Florida State has opportunity to 'slice up' LSU secondary

LSU will have its hands full in trying to defend the Florida State passing game. The Seminoles are set to face the Tigers in a top 10 matchup on Sunday evening that is more anticipated than any in Week 1, and they’ll have no shortage of weapons at their disposal.

Not only does FSU return last year’s leading receiver Johnny Wilson, but they also brought in a pair of top 50 transfers in wideout Keon Coleman and tight end Jaheim Bell. On top of it all, they have a Heisman candidate in quarterback Jordan Travis as the one delivering the passes.

On the opposite side, LSU went deep in the transfer portal to restock its cornerbacks, bringing in four players at the position. On3‘s Andy Staples and J.D. PicKell discussed how that puts the Tigers at a major matchup disadvantage against the Seminoles.

“I think The Bengal Tiger message board is gonna get the most traffic because win or lose, I bet Florida State is going to slice up LSU’s secondary,” Staples said. “Florida State is insanely talented at receiver when you add Keon Coleman to Johnny Wilson, when you bring in Jaheim Bell and can do all the things he can do and you have Jordan Travis throwing the ball. He is very calm, collected, has kind of seen everything you can see in college football and just a smooth operator in the pocket.

“This is LSU’s probably least talented secondary in a long time. They’re playing transfers. They’re playing freshmen. This is a position group that for decades was loaded. When they fired Ed Orgeron and Brian Kelly came in …for whatever reason, the secondary was not stocked in that way. They had to go out and get transfers and they had to get more transfers this year. So that’s one where I think Florida State can take advantage of it and I think they can score a bunch of points.”

Wilson finished this past season with 43 catches for 897 yards (20.9 yards per reception) and five touchdowns. Meanwhile, Coleman led Michigan State with 58 catches for 798 yards and seven scores. Then there’s Bell, a 6-foot-3, 232-pound player who spent time at both tight end and running back last year at South Carolina.

LSU is expected to start Syracuse transfer Duce Chestnut and Zy Alexander, who played last season at Southeastern Louisiana, at cornerback. Although both should improve as the season goes on, they face an extremely tough draw in their first game with the Tigers.

“It’s gonna be a little baptism by fire here for the two transfer corners for LSU, both Zy Alexander and Duce Chestnut,” PicKell said. “It’s not like they’re transferring from SEC schools. We’ve got one guy from the FCS and one guy coming from Syracuse. So it’s gonna be a little bit of a ‘So this is what we’re doing here?’

“I think for that game, it doesn’t have to be limiting Keon Coleman to under 50 yards. I think they’re probably gonna get theirs. But if I’m an LSU fan, I’m like ‘Don’t look at the stat sheet.’ Look at the timely plays they make. Like if you get a breakup on third-and-3 and hold them to three instead of seven, great. It kind of reminds me last year of what LSU had on the offensive line. It was pretty much musical chairs, pick a name out of a hat and you’re starting this week on offensive line for LSU. In this game last year, LSU’s offensive line was pretty subpar. I think they allowed like four sacks. But we saw they improved a lot going forward.”

LSU does return some veterans at safety in Greg Brooks Jr. and Major Burns. But even so, the Tigers will be hard-pressed to slow down the Seminoles, and will likely have to put up their fair share of points if they hope to win. They’re currently 2.5-point favorites in a game where the over/under is set at 56.5.

Kickoff between LSU and Florida State is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in Orlando.