Whether it was due to an injury or other reasons, the Tigers were without quite a few key players on both sides of the ball on Sunday. On Thursday, LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly gave us an update on those players and whether or not they'll be on the field this weekend.

The first and most obvious one is Maason Smith. After missing all of last season with a torn ACL, he was set to make his return against FSU, but a one-game suspension from the NCAA held him out for the season opener. He'll return to action on Saturday and Kelly said he hopes to get Smith around 30 snaps or so.

Smith has been talked about plenty over the last few weeks, let's get into some of the other players who were inactive in the Tigers season opener, but are expected to play this weekend.

Last season, Goodwin was in and out of the lineup, appearing in just seven games and rushing for 267-yards and five touchdowns on 45 carries. He was set to be a big part of the rushing attack, but injuries set him back from being one of the leading rushers for LSU.

After being listed as questionable and not playing in the season opener, Goodwin has been upgraded to probable, meaning he will most likely see the field at some point, even if it's in limited fashion.

The rushing game really struggled last week, so getting Goodwin back on the field should help, especially after he rushed for 5.9 YPC last season.

Yet another running back who was unavailable last week is set to make his season debut against Grambling. Brian Kelly told us after Sunday's game that sidelining Notre Dame transfer, Logan Diggs, was a coaching decision because they didn't feel like Diggs was quite 100%.

Diggs ran for 820-yards and four touchdowns behind a 5.0 average for the Fighting Irish last season, and he will likely be one of LSU's top rushers from now on. With Diggs and Goodwin available, LSU is now just missing just one running back, John Emery Jr., who is expected to play next week vs. Mississippi State.

Denver Harris, the former five-star cornerback who committed to Texas A&M, was another player who was inactive due to a coaching decisions. Harris had some off the field issues during his time at Texas A&M, but Kelly took a gamble to recruit one of the best defensive backs in the portal.

Kelly said Harris is still learning what he needs to do to be an impactful player for the Tigers, but there's a good chance we see him at some point on Saturday. If Harris is 100%, he could become a huge factor in this LSU secondary that looked like they needed the help against FSU.

Zalance Heard may have been the biggest recruitment Brian Kelly got in this years class of freshman. He's a five-star offensive tackle out of Monroe, Louisiana, and much like Emery Jones and Will Campbell did last year, he'll be expected to play a lot for the Tigers as a true freshman.

Brian Kelly said he didn't want to throw Heard into the fire against FSU's defensive front last weekend, but he expects Heard to get some first team reps against Grambling. When Heard is in, expect to see Emery Jones slide over to guard since Heard has more traits of a prototypical tackle than Jones.