Garrett Dellinger injury update: LSU lineman's status still in flux vs. Vanderbilt

While he’s closer to playing than he has been in nearly a month, LSU offensive lineman Garrett Dellinger still might not be quite ready to roll against Vanderbilt this weekend. On Thursday, head coach Brian Kelly said he’s likely a game time decision.

Kelly offered that tidbit a day after saying he and other coaches would want to see how Dellinger looked in practice before making a decision on his status. And with the second-to-last injury report now out prior to LSU’s matchup with Vanderbilt, Dellinger’s status still isn’t ironed out.

See the full injury reports below.

Full LSU-Vanderbilt Friday injury reports

LSU:

• S Jordan Allen – Out
• LB Harold Perkins Jr. – Out
• CB JK Johnson – Out
• WR Kyle Parker – Out
• RB John Emery Jr. – Out
• DE Princeton Malbrue – Out
• DT Jacobian Guillory – Out
• OL Miles Frazier – Questionable
• OL Garrett Dellinger – Questionable
• DT Jalen Lee – Questionable
• WR CJ Daniels – Probable
• RB Caden Durham – Probable

Vanderbilt:

• WR Dariyan Wiley – Out
• DL Zaylin Wood – Out
• CB Mark Davis – Out
• EDGE Boubacar Diakite – Out
• OL Grayson Morgan – Out
• DL Bradley Mann – Out

Things have gotten a bit sideways of late for LSU as the Tigers have lost a handful of games in the second half of the season. But Kelly isn’t running from trying to fix it, or seeking feedback from his players.

The head coach wants feedback from the players to figure out what has gone wrong this year. After all, the players make up a key cog of the program.

Questions are certainly being asked from the outside. But Kelly is asking them internally as well, hoping to find a solution.

“There’s nobody in this building that’s happy about where we are and what the outcomes are,” Kelly said on Monday. “Essentially, what you’re doing more than anything else is getting the autonomy or the feedback from your players. Because they are stakeholders in this as well. You want to hear what they have to say. ‘What are the things that we need to stop doing? What are the things that we need to start doing? What are the things we need to do more of?’ So, we’re always asking those things from our players and getting that kind of feedback.”

A players-only meeting was held following the Florida loss. Will Campbell was open about the topic during his recent media availability. While no captains have been named for the 2024 season, Campbell is a three-year player inside the program and is certainly a voice Kelly would listen to.

“What the players-only meeting was about, this was shared to me through our leadership council, was that we got to play better,” Kelly said Wednesday during the SEC Coaches Teleconference. “We got to stop talking about ‘We should have had this.’ We got to play better and stop making excuses.

“Feedback was, collectively from everybody, was that we need to play better and stop making excuses. Go out and play and perform and execute.”