LSU coach Ed Orgeron watched helplessly as Alabama defensive lineman Quinnen Williams had his way with LSU’s offensive line in the Tigers’ 29-0 loss to the Crimson Tide last November.
The Tigers offense had no answers for Williams as he wrecked LSU’s offense. He finished with 10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss and 2.5 sacks, and he had LSU quarterback Joe Burrow running for his life most of the night. Burrow ended the game 18-of-35 passing for 184 yards with an interception and was sacked a total of five times.
“Our offensive line was beat on one-on-ones,” Orgeron said following the game. “We had max protections. We were sliding. Their guys were beating us. They were stunting us. We tried everything we possibly could – go-four-wide, max protection – just got beat.”
Orgeron went further and was critical of both offensive and defensive line units saying he needs to recruit better players in the trenches. The comment drew backlash from both former and current players.
But the toughest critic in the aftermath of the loss to Alabama may have been center Lloyd Cushenberry, now a junior and handpicked by the team to wear No. 18 along with sophomore outside linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson.
Cushenberry called the performance embarrassing and placed the blame solely on the offensive line unit.
That criticism has been replaced by optimism coming into the season. Orgeron called the offensive line the most improved unit in fall practice, and his sentiments were echoed by Burrow.
“Those guys busted their tail all offseason. I’m so proud of them,” Burrow said. “We have six or seven guys that worked so hard this summer, and they’ve gotten so much better. I’m really proud of them.”
Improvement was expected for a unit that returns four starters in junior left tackle Saahdiq Charles, Cushenberry, senior right guard Damien Lewis and junior right tackle Austin Deculus. Then there’s senior Badara Traore, junior Adrian Magee and sophomore Chasen Hines who all started at least one game last season.
Magee and Hines are battling at left guard to replace Garrett Brumfield, who is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers after signing with a team as an undrafted free agent, and Traore is viewed as the team’s third offensive tackle.
Despite all the experience, not a lot of it was positive. The offensive line struggled with continuity and did not start the same five linemen in back-to-back games until seven games into the season.
Charles struggled with multiple injuries after a promising freshman season in 2017, and Deculus and Magee both struggled in pass protection at right tackle. Cushenberry and Lewis were the only offensive linemen to start all 13 games for LSU last season, and the effects from the inconsistency across the offensive line showed.
“When you start mixing and with people being out that’s kind of tough too because you’re used to playing next to a certain person even though our techniques are the same,” Charles said. “You start getting in a flow with one person, and it gets messed up a little bit.”
Burrow was sacked 35 times, which ranked 106th in the country, and he was constantly under duress when dropping back to pass. In an effort to relieve the constant pressure, LSU began using tight ends and running backs as extra blockers, which only compounded the issue.
A new offensive philosophy under passing game coordinator Joe Brady and improved health and conditioning are being viewed as a more permanent fix by the staff, but injuries along the offensive line hit the Tigers hard in fall camp as well. However, with the exception of freshman guard Kardell Thomas, Orgeron expects everyone to be healthy and ready to go into the season.
Camp injuries forced Charles, Hines and Lewis to all miss significant time, and it caused players to learn multiple different positions to fill in the gaps. Now that the everyone is back, the focus is on developing chemistry among the offensive line and making sure they work as one unit.
With the season now under way and the opener against Georgia Southern looming, the offensive line is the still the one remaining question mark regarding LSU.
And instead of watching without an answer to problems posed by Williams, Orgeron hopes months of evaluation and practice have finally put LSU’s offensive line back together.