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Report: Maason Smith suspended for LSU-Florida State

On3 imageby:Billy Embody•08/23/23•

BillyEmbody

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LSU star defensive tackle Maason Smith is suspended for the season opener against Florida State, The Advocate’s Wilson Alexander reported on Wednesday. It’s a one-game NCAA suspension for receiving an improper benefit.

According to Alexander’s report, the NCAA determined Smith received an improper benefit. Smith cooperated with an investigation, the Advocate reported, but the NCAA ruled him out for the first game. He can return Week 2 for the home opener against Grambling.

The On3 preseason All-SEC selection is coming off a knee injury last season that he sustained against FSU in Week 1. He’s been banged up in fall camp, but was going to be ready to play after dealing with a sprained ankle.

“He’s been banged up a little bit,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said last week. “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.”

He logged 19 tackles, 5.0 tackles for a loss and 4.0 sacks as a freshman. The hope was that he would continue to emerge in 2022, but the injury prevented that.

“We’ve got to be careful with him,” Kelly said. “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.”

LSU will open its season on Sept. 3 against Florida State in a nationally televised contest.

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