LSU ranked preseason No. 15 by Greg McElroy with 'very, very high' ceiling

LSU completed its second 10-win season under head coach Brian Kelly in 2023, leading to ESPN anaylst Greg McElroy to slot the Tigers at No. 15 in his preseason top 25 list ahead fo the 2024 college footbal lseason.

While the Tigers have enjoyed overall success under Kelly, LSU will look a bit different this season personnel wise. Garrett Nussmeier will take over as starting quarterback while losing their two 1,000-yard receivers to the NFL. However, McElroy doesn’t expect much of a drop-off despite LSU losing its top talents.

“Now, this is probably a little bit low and if I’m going on ceiling — and I’m going on ceiling. LSU’s ceiling is very, very high,” McElroy said. “If Garrett Nussmeier can adequately replace the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in Jayden Daniels, they should be in really good shape. I believe in their offensive coordinator and Joe Sloan. I think he’s going to be excellent. He’s the new playcaller, I think they’re going to be awesome on the offensive side.

“The fact that Nussmeier went out in his first career start against the defense in Wisconsin, who albeit is not the Wisconsin defense led by JJ Watt of old. It wasn’t the defense that we’ve seen at times from Wisconsin but you throw for nearly 400 and you have a 98 yard game winning drive in the waning moments. I think that’s a pretty good starting point.”

In the end, Nussmeier completed 31 of his 45 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns while only throwing one interception. The Tigers trailed Wisconsin by two scores early in the matchup, but behind Nussmeier’s lead, LSU overcame the deficit and outscored the Badgers 35-17. It was LSU’s 10th win of the season, who ended its season with a 35-31 victory.

“On defense, that’s their issue,” McElroy continued. “They fired Matt House and pretty much all of his assistants. They gave up 417 yards per game last year and 28 points per game. It’s just not good enough. It’s LSU for crying out loud.

“[Defensive coordinator] Blake Baker comes in. He was at Missouri and is now leading the LSU defense. He’s excellent. Very aggressive and allows his guys to fly around and allows guys to play with great passion and energy, I think they’re going to be in a really good spot.”

Offenses won’t be able to take their eyes off of Harold Perkins in the front seven. He moved from the EDGE to an off ball linebacker role, which ultimately saw his slightly numbers declide from the year prior. McElroy expects Baker’s defense to better accommodate the standout pass rusher in 2024.

Greg Penn III joins Perkins in the middle as one of the nation’s top returning inside linebackers. The biggest question, for McElroy at least, is whether or not the Tigers can remain healthy on the defensive line. There’s not enough depth for LSU to compensate more than a couple of injuries this season along the front, specifically at defensive tackle.

“So if LSU can improve just a little bit on the defensive side,” McElroy said. “They could be poised to cause a lot of problems for a lot of teams here in 2024.”