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LSU's Brian Kelly plans for light post-spring transfer portal shopping

It’s a given LSU in 2022 wouldn’t have been close to finishing 10-4 with an SEC Western Division title and a Citrus Bowl win without the transfer portal.

The Tigers’ 20-man transfer portal class recruited by Brian Kelly in his first season as LSU’s head coach combined for 121 starts – 61 on defense, 32 on offense and 28 on specialty teams.

Twelve players return from transfer portal Class of 2022, joining 15 players in the portal class of 2023 signed by Kelly.

And Kelly isn’t finished yet portal shopping.

Once LSU ends spring practice on April 22 with the spring game in Tiger Stadium, Kelly and his coaching staff will work to strengthen areas of concern.

“There's a couple of needs on defense and we're still maybe interested on the offensive line,” Kelly said Tuesday at his weekly spring practice press conference. “But I would say that we're guarded at this period of time as to somebody that's going to make a difference in an LSU football lineup.

“These (prospective late transfer portal recruits) are probably going to be guys that can add depth to what you're doing. I don't think you can go out there swinging for a starter that's going to come in and change the trajectory of your starting lineup. These are guys that can contribute and be part of your depth. And I think that that's kind of what we're looking at.”

Fourteen of LSU’s 15 class of 2023 transfer portal signees are participating in spring practice as are 16 of the Tigers’ 28-member 2023 freshman signing class.

“We did bring in a significant amount of freshmen and transfers at mid-year,” Kelly said. “It was important that we made sure that we hit it with another coat of paint, if you will, because we didn't want to move too quickly past some of the real important principles of building our program and our process.

“We've gone slowly, we've kind of gone over the same things that we did last year with his team, so we're building that foundation stronger. We had a lot of new faces that we wanted to make sure we got things right with them and and I'm glad we did because there were some things that were not you know exactly the way I wanted them in terms of the way we practice the first few days. And they've picked up and understand that now.

Here’s Kelly on other subjects:

On the status of injured likely starting safeties Major Burns and Greg Brooks Jr.

“Greg is about 80 percent. . .he has a sprained ankle that has some aggravation. I kind of shut him down to try to get him back to 100 percent. Major has more of an injury. He had ankle injury and kind of reinjured that. So, we're going to shut him down for the spring. That's just why you're seeing young guys out there.

“We won’t practice Major again, but we'll probably get Greg back out there this weekend.”

On elements that starting QB Jayden Daniels and backup Garrett Nussmeier are working to improve

"Jayden’s been pushing the ball down the field, trying to work on quick identification and one on one matchups down the field. Garrett's (needed improvement) is just discipline in progression reads.

"Each one of them has some things that (quarterbacks coach) Joe Sloan and (offensive coordinator) Mike Denbrock laid out for them in terms of what they want them to work on specifically. That's kind of how we've scripted them as well. And they've done a really good job of working on those things.”

On the progression of true freshman QB Rickie Collins, who’s third on the depth chart

“I know it's a cliche, but he’s drinking through a firehose. It's a lot for him right now. He's smart and he's picking up the pieces of the offense as quickly as he can. But he has two guys (Daniels and Nussmeier) that are exceptional and elite in so many ways.

“There's a difference, not in athletic ability and not in skill set. He's got all the skills; it's just going to him a little time. It's great that he was here for the spring because this is going to help him immensely going into the fall.”

“Three quarterbacks is barely enough from that perspective, so he's going to have to have a really good offseason here. And hopefully, that's really going to put him in a better position where there's parts of the playbook that that he can master going into the fall.”

On how the offense has progressed despite so many players missing spring recovering from off-season surgeries

“It’s been really good to integrate the freshmen wide receivers, getting a chance to see them as part of what we're doing has been really, really important. Both freshmen tight ends have been an important piece to this offensive development.

“From an offensive line standpoint, getting (freshman redshirt Bo) Bordelon borderline into a position where it's consistent for him at center has been really good for us.”

“The two quarterbacks are just really good, and they just continue to build their skill set.

“(True freshman Trey) Holly at running back, it has been a really good spring for him to learn protections because he's got really good vision and really good ability to see the hole. Coach (Frank) Wilson has done a really good job of spending much more time on protections and things of that nature.

“So, when you look at the offense from afar, it's plugging in those new players into those positions where you can say they can help us in the fall.”

On developing Harold Perkins as a complete linebacker, not just as a pass rusher

“You're going to see him as active as he's been, and maybe just in a different fashion. If you just line him off the edge, everybody's got a game plan for him.

“I think we put him in a better position at the linebacker position and then we can move him around on third down. He's going to be as active as any time before. Harold now really getting down the nuances of that linebacker position gives us a lot more in the playbook that we can do with him from that position than just lining him up off the edge.”

Reflecting on his first season with Matt House as defensive coordinator

“Well, he’s easy to communicate with. In any kind of coaching situation that I've had, I wanted somebody that I was familiar with in terms of his demeanor, personality, which I was (with House) and the system of defense that I was familiar with. So, we had that going in. Then, he's just been really easy to have dialogue within intense situations.

“You can have a conversation with somebody when it's just the normal day and then you go into a game situation and here's a lot of energy and there's a lot of intensity in that conversation. He's the same person all the time. And that makes it easier for me as a head coach to have those kinds of conversations and makes it really effective for us to if we do need to make any kind of changes or adjustments at half, we can get to the point make those and then he can communicate that to the players.”

On interest from candidates for the LSU defensive line coach vacancy and when will he hire

“We wanted to get through the spring. We're in a great situation with (interim) Gerald Chapman on staff, so there was no rush to go find a defensive line coach. He'll be a candidate for the position as well. But, we'll begin that process once we finish up the spring calendar for us and then we're on the road and get to know candidates. Expect something within the next three weeks or so. We've got a great list of candidates that we have interest in.”

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