LSU has been dealing with players transferring from the program for a while now. After losing former cornerback Saivion Smith, former John Curtis standout Willie Allen announced he would be transferring in the same week. Willie Allen became the third offensive linemen to transfer from LSU since the hiring of coach Ed Orgeron.
Allen joined former offensive linemen Chidi Okeke and Andy Dodd to leave LSU. Allen has officially reopened his recruiting process — a very odd and unlikely decision no one saw coming. It appeared he had a great shot at making a run at a starting position with the lack of veterans returning.
Allen was the No. 2 rated offensive linemen coming out of high school in the class of 2016, holding offers from over 25 other major D-1 programs including LSU, TCU, Georgia, and Alabama. Like former John Curtis sensations Malachi Dupre and Duke Riley, Allen came to LSU with sky-high expectations on his shoulders to compete for a starting position immediately. However, things did not turn out as expected for the highly-touted recruit.
Before the start of his freshman campaign, Allen suffered a brutal unidentified leg injury in the middle of summer camp that sidelined him for the entire season. He had surgery last fall and has been recovering since. Allen has never played a snap as an LSU Tiger, mostly due to his injury, but also because there were established players already in place when he chose LSU.
With Allen being out, the Tigers will only return nine scholarship offensive linemen. The only true veterans returning are senior tackle K.J. Malone and junior tackle Toby Weathersby.
With the overwhelming amount of youth on the entire team going into next season, especially on the offensive line, there are question marks going into the season. Will the inexperience cost the Tigers at time during the season? With a relatively weak schedule to start the season, this would be a great time for the younger players to build camaraderie with one another against lesser competition. Assuming the team goes through growing pains, it would be imperative for the newly-inserted players to have gained confidence before the gauntlet in November arrives.
These questions will hopefully be answered as the season approaches. With LSU having a strength of schedule ranked in the top 20 heading into the 2017-2018 season, freshmen players will have to mature faster than normal if the Tigers will be successful.
The likely landing spot for the former LSU offensive linemen is TCU. TCU was a strong consideration for Allen when being recruited out of high school, but he ultimately chose to join the LSU family.
The constant decisions of players leaving could really hurt the Tigers in the long run, shortening their depth chart little by little.
JBriaan Johnson is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Patterson, Louisiana.
