Three Up
Malachi Dupre and Travin Dural
While Tiger fans still don’t know who will be throwing the ball, they can put in stone who the top two wide receivers will be come September 5. Both rising sophomore Malachi Dupre and rising junior Travin Dural looked like a No. 1 wide receiver on Saturday.
Dupre made a nice adjustment on a tailing pass from quarterback Anthony Jennings to secure an over-the-shoulder grab and an early touchdown. A few possessions later, he corralled a diving grab between two defenders at the goalline for a second score.
He finished the game with four receptions, 112 yards and those two scores.
Dural ended the game with an almost identical stat line — four catches, 127 yards and two touchdowns of his own.
He burned the second team defense multiple times for large gains, including a 41-yard touchdown catch. The Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, native made a leaping grab in the endzone in the fourth quarter to end his day.
The pair won’t be facing second team defenses in the fall, but both quarterbacks have to be happy with the play of their top two options.
Maquedius Bain
LSU entered the game hoping to find consistent pass rushers along the defensive front and nobody looked the part better than rising sophomore Maquedius Bain. The defensive lineman recorded three sacks on the day, consistently busting through the Purple team’s offensive line.
As I said with Dupre and Dural, he won’t be facing second string offensive lines during the fall. But judging the players in the vacuum of today’s game, he was one of the most impressive defensive players.
If he can contribute close to this level in the fall, he should have a spot along the Tigers’ starting front four.
Darrel Williams
My last up goes to rising sophomore running back Darrel Williams. You were probably thinking Leonard Fournette, but he was almost nonexistent in this game. Williams had two more carries than Fournette in the contest and looked better.
Please do not take Fournette having less carries as him losing his job or his spot even being in question because it isn’t. But LSU coach Les Miles does love to share the load for his running backs, and Williams looked like a consistent No. 2 back.
He showed the strength you’d expect from a 6-foot, 230-pound running back on most of his carries, including a five-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. But his most memorable play was his juke-filled screen catch in the red zone.
He took a short flip and looked dead in the water but used incredibly quick feet to make defenders miss in space. Williams proved he is just as successful in open space as he is between the tackles, and I expect him to carry that over to the fall.
Three Down
The Purple Team
This really shouldn’t be surprising to anyone, but the reserves were overmatched all game. It was like night and day.
Both quarterbacks were awful when they played for the Purple team because the defensive line swallowed them within seconds on each snap, leading to five sacks allowed. The purple offense put up six points and 91 yards.
As bad as the purple offense was, the defense might have been worse — maybe.
The purple defense allowed 505 yards and 45 points. Rising sophomore Russell Gage and freshman Kevin Toliver II consistently gave up big pass plays, while the defensive line didn’t get a single sack.
To be fair to Toliver, he did pick off Harris, but that was when the cornerback switched to the white team.
I’m not putting the purple team on blast because it’s supposed to be worse than white team, but I didn’t expect them to make the two quarterbacks look like Heisman contenders.
The Quarterback Competition
If you learned anything about the quarterback competition from the Spring Game, then you need to contact the athletic department and apply for an assistant position.
Earlier this week, I said to look for the small things in this game to determine who had improved since last season. But I’m not going to even do that because of the difference in talent on these two teams.
If you don’t believe me, look at the two quarterbacks stats while on each team.
On the purple team, Jennings went 5-for-6 for 27 yards and no touchdowns, while Harris posted 4-for-10 for 37 yards and no touchdowns. Comparatively, Jennings was 8-for-14 with 215 yards and two touchdowns, while Harris was 7-for-7 for 141 yards and two touchdowns on the white squad.
Both quarterbacks were bad on one team and superb on the other, meaning the battle will continue into the fall with little change.
Special Teams
The only part of the game the talent difference didn’t affect was the kicking game, but that left much to be desired.
Rising junior Colby Delahoussaye missed a 46-yard field goal, while sophomore Cameron Gamble kicked off out of bounds. And call me old-fashioned, but one hand touch on kickoff returns doesn’t get me pumped about football.
On a positive note, Delahoussaye knocked in a 23-yarder later, most of the kickoffs returns landed at the one-yard line and senior punter Jamie Keehn dropped both of his punts inside the 20.
Altogether, it wasn’t an awful day for special teams. But the kicking game is rhythmic, and LSU looked far from in a groove today. Good thing for the special teams unit, the season doesn’t start for another four and a half months.