LSU defense: Don’t geaux there

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

LSU Tigers
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The latest BCS ratings have the LSU football team ranked 18th, despite the fact that the Tigers have lost only to No. 4 Auburn and No. 6 Florida.

But don't blame the LSU defense. In the 7-3 loss to Auburn, the Tiger stop unit limited the "other" SEC Tigers to 1.9 yards per rush and 110 yards passing. Florida did score three touchdowns in a 23-10 victory on Oct. 7, but all of them came after the LSU offense turned the ball over.

Les Miles' team currently leads the nation in rushing defense and is second in points allowed. There is not a weak spot in the lineup, nowhere for opposing teams to attack.

The stat sheets back that up. Most teams have two or three defensive players who hog the bulk of the tackles.

Here, the damage is evenly distributed -- sophomore LB Darry Beckwith leads the Tigers with 40 stops, followed by FS LaRon Landry (35), LT Glenn Dorsey (31), strong safety Jesse Daniels (30), outside 'backer Ali Highsmith (25), ML Luke Sanders (21), and CB Chevis Jackson and LE Tyson Jackson (20).

Jackson leads the team with six sacks, followed by Chase Pittman (4.5), Dorsey (two) ands nine others with at least one. Dorsey, meanwhile, is tops in tackles for loss (seven), followed by Pittman, Beckwith and four more with at least two.

DB Craig Steltz, who has four of the team's 11 interceptions, doesn't even start.

As the Supremes once warned us, the Tiger defense offers nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

And a few interesting storylines. Like Luke Sanders, who might seem undersized as an SEC linebacker at 229 pounds, but is the son of a strength coach and bench-presses more than twice his weight.

Or Dorsey, who was bow-legged and wore braces until he was three.

Or Pittman, a transfer from the University of Texas, who wears a tattoo honoring his brother (also a Longhorn player), who was killed in a car wreck in 2001.

Or DBs Jessie Daniels and Jonathan Zenon, cousins from Beaux Bridge (which also produced DL starter Charles Alexander). Daniels is a fanatical duck hunter; Zenon raises horses.

Dorsey has gotten the most attention of this group, and will probably wind up as a first-team All-American barring injury.

"He's the energizer bunny," says Auburn OG Tim Duckworth, who grappled with Dorsey over a long afternoon earlier this season. "When a guy can come upfield full speed and spin and never lose his balance, that's the kind of guy I'm going to see in the NFL."

Adds Miles: "Glenn is a perfectly built interior defense lineman. He puts pad under pad and plays with a fire that makes him tough to block."

Six of the LSU defenders are first-time starters. And, scariest of all for SEC opponents, all but LaRon Landry (whose brother currently starts for the Baltimore Ravens) and Pittman are underclassmen.

How many of these guys will wind up in the pros? Maybe all of them.

Original LSU Tigers analysis, courtesy of RealFootball365.com
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