kyle Morlock, also a guy through the portal — six-foot-seven, Jaheim Bell six-foot-three transfer from South Carolina [and] not even to mention Johnny Wilson, six-foot-seven freak show on the outside for you at receiver.”

Florida State picked up a handful of pass catchers over the past few seasons with an unteachable advantage — height. The Seminoles added Coleman, a six-foot-four wideout from Michigan State, Morlock from Shorter College, and Bell from South Carolina to complement Wilson, who they picked up from Arizona State last off-season.

The task of slowing down the Seminoles’ pass catchers falls on the shoulders of their re-tooled defensive back room. As PicKell explained, their goal is to put the game in the hands of LSU’s star-studded front seven.

“So if LSU isn’t able to at least soften the blow of what that unit is going to be able to do, that could be a problem for them. To put it simply, Florida State’s opportunity there is we want to put the ball on the top shelf and let our guys go eat. If LSU doesn’t do something schematically to have another over the top or to match up well and get to the quarterback, like, if they don’t do something to stop the size of this Florida State pass catchers, tight ends included, like that could be the edge for Florida State.

“But LSU, if they can do enough schematically and turn it back to the run game and force Florida State to get their yards that way, LSU likes Harold Perkins making tackles, Maason Smith making tackles and controlling the line of scrimmage. That’s the world LSU wants to win in. It doesn’t matter; you can’t have those guys make plays for you if Jordan Travis is taking a three-step and put the ball up to Keon Coleman. And if that’s a successful play, that’s where you start to get a little bit more uncertain if you’re a LSU fan.”

LSU’s defensive backs will have a tall task, stopping or at least slowing down Florida State’s threats on the outside. But if the Tigers defenders can slow them down just enough, they could give Perkins and Mason enough time to terrorize Travis in the pocket and make him think twice when looking for targets downfield.