This article is part of the Reveille’s LSU football preview coverage. Read all of it here.
Defensive Back University, or “DBU,” has been a staple in LSU football history for decades. While the past few seasons have been forgettable, head coach Brian Kelly and his staff have brought in a handful of transfers and high school talent to revisit the golden age of DBU.
However, they won’t have any time to ease into the season, as they will have their hands full against the wide receiver corps for Clemson.
Clemson finished the season unranked in 2023, and one of the reasons was that there wasn’t enough explosiveness in the offense.
The Tigers brought in talented playmakers a season ago, who allowed their quarterback, Cade Klubnik, to truly thrive in the offense.
To start, they brought in two young, talented true freshmen in Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore, who made an immediate impact.
Wesco is a four-star commit from Midlothian, Texas. He was second on the team in receiving yards with 708 yards and hauled in five touchdowns on the season.
Wesco is a true deep threat and is the type of guy to go up and make a contested catch. Any time Clemson throws the ball down the field for any big plays, there’s a good chance it’s Wesco on the other side of that.
For his first season in collegiate football, he demonstrated smooth route running, strong hands and the ability to make defenders miss after the play.
Moore came with Wesco in that 2024 freshman class and was ranked as the fourth-best receiver in the class according to 247 Sports.
Even as a freshman and playing with other great pass catchers, Moore still found a way to shine and make an impact for Clemson, hauling in 45 receptions, 651 yards and five touchdowns.
He finds a way to get open. He’ll run short and intermediate routes, find space over the middle of the field and get downfield to make a play one-on-one. It’s clear that he’s a playmaker, and Clemson wants to give him the football in any way possible.
If there was one target that was a clear favorite for Klubnik last season, it was junior receiver Antonio Williams.
Williams led the team in receptions with 75, while the pass catcher with the second most receptions only had 49. He totaled 904 yards with those catches and made 11 of them touchdowns.
Williams is a jack-of-all-trades type of receiver. Clemson lines him up in the slot, on the outside, and will even give him handoffs.
Not only is he incredibly shifty with the ball in his hands, but he’s also athletic enough to make catches in traffic over defenders.
And there’s more: Clemson rarely uses the transfer portal, and this year was no different, as they only brought in four players through the portal. One of the four players happened to be a wide receiver from Southeast Missouri State, Tristan Smith.
When the college football world saw Clemson use a transfer portal spot on a wide receiver, it caught people’s attention.
Smith had a great season at SEMO with 76 receptions, 934 yards and six touchdowns. He will be another experienced target for Klubnik, with tremendous size at 6-foot-5.
Clemson will also return its receiving leader from 2023 in Tyler Brown, who missed the majority of the season last year.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly already knows what challenge is ahead for his defense, especially with playmakers such as Williams and Wesco.
“Playmakers on the outside – Williams and Wesco are outstanding receivers,” Kelly said during Monday’s press conference.
But as for any coach and his team, he has confidence in the guys he’s brought in.
Kelly attacked the transfer portal, bringing in four transfers at the defensive back position: Mansoor Delane from Virginia Tech, Tamarcus Cooley from North Carolina State, AJ Haulcy from Houston and Ja’Keem Jackson from Florida.
Expect all of them to see the field this season, but Delane and Cooley particularly seem to have found their roles as starters.
The Tigers are also returning players like Ashton Stamps, who wants to solidify that other outside corner spot, and PJ Woodland, who has been taking strides in the right direction all camp.
Then you have an anomaly in the true freshman corner, DJ Pickett, who stands at 6-foot-5 and can see the field sooner rather than later.
“They have practiced, they have competed in the manner that we’ve thought that they would,” Kelly said. “They attack every practice, they’re our hardest workers. That, in my experience, has proven to be the differentiator between those guys that haven’t played a lot of football and have. They play with a swagger.”
A group filled with talent, experience and competitiveness is why Kelly believes in his secondary to take the challenge head-on against a talented group of wide receivers like Clemson’s.
“This is going to be a great challenge – one that we’re excited about, one that we’re up for, and any goal that you put out there is worthwhile unless it’s a challenge,” Kelly said.
