By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, TIGER RAG Staff Reporter
Focus – Position Battles: Offensive Line
The start of fall camp is just another sign that college football is that much closer to being back. Day one of LSU football fall camp is in the books after seven months of non-contact practices and conditioning.
“Seven months of observation, seven months of leadership development, seven months of working physically, technically, and tactically, and bringing this together,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said.
“I feel really good about the football team we put out on the field in three-and-a-half weeks, but this is an ongoing process that has started since January.”
There is no surprise that Kelly is “bullish” on his team with the best roster he has had at LSU on paper. Kelly credited LSU’s development to the players doing simple things right: holding each other to a higher standard, being on time and playing with passion and effort.
Heading into fall camp, one of the biggest questions on this LSU football team is the offensive line unit. LSU lost four of their five starting offensive linemen from the 2024 team: Will Campbell, Emery Jones, Miles Frazier and Garrett Dellinger, all to the NFL draft.
Kelly and offensive line coach Brad Davis have been looking to find the right guys to fill those empty holes.
On Wednesday, the first-team offensive line unit looked much different than what it did in the spring. Redshirt sophomore Tyree Adams was at left tackle. The only returning starter in DJ Chester lined up at left guard rather than center, which is where he started all 13 games last season. Virginia Tech transfer Braelin Moore was with the first team at center. Northwestern transfer Josh Thompson took first-team snaps at right guard. To round off the first team at right tackle was sophomore Weston Davis.
Kelly made it known that the offensive line unit is not set in stone, but rather, an ongoing competition.
“DJ is going to compete with Paul (Mubenga). On the right side, Josh (Thompson) is going to compete with Coen Echols. Carius Curne is going to push Tyree (Adams). (Bo) Bordelon is going to push Weston Davis,” Kelly said.
“I think you’ll see some moving around. There’s competitive battles right now from that offensive line, so we have to evaluate them as a group of five and then individually as the best five,” Kelly emphasized.
Even though LSU is not as top-heavy as it has been in recent years on the offensive line, there is lots of depth at each position. Kelly mentioned Curne, Bo Bordelon, Echols, and Mubenga as players that are competing for starting jobs.
LSU will be without true-freshman and former five-star offensive line Solomon Thomas. Thomas has a broken foot and will be out for a month, Kelly said. Without Thomas, the offensive line competition narrows itself out and the Tigers do lose a bit of depth along the offensive line.
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