LSU coach Ed Orgeron once had a conversation with defensive coordinator Dave Aranda during a recruiting trip about the team having more scholarship kickers and punters than inside linebackers.
Now Aranda’s linebacking corp goes two-deep at all four positions and three-deep at others.
The obvious anchor is All-American inside linebacker Devin White, who heads into his junior season as a consensus first round pick in the 2019 NFL draft. In Aranda’s 3-4 defense, White plays the Rover position — a playmaking linebacker that flies from sideline to sideline and often gets after the quarterback in a blitz-heavy scheme. White picked up 133 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss and 4 ½ sacks at the position in 2017.
“Everybody wants to know what we are doing and how we done got so good,” White said, “but just know [Aranda] has been working extremely hard and he’s going to have a great game plan every game, and we are going to execute and dominate.”
Next to White is sophomore Jacob Phillips, the top-ranked inside linebacker in the class of 2017 according to 247sports.com. Phillips beat out sophomore Tyler Taylor — who started five games in 2017 in place of Donnie Alexander — at the Mack inside linebacker during the spring.
Taylor has been suspended indefinitely following reports that recently came to light about his arrest in Georgia back in January. His suspension opened the door for true freshmen Micah Baskerville and Damone Clark, who was praised by Orgeron after the Tigers’ second scrimmage on Aug. 18.
“He’s raw, but he’s good,” White said about Clark. “He won’t redshirt. He’s going to find his way on that field. I don’t know if it’ll be getting a lot of reps at inside linebacker or mostly special teams, but he’s a guy that’s built for the SEC.”
So, how has the added depth at the two inside linebacker spots changed White’s approach from 2017 when he rarely — if ever — left the field?
For one, he wants to play more on special teams, proclaiming himself a “kickoff master,” and hopes his leading by example on special teams rubs off on the younger players — much like Jarvis Landry, Duke Riley and Russell Gage have done previously.
White said he is a part of punt coverage team, but he keeps asking special teams coach Greg McMahon to put him on kickoff coverage as well.
“He will not put me on there, I don’t know why,” White said jokingly. “I keep asking coach Mac to let me get on kickoffs, too, because the more you’re on special teams like that, those count as tackles in the game. So, if I can get those, I think it’d mean a lot.”
Secondly, White is ready to get snaps at running back and become the first two-way player for LSU since former cornerback Donte Jackson did it for a brief period early on in his freshman season in 2015.
“I talked to [offensive coordinator Steve] Ensminger,” White said. “I told him, ‘You recruited me out of high school to run the ball for LSU, and now you really hold a lot of power for who gets the ball, so let me get at least five goal line touchdowns.’”
In high school, White was a Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-State player at running back in 2014 and 2015, when he ran for 1,650 yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior and made it as an athlete in 2013.
“[Ensminger] said he’s working on it, he’s a man of his word, and hopefully, we can see Devin White run the ball in 2018,” White added.
Even if White doesn’t see the field at running back — which was his solution to the offense’s woes — he still has high praise for the offense he has been competing against for almost three weeks.
“They’ve been doing a lot of NFL stuff,” he said. “I’m not going to say what team they got their stuff from, but they’ve got a great scheme and just getting the playmakers the ball in space. I think they just need to go dominate another defense. I think they’ve got all the right cards, you just need to know how to play them.”
One of those cards might be putting White in as the wildcat quarterback — a spot that was going to be manned by redshirt freshman quarterback Lowell Narcisse before he transferred to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
White even picked out a name for the package: “The Game Changer.”