10/31/2023 football Edit

Despite being undermanned, Brian Kelly has confidence in his young corners

Luke Hubbard • Death Valley Insider

Analyst

The secondary has been a matter for discussion all season long, but now more than ever, it's at the forefront of conversation heading into the Alabama game.

After Zy Alexander went out with an injury against Army, an injury that Brian Kelly has said may cause him to miss "significant time," the Tigers have been razor thin in the secondary. They're relying on a redshirt sophomore corner, who played safety until a few weeks ago, in Sage Ryan and Laterrance Welch (who has 33 coverage snaps) to lead a group of freshman in Ryan Yaites, Jeremiah Hughes, Ashton Stamps and Javien Toviano.

Outside of Ryan, none of those guys listed above have played more than 56 coverage snaps this season. From the outside looking in, that seems like a very big issue for LSU not only in this game, but moving forward the rest of the season.

Brian Kelly, however, is not too worried about it. He talked about the freshman corners and he believes they've been here long enough to play at a high level. Yes, they don't have much in game action, but they go up against the best wide receiver duo in the nation every day in practice. Kelly feels these guys are ready to play, and he feels they can play at a very high level.

"Well, they've been around long enough now. You're eight games into the season now and they had some time here in camp. To say that they're inexperienced, yes they haven't played a lot of SEC games, but they know what they're doing, they understand our techniques, they know what's expected of them. We're in a position where we feel comfortable and confident that they can go out there and get the job done. Even though they don't have a lot of SEC games under their belt, they're quite capable of going out there and playing at a high level. I'd say more than anything else, you have to have confidence in your players and their ability to do it, and I've got confidence that, whether it's Jeremiah Hughes or Javien Toviano, Ashton Stamps, all three of those freshman can go out there and play at the level necessary for us to win a championship."

— Brian Kelly

The word "inexperienced" has been thrown around by us in the media all year when describing LSU's corners. While it's true they don't have much in game action in college, we sometimes forget that these kids were elite prospects coming out of high school.

Obviously, high school ball is no comparison to facing Alabama, Florida or Texas A&M in the heat of the SEC West race, but it's not like these guys don't know how to play football. They've been playing, and playing at a very high level, since they were kids.

Brian Kelly talked about that during his press conference and he said they have to be ready to play because, quite frankly, they have no choice.

"These kids were elite players coming out of high school. They're elite players and now you're putting them in a position where they just have to be confident and trust their technique and trust what we've taught them. Now it's taking that trust and putting into preparation and performance and playing emotionally at a level that allows them to do their job. I think we've been at it long enough now that these guys are ready to go. They've got no choice...These guys are ready to play. They're young, many have said inexperienced, I get it, they haven't played many SEC games, but these guys are really good players and they'll go out there an compete for LSU."

— Brian Kelly

There is going to be talk all week about these young Tiger corners and their lack of on-field experience heading into this game, but maybe we should pump the brakes a little bit. You have to remember, this isn't the same Alabama offense we're used to seeing. They still have very good playmakers and a very good quarterback, but it's not like they're facing Bryce Young, Mac Jones or Tua Tagovailoa at the height of their careers. Milroe is a good quarterback who excels at hitting the deep ball, he's not a guy who's going to go out there and pick apart a defense for 400 yards and 4 TDs almost every week.

Instead of worrying about how these corners are going to perform, you should get excited to see some of these highly touted DBs get a chance to go out there and prove to the entire country that they can play ball in SEC.