Jacob Phillips on playing new position, young LBs and Ole Miss

BATON ROUGE, La. — Sophomore linebacker Jacob Phillips led the team with 13 tackles in the 38-21 victory against Louisiana Tech and didn’t even line up at his traditional position for the most of the game.

In the week of practice leading into the showdown with Tech, Phillips — who’s in his first year as a starter at linebacker beside Devin White — worked at outside linebacker. He rushed the passer some, which is an emphasis for Coach Ed Orgeron and his Tigers entering the SEC game against Ole Miss on Saturday.

Here’s a Q&A with Phillips on what happened against Louisiana Tech and what’s to come against Ole Miss:

Does playing a spread offense like Louisiana Tech prepare for you for Ole Miss’ offense?

It really does. They had some really good wide receivers, a good quarterback. Ole Miss has that also. It was a great thing we played them the week before.

How much harder is it for the defense to contain a dual-threat quarterback?

You always want to have the edges on the rush take away the (running) lanes, but we also have to put pressure on the quarterback to help the secondary out. Whatever Coach (Dave) Aranda thinks is best. We have to have pressure and contain the quarterback.

What defensive breakdowns occurred against Louisiana Tech?

Louisiana Tech has a really good offense, a good offensive line, but we could’ve played better. We came out with a win, but we could have played better.

How do you fix the pass rush?

Everybody has to win their 1-on-1s. It’s really important that if you get 1-on-1s, to take advantage of that. If we do that, we’ll be good.

How much have turnovers been an emphasis for this team and which coach pushes it the most?

Coach O … We say it as a team, it’s about the ball. On offense, keeping the ball, the offense being efficient and we can create turnovers on defense.

Thoughts on leading the team with 13 tackles last week?

Every week is a chance for me to get better, to progress, but I think as a defense we were able to stop the run.

How is Aranda after a game giving up more than 400 yards on defense?

He’s pretty consistent every week, driving us to be better than we were previously. We’re never comfortable or good. We go to meetings and he’ll have things we need to work on.

What are your thoughts on the freshmen linebackers Damone Clark, Micah Baskerville?

They’re young players. They play behind me so I try to teach them what I can. They’re going to be great players for LSU. Damone is more long, strong, naturally strong linebacker. Micah is more elusive and real smart. He picks up on plays really well.

Did we spot you playing some outside linebacker against Louisiana Tech?

I played outside for two days at practice. That’s all the preparation I had. I was put in that position and I’m grateful for it. Hopefully, I’ll play it more. They taught me to pass-rush, take three steps and read the tackle, go to speed to speed or speed to power. Also, to force the defense at outside linebacker and leverage everything in. Read the pulls and get upfield. I think I need to improve as a pass-rusher. It’s easy fixes and I’m glad I have a week to prepare for it as well.

Anything to look forward to in facing Ole Miss’ offense?

I’m looking forward to it. I want to shut down every offense we play. We’ll figure it out. We’re a good defense and we’ll be able to do so.