From DISASTER to DOMINANT? LSU’s O-Line Turnaround Explained

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A weakness becoming a strength. Lane Kiffin thinks so. We'll talk about it. Locked on LSU Here we go. You are Locked on lsu, your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers, part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. Okay, let's get it. It is Locked on lsu, your team every day. I'm your host, Matt Moscone. Thanks so much for making us your first listen. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet Wins, head to FanDuel.com to get started. We have been taking the past few days sort of unpacking, digesting, recapping spring football because my goodness, there's a lot to unpack. Elaine Kiffin inherited a situation that we all know from Brian Kelly after four seasons, needed a little bit of an overhaul. More than 60 roster spots have turned over and there were 15 spring practices with mixed results on both sides of the ball. A lot of good and some questions. Now, one of the biggest questions from a year ago, and in my opinion, the single biggest question as far as a position group goes, is is the offensive line. This probably shouldn't surprise you. Okay, two years ago, we know LSU's offensive line had four guys that all got drafted. They were great pass protectors. They struggled to run block. This past year, they were basically making over that offensive line with a bunch of highly regarded guys that they recruited, developed, and it was just a disaster. One of the worst in the entire country on the offensive line. And of that unit in 2025, the weakest link was Weston Davis. Now, I'm not here to call out a college guy that is a red shirt freshman was getting his first starting opportunity and, and struggled a bit. And I wish there was a, a way I can soften that, but the reality is the reality. The position group, the offensive line was the weakest on LSU's team. And of that position group, Davis is the one who struggled the most. And we're going to go through some of those numbers a little bit. But it was interesting because this was a, a position group where there was so much turnover and in a position where there was so much turnover, this staff decided to retain Weston Davis and not only retain him, but give him the opportunity to run with the ones during spring practice. And when Lane Kiffin met with reporters to recap spring, he actually had some very positive things to say about Weston Davis.

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He's got to work on consistency like a lot of young players, you know, playing down to down. He's done some really good things, flashed at times. That's why we have him there. I have high expectations for him and so. But he's done some good things. He's got a lot of work to do, you know, to get to that consistent level that we need to play. Because again, we talked about the quarterback playing well and how valuable that is to teams and wins and you see it in the NFL they'll have a premier quarterback in Hill get hurt and all of a sudden that coach and the rest team is not very good. Well who protects them, the tackles. That's why they make a lot of money. So him playing well is very critical. Look at our blueprint from what we just came with. Two tackles play really, really well in pass protection all year long for the quarterback and helps him, helps quarterback play really well.

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Okay, let me give you some context on Weston Davis. Okay, so Weston Davis coming out of high school was an elite, elite, elite prospect. Not only was a great football player, else played basketball. When you're that size and you're a really good basketball player, it's because you have soft hands, you have good feet. That's going to make you a really good tackle. So Weston Davis coming out of Beaumont, Texas was a consensus 4 star. Actually on 3 ranked him as a 5 star, but in the composite he was a 4 star, the number 70 overall prospect in the country, regardless of position. That was in the composite when you combine all the ranking services. But on three had him as the number 23 overall prospect in America and a five star. Okay, so he was a super highly regarded guy coming out of Beaumont. He comes to lsu, doesn't play much as a freshman. That was the season where you had Campbell And Emory Jones as starting tackles, your bookends, three year starters. There just wasn't really a spot, a path to the field. Well, in 2025, Davis gets the opportunity to start at right tackle and it flatly just didn't go well. If you look at the PFF grades for every player that played on offense for LSU in 2025, there were 35 players that took an offensive snap. 35 players on LSU's team in 2025 that took an offensive snap. If you look at the overall PFF grade of all of Those players, number 35, dead last, was Bo Bordelon. Bo Bordelon took a total of 21 offensive snaps. So a little bit of an asterisk there. Number 34. The second lowest graded player on the entire offense was Weston Davis. His overall grade was a 47.1. His pass blocking grade of 49. His run blocking grade of 48. He committed nine penalties. For context, DJ Chester was a 50.2, Palma Benga 51.6. You get the point with this offensive line, it was bad. Tyree Adams a 55, carries current of 56. Cohen Echols a 57.2. Ori Williams a 59.4. If you go to the other end of the spectrum, the highest rated offensive lineman on the team was Braylon Moore at just a 69.8, which is good, but certainly not great. But here's the thing that I think is important to mention about Weston Davis. You know, and pff, if you're an everyday or you heard me say this during the season, I, I say it's, it's not, it's a metric. It's not the metric, it's just something to consider. But with a position group like the offensive line, I almost look at PFF with a little more weight because you don't have a statistical reference, right? You can't look at like with receivers, you can't look at catches and yards and yards after the catch and drops. You don't have that with the offensive line. So you sort of need an evaluation system to gauge something like that. So that's why PFF for the offensive line maybe can hold a little more weight. But remember as we talk about pff, the way that they, they grade, if you're like in the 90 to 100, it's like a dark blue dot and it goes from like dark blue to like light blue to dark green to lighter green into like your yellows and then it starts to get darker. The worst it gets, it gets like light orange and then dark orange Then red and like that's really bad, right? So you look at a season long chart with all the grades for Weston Davis and man you see a lot of reds and yellows. I mean he had scores in the 30s and the 20s throughout the season. Like South Carolina pass block raid was a 26. Vanderbilt pass block rate was a 25. Against Florida, his overall grade was a 34. His pass block grade was a 32. It was just Arkansas. The pass block grade was a 34. It was just bad, just really bad. But when I look at the season as it progressed for Weston Davis, if you start with that Alabama game when LSU went on the road and of course lost and Davis played every game but one, remember the only game he missed was Ole Miss. That's when Jack Pyburn concussed him in the pregame. It kind of hit him pregame warm ups. Pyburn hit Weston Davis under the, the face mask, got him on the chin, concussed him and then Carrie's current ended up starting at right tackle and played the entire game. Other than that, Davis played the entire season and there was a lot of not good. But if you go to the low water mark, right, which was the Bama game where he graded out at 41. The next week against Arkansas he graded as a 56. And then against Western Kentucky is 63. And then at Oklahoma a 65 where his pass block rate was an 86. He didn't have a score. He graded 86.5 against Oklahoma, which might have been the best defense he played all year. He didn't have a score in the 70s, the next highest score twice against Clemson and Bama. His pious block grade was a 67. So massive game against Oklahoma. And then in the bowl game his overall grade was a 71.9. So he went from 4:41 to 56 to 63 to 65 to 72 sequentially in the last five games. So throughout the end of the season Davis started to play better. And so remember when you, when we talk about Lane Kiffin and his staff, the buzzword, the thing we talk about all the time from the, from that portal cycle on and now the, the word is evaluation. And very clearly this staff took time to evaluate Weston Davis and said we want him back. Remember this is an offensive line group that was really bad a season ago. And all those players that I just mentioned from Tyree Adams and DJ Chester and Paul Mbenga and Cohen Echols and Carious Kern, they're all gone. All of those guys were very highly regarded. They Got a chance to play last year, they didn't play very well. This new staff comes in and instead of saying, try to refine the guys who played an awful lot last year, last year, let's just reset. Except, hey, Braylon Moore, we want you. And so they retain Braylon Moore, center, who was their best offensive lineman. Oh, and Tyree Adams, we want you to. Excuse me, Weston Davis, we want you to. Tyree Adams, of course, is gone, but Weston Davis, we want you to. It's interesting to me because we have talked so much about how thorough this staff is in the way that they evaluate their roster. And it's not just arm length, height, weight, 40 time, it's also football IQ, team guy, locker room guy. All that sort of stuff factors into evaluation. And then you put a dollar amount on it as well. So the fact that they retained, chose to retain Weston Davis tells you they're very high on Weston Davis's potential. And not only that, but he got an opportunity to run with the ones throughout spring this year to try to retain that job. So I think the question is if you trust Lane Kiffin and this staff and their evaluation, and he's sitting here telling you they think Davis needs to be more consistent, but they like what they see and they like the upside. You have to believe him because they could have sent Weston Davis packing like they did every other offensive lineman from that team a season ago, except Braylon Moore. But they chose to keep him and he chose to stay, which tells you both sides believe in each other and what they may do. Now, I want to paint that picture with some context around the entire offensive line coming out of spring. We'll do that as we continue here. It's locked on lsu, your team, every day. The NBA playoffs are here, and every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to the action, FanDuel has a great offer to get you started right now. New customers can bet $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. 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We're going to jump back in the show, but I do want to remind you that you can get locked on LSU ad free with the Everyday Air Club plus Members Only Discord Access, so you can join at the link in the show. Notes so we've talked here a good bit about Weston Davis. Specifically, you had this whole group of offensive linemen that were experienced. Lane Kiffin staff comes in, they basically show them all the door, go get in the portal. Move on. We're moving on. Except Braylon Moore, who they retained, and Weston Davis, who was the weak link. You go through spring and Davis apparently continue playing better and better and better throughout spring. Well, he wasn't alone because I want to remind you midway point of spring practice, this was on April 14th. This was Lane Kiffin meeting with the media again, midway point of spring, talking about the offensive line and their improvement.

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I think that that offensively position has probably developed the best, you know, through a couple weeks and, you know, has played well together and in my opinion is dramatically improved from when we got here. And so that, that's probably been the one bright right spot, you know, as you relooked at the film. Now again, I got to be, you know, like I said, I have really high standards and expectations and we're not tackling. So that kind of, that obviously creates more yards because there's missed tackles within a game and you feel a little better. But I think the offensive line is coming along really well.

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So I want to give you some, some context. Lane Kiffin made that comment on April 14th. Okay. That was the press conference after the really bad Saturday scrimmage. When he talked about being discour. It was discouraging watching the offense. So in light of the offense being discouraging, which, which is what he said in that press conference. He said the offensive line was dramatically improved from when they got there. So remember when he got there, it was all the guys that we had previously mentioned. They show them all the door. They go into the portal, they bring in Jordan Seon at left tackle, they bring in Ala at right guard. They add guys like William Satterwhite and Darren Stray And Devin Harper and then some other guys like Jaquan Sprinkle and Jacoby Jones. And then you got the freshman coming in like, like Martinez at, at who's playing backup left tackle from East Ascension. You look and you go, okay, it, it's dramatically improved from when he showed up because it's a whole bunch of new people. I think what he's telling you there is that they really like the talent they have in this group. And as I look at this offensive line, it my biggest takeaway coming out of spring is that if in fact Weston Davis locks down right tackle, then you have four of the five spots done. Despite the fact that the only locked in returning starter is Braylon Moore, maybe Davis. But again, the only one that's locked in is Braylon Moore. So in theory, your return, you're replacing your entire offensive line except one spot. But you go get Jordan Seaton, who's on everybody. By the way, like updated odds came out this this week post draft. Jordan Seaton has odds to be the number one overall pick. I saw Mock Draft at ESPN that had him as the seventh overall selection in the 2027 draft. Again, it's a year away. A lot can change. It's just to say that like when we talk about Seaton with this really high ceiling as a prospect and everything, it's not just LSU people saying it like national. I think it was Jordan Reed at ESPN who had him as the seventh overall pick in next year's draft. It, it's just by the way, for whatever it's worth, last year at this time they had Nussmeier top 10 pick. So I mean things change and we understand context and all that stuff, but just that's the type of prospect you have in Seaton. Braylon Moore is back at center. Aluba, remember, was the top 100 overall prospect in America, signs with Georgia to go to show you how good of a prospect he was. He signed with Georgia red shirted, then goes to Maryland where he's the starting right guard for two years. So Aluba is a plug and play at right guard. So Seaton at left tackle, Braylon Moore at center, Aluba at right guard. If Weston Davis locks down the starting tackle job, then all you're really vying for, the only position up for grabs and fall camp is left guard. And that's Bobor Lawn, a fifth year guy. And Devin Harper, who's a transfer in from Ole Miss, who's another guy that was a top 100 prospect who was supposed to be the starting right tackle. At Ole Miss this year. And the other thing I look at is William Satterwhite is the backup center, Darren Stray coming in from Kentucky, who we've seen play both guard and tackle, left and right. And it kind of looks like, doesn't it, an NFL roster where you have your starting five and then you have basically three rotational players, a center, an interior lineman and tackles. Well, I just mentioned the first five from left to right, Seon Bordelon, Moore, Bod Davis. That's your first five as of now. Well, Devin Harper has played guard and tackle left and right. Darren Stray has played guard and tackle left and right. Couple of swing guys. And then William Satterwhite coming in from Tennessee is your backup center. Now he was injured late in in spring and we saw the freshman out of Miami, Ryan Morett, run with the twos. But all that to say like it feels like you have your first eight there and that keeps you insulated from injury because while injuries happen, you feel like you have who is next among those first eight. Listen, I don't want to sit here and bang the drum and pound the table and tell you that this is going to be an awesome offensive line. What I will tell you is it would be really hard for them to be worse than they were a year ago. You bring in Wolford, you bring in James Craig, you bring in a potential first round picket left tackle, you retain your center and a multi year starter from a Big Ten school at right guard. A pretty good start. Light years of where you were when LSU finished that game against Houston to wrap up the 2025 season. Now as you heard Lane Kiffin say, got to keep the quarterback upright, got to keep him healthy, got to keep developing. But a unit that from the time he showed up to the time he made that comment in the middle of April and spring was dramatically improved and maybe the most improved group on the team. See if they can continue that improvement and if Weston Davis is can lock down that right tackle job and if he does or the Tigers will be heavy favorites in a lot of games this year. Which is what I want to update next as we wrap up. It's locked on lsu, your team every day.

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Whenever spring practice ends, it's one of those benchmarks in the off season where odds makers sort of update their their numbers in this there's periodically times like that, right? So when the season ends you'll see like a way too early, you'll see odds come out for some marquee games. Heisman next year's national championship. Just futures bets, right? And then when the portal cycle ends, they'll update those futures bets and then after maybe high school signing day in February, they'll update them again. And then when you come out of spring, they'll update them and in years past after the spring portal window, they update those numbers again and then throughout the summer. And there's things that can move those lines. Injuries could certainly move the lines. In years past, a key addition via the spring transfer portal could move those lines. Look at what's happened at Texas Tech. Not to make light of the situation with Brendan Sorsby, but he was one of the top quarterbacks, arguably the top quarterback in the portal. It was Sorsby and and Sam Levitt. Really? Who are the top quarterbacks in the portal? Well, Soaresby is now in a rehabilitation center for a gambling addiction and might very well be ineligible. That dramatically changes the outlook on the season for Texas Tech if Brennan Sorsby isn't there, right? So it's going to change numbers and lines. You see this in the NFL every year as well, right? The season ends, you have a look at headlines and then you have the first wave of free agency and they'll update them and then you go to the second ways way wave of free agency and then you go through the draft and then subsequent to the draft you'll have another wave of free agency that could alter lines and futures bets and all that stuff. But what was so interesting is this week, as spring came to an end, I saw an updated point spread on LSU Ole miss the week three game September 19th in Oxford. And wouldn't you know it, that line is flipped where LSU is now a one and a half point favorite overall miss on the road. Now remember, generally speaking the home team gets three points for home field advantage in most situations, which tells you if LSU is a 1 1/2 point favorite at Ole Miss. If this game were in Baton Rouge, the Tigers would be a 4 1/2 point favorite over the Rebels. If this game were in Tiger Stadium. So look, a point spread on the first day of May or at the end of August or at the end of April doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot of. But what I think is interesting is that even without LSU having its starting quarterback throughout spring football with no Sam Levitt, the odds makers are still telling you they're bullish on Lane Kiffin and LSU even going on the road to Ole Miss, which is going to be a madhouse and against a team that returns Trinidad Chambliss at quarterback and Kewan Lacey at running back. And, and I get it, one of my main contentions, and I know Ole Miss fans are not going to like when I say this, so let me give you an example that both lsu, because I know a lot of Ole Miss fans watch the show that both LSU and Ole Miss fans will agree with and something that I've said openly the day Nick Saban retired at Alabama, I was live on the air doing my radio show when that news broke from Chris Lowe and I let out a guttural yell and did a happy dance. And ever since then I've done this stupid bit about Bama is burning because I knew at that moment that no matter who lsu, excuse me, that no matter who Alabama hired didn't matter, Christ Almighty could come back from heaven, it wouldn't matter. You cannot lose the greatest coach of all time in Nick Saban and not regress. Football is the sport where coaching matters more than any other sport in the world because every single play is trench warfare. It is hand to hand combat. And you have the coaches that are strategizing and pulling the strings on every given play. Hockey and basketball are continuous movement. You know, baseball manager can't do my, can't step in the box and help you swing. I mean you have to go hit the ball. Can't stand on the mound and throw the, the, the baseball for you got to throw it over the plate, can't catch the pop fly. So it, it's just coaching in football matters more than any other sport. And Ole Miss lost its head coach, its offensive coordinator, its running backs coach, its receivers coach, its support staff. All of the people that made up that offensive staff are gone. And I know the counter argument is, well, Pete Golding went and hired a guy that was on Lane staff and knows the offense. Okay, Ed Oon did the same thing in 2021 when he hired Jake Petes after Steve Enseminger retired, Joe Brady was off to the NFL. Ed oh needed the higher offensive coordinator. What did he do? He asked around and said who can run the Joe Brady offense and Joe Brady told him go hire Jake Pe. So Ed on hires Jake Pe and what happens halfway through the season? Ed on is fired. I'm not saying got fired because he hired Jake Peets. What I'm telling you is it's very clear that coaching in football matters dramatically. And Ole Miss losing Lane Kiffin, Charlie Weiss and the entire offensive staff to think there won't be a regression offensively is super shortsighted. So and that is a spread that flipped into LSU's favor as a one and a half point favorite after LSU went through spring without its starting quarterback. That in and of itself should tell you everything that you need to know about LSU coming out of this spring, heading into Year one under Lane Kiffin, and what a realistic outlook should also be for Ole Miss without their offensive genius head coach, offensive coordinator and coaching staff which paced them to the greatest season in program history. A lot's going to change between now and kickoff. Maybe it'll be personnel, maybe it'll be coaching. But in the meantime, LSU remains now an early one and a half point favorite on the road against Ole Miss. And as we've gone through that schedule, it's very clear October is manageable. If you can get through September unscathed, you're going to have a shot in November against a brutal stretch Bama Texas at Tennessee, at Arkansas to finish, you'll have a shot to play for a national championship. If you can handle your business in September, which includes a home game against Clemson and a Week three road game at Ole Miss, where LSU apparently is going to be a slight favorite. Okay, that's going to do it for us here on today's episode of Locked on lsu. Please do me a favor. If you're on podcast, please subscribe on your favorite podcast app Radis. Leave a review if you're on YouTube, smash that like button. Subscribe to the channel Hit the bell so you're notified whenever we post a new video. And be sure to let a friend know that if they love the Tigers, we got you here every single day for Locked on lsu. It's your team every day.

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Now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home by taking advantage of its national Red Tag Sales event going on right now through Sunday, May 3rd. Stop by by any of its participating communities and find select red tag homes at Incredible Pricing. So whether you're buying your first home or looking for an upgrade, you don't want to miss the red tag sales event going on right now. Discover the Dr. Horton Difference Tap your screen now or visit Dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton America's Builder and Equal Housing Opportunity

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Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcast network. If your group chat's been a little quiet lately, I want to invite you to come and join ours. If you sign up for the Everyday ER Club, you get access to the members only group chats for your favorite teams, plus national chats for every sport. Personally, I love watching folks talk a little smack in the NFC South Trash talk chat. You also get an ad free version of your favorite Locked on show and a whole lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everyday Club link in the show notes.

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