What will the LSU offense look like without Mike Denbrock calling plays?

Mike Denbrock, LSU's offensive coordinator for the past two seasons, recently accepted a job in the same role at Notre Dame. This left LSU with a major hole to fill in their coaching staff with their bowl game creeping nearer and nearer.

That same afternoon, it was announced that Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton would take over as co-offensive coordinators for the Tigers bowl game against Wisconsin. So, with Mike Denbrock gone and Sloan and Hankton taking over, what will this Tigers offense look like in the ReliaQuest Bowl?

Joe Sloan's collegiate coaching career began in 2010 where he was the offensive quality control coach for South Florida. In 2012, Sloan took a new role as a graduate assistant for the Bulls.

From there, Sloan would get hired by Louisiana Tech, taking over as their inside receivers coach in 2013. He would then become a recruiting coordinator in 2014, and after five seasons in that position, he was promoted to co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2019. He'd serve one season next to Todd Fitch before Sloan would become the sole offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs in 2020.

In his first season as the Bulldogs offensive coordinator, Sloan would lead them to 22.3 points per game. The offense, which was led by Luke Anthony at quarterback, threw for 2,166 yards and 21 touchdowns en route to a 5-5 record. Their 200.7 passing yards per game ranked 86th in the nation that season while their rushing attack was one of the worst in the nation, ranking 123rd with 90.0 yards per game.

In 2021, the Bulldogs offense improved in every facet, scoring 26.5 points per game while throwing for 262 yards per game, which ranked 33rd in the country. They also improved on the ground, rushing for over 115 yards per game which ranked 107th in the nation.

In Sloan's time as LA Tech's offensive coordinator, the Bulldogs were very balanced on offense. In his two seasons, the Bulldogs combined to attempt 770 passes to 760 rushes. He was never gifted a quarterback as talented as Garrett Nussmeier in his time at Louisiana Tech, so I would expect as a quarterbacks coach, his play calling in the bowl game would favor the pass, but with a plethora of weapons in the backfield as well, I think it will still be a very balance offensive attack.

Cortez Hankton began his football career as a wide receiver at Texas Southern. There he was one of the best wideouts in the programs history, finishing his college career with 3,400 receiving yards which included a 1,270 yard season.

After his time at Texas Southern, Hankton moved on to the NFL where he was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars after going undrafted in 2003. He'd play six seasons in the NFL with three different teams before moving on to the UFL for three more seasons.

In 2012, just one year after his playing career ended, Hankton accepted a job as the wide receivers coach for Dartmouth. Since then, he's been the wide receivers coach at Vanderbilt and Georgia before finally landing in Baton Rouge as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach before the 2022 season.

In just two seasons at LSU, Hankton has helped produce two of the best wide receivers in the 2024 NFL Draft class and helped LSU's passing game succeed at the highest level in 2023.

The only downfall is, Hankton has never been a play caller in his career, so we don't have an idea of his tendencies, but we do know that Hankton knows the modern passing game inside and out.

He's played and coached wide receivers his entire career, and since coming to LSU, he's been heavily involved in creating the game plan as the passing game coordinator.

With a quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach calling plays, we should continue to see this Tigers passing game thrive. Garrett Nussmeier is also getting the start, so seeing what he can do in a full game as a passer is a must in this game.

Even without Mike Denbrock, I expect this offense should fare pretty well against a Wisconsin team that's missing a few key pieces on defense. Sloan and Hankton should be able to create a good game plan, and if the offense executes it well, we could see Brian Kelly offer one of them the open offensive coordinator spot.

Stay up to date on all the LSU news with your premium subscription

Talk about this story and more in The Quad

Make sure you're caught up on all the latest LSU news

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage