BATON ROUGE – One of the few units with which there are no question marks heading into the 2024 season for LSU football is the offensive line.
LSU was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award, college football’s year-end honor for the nation’s best offensive line, last season.
Four of the Tigers’ starting offensive linemen return in 2023, led by stars left tackle Will Campbell and right tackle Emery Jones Jr. Guards Miles Frazier and Garrett Dellinger are also back to bolster the interior.
Redshirt freshman DJ Chester looks like the heir apparent to Charles Turner at center, as seemed fine to the coaching staff during the spring.
While the starting positions appear to be mostly solidified, LSU still has some quality depth in the room, starting with freshman Tyree Adams, who received a lot of first-team work in the spring and performed well. Fellow freshman Coen Echols got some work at center in the spring.
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LSU football offensive line options
Projected starters: Will Campbell, Jr.; Garrett Dellinger, Sr.; DJ Chester, Fr.; Miles Frazier, Sr.; Emery Jones Jr.
Reservations: Tyree Adams, priest; Paulo Mubenga, Father; Coen Echols, Father; Christian Seals, Fr.; Bo Bordelon, Soph.; Ethan Calloway, Jr.; Weston Davis, priest; Ory Williams, priest; Thomas Crawford, Sr.; Kobe Roberts, Sr.; Khayree Lee, Father; Braden Augusto, Fr.
There won’t be many position battles during LSU’s preseason workouts along the offensive line. Campbell is a top-five pick in next April’s NFL draft. Jones is also expected to be an early draft pick, while Dellinger and Frazier play tight inside.
Echols could push Chester to the center, but with Chester having the year ahead of Echols, he should get the early advantage. When needed, Adams could step in at either tackle position, a huge asset for LSU to have on the bench.
The top side
The Tigers offensive line is arguably the best line in college football. As long as the group remains healthy, LSU could once again have one of the top offenses in the country.
Few units across the country have the collective number of games and experience that LSU does. New co-offensive coordinators Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton will look for ways to make the most of the presence of Campbell, Jones and others up front.
New starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier will certainly benefit from playing behind LSU’s offensive line and the big players up front will play an important role in developing the younger players around them.
A question or concern
Look, there aren’t many concerns with the offensive line.
With the expectation placed on them, will it be too much pressure to be the best unit on the field every Saturday? With the amount of changes to LSU’s offense, Campbell, Jones and company will need to deliver every game, especially in the bigger, tougher games, for the Tigers to have a chance to win.
Will the offensive line achieve that high-level consistency?
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Have questions about LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz atbdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What the LSU football OL room looks like before fall camp
