LSU Football: Six standouts from the Tigers spring practices

The LSU Tigers spring practices are coming to a close this week. We've been able to go and observe quite a few practices throughout the spring, and we've gotten a pretty good look at the new offense, defensive coaching staff and some of the early enrollees.

From what we've seen, the Tigers have looked pretty good, but there have been a few guys who have stood out the most, so today, we're going to list the five standouts from LSU's spring practices.

This list isn't in any particular order, but the first guy that comes to mind when talking about spring standouts is Kyren Lacy.

Brian Kelly and Joe Sloan both have spoken very highly of Lacy this spring, pointing to his consistency as the main factor for his success. He's the presumed WR1 heading into the 2024 season, and he really looks like he's taken the next step in his development.

Early on, Lacy made the catch of spring practice when he mossed Texas A&M transfer, Jardin Gilbert.

If Lacy can continue to be consistent and get away from some of the drops he suffered from last season, he should have a great 2024 campaign.

PJ Woodland made the decision to enroll at LSU early so he could participate in spring ball, and man was it a good one.

The four-star freshman from Hattiesburg, Mississippi has been a rapid riser in spring practices. In the first week of practice, Woodland had his fair share of freshman struggles, but something clicked over spring break, because ever since they've come back, Woodland has been a beast. He's worked his way up and has taken a lot of reps with the first team defense recently.

Here's what Blake Baker had to say about the freshman:

"PJ Woodland is a competitor, he's feisty, he's physical and he can run. But more than anything, for a freshman, we've thrown him out there with the ones some, we've thrown him out there against our top receivers and he competes, and that's where it starts...I've been really impressed by him, and it wasn't easy. Those first three-four days before spring break he was probably thinking 'what in the world did I do coming here early,' but man he's been really impressive these last few days."

Woodland still has a lot of work to do before he's guaranteed a role in this defense this season, but he's on the right track as of today.

Another defensive back who's had a very good spring camp is Major Burns. The Tigers senior safety had a poor 2023 season, but Brian Kelly felt that was due to the scheme he was playing in.

With Blake Baker taking over, Burns has moved to a new position. Instead of playing safety, he'll be playing the 'star' position, which is basically a safety and linebacker hybrid. There, he'll be able to play close to the ball and won't have to worry about deep coverage as much.

Brian Kelly had some high praise for Burns just a few days ago:

"The one guy that I think has made more progress than any one individual player in coverage is Major Burns," Kelly said after Saturday's spring practice. "Major was a bit sloppy last year in coverage. I know everybody will point to the interception against Missouri, which is singularly a huge play, but there were many times where we didn't have him in coverage on the right guy at the right time, but he's been really, really good."

Kyle Parker was one of four very talented WR's in the Tigers 2023 class, but so far, he seems to be the one ahead of the pack.

Early in the spring, we saw Parker take first team reps alongside Kyren Lacy and Chris Hilton Jr. over guys such as CJ Daniels, Zavion Thomas and Aaron Anderson. Since then, Parker has moved down to second team in favor of Anderson, but there are signs that he could carve himself a decent role in this offense.

There are a ton of receivers in the building, so finding time to play all of them is going to be tough, but if Parker keeps playing the way he has been, he's going to be very hard to keep off the field come September.

When Aaron Anderson transferred to LSU last season, the former five-star expected to play a very big role in this offense, but that didn't really happen.

He could've hit the transfer portal for the second time in as many years, but he stuck around and has found himself taking the majority of the first team WR reps with Lacy and Hilton.

Anderson will have all the opportunities to cement himself as a top-three receiver on this team before the season start, and he's getting off on the right foot.

To be honest, we hadn't heard or seen a whole lot from Gabriel Reliford throughout spring practice, but it's kind of hard to get a grasp on how linemen perform from watching them do individual drills.

Once we got to Tiger Stadium on Saturday and saw him in a competitive environment, Reliford really turned some heads. He totaled two sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss in the Tigers spring game and was constantly in the backfield.

After the game, Brian Kelly said that now that Reliford has shown he can beat up on freshman tackles, he wants to throw him in there against Will Campbell and Emery Jones and see how he holds up.

The freshman has a long ways to go before he's on the field on Saturday's, but his spring game performance surely put everyone on notice.

There were a lot of other guys I could've put on this list, but those were the five that stood out to me over the past month or so. Outside of those five, some others that have really impressed have been Dashawn Mcbryde, Sage Ryan, Tyree Adams, Jacobian Guillory and Rickie Collins.

For Mcbryde, Collins and Adams, those three have outperformed their expectations thus far and are earning a lot of second team reps (and in Adams' case, first team when Emery Jones missed practice). For Ryan and Guillory, the veterans have continued to build their skills under the new coaching staff and have made some big plays in team drills.

There's a lot to be excited about as the Tigers wrap up spring practice and head into their offseason program.

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