All-SEC/preseason All-American LT Chris Faulk suffered an MCL tear that is expected take him out of action for a large portion of the season. He is considered the best OL on the team and a 3 year starter. Taking his place will come out of either the starting LG Collins, backup G Dworacyk, or RT Hurst moves over to LT with the vacated starting RT spot taken by true freshman Vadal Alexander.

[This message has been edited by JapanLSUfan (edited 9/6/2012 3:47a).]

I'd guess former starter and 11th year Sr Dworacek steps in. La'El was a 5*. It sucks but there's talent to step up for the starting role. It does throw Vidal a lot more reps and that where a possible problem could happen.

Our tackles our All-SEC caliber but struggled at times as freshman.

Wasn't Faulk supposed to be the first lineman off the board in the NFL draft?

Big, big loss. Tough luck for you guys.

It's official. Junior OT Chris Faulk is out for the remainder of the season after tearing his MCL in practice. There were expectations that he would forgo his final season at LSU to enter the NFL draft. Looks like he will be returning for his senior season.

I just marked 10/20/12 as a W

Hell, might mean both Joeckel (sp) and Mathews leave for NFL now....so that injury may bite us.

But, more importantly, tell-tale sign that if one of our OL goes down, we don't have the same depth like LSU does at the moment.

They're likely to be playing a freshman a lot in Vidal Alexander just like we would be

I think we'd be ok losing one OL. Lose 2 and we're fuuuurked

Les Miles will give backup LG Josh Dworacyk a shot at LT. He was LSU's starter at LG before he had to sit out all of last season due to a knee injury which allowed La'el Collins to supplant him as the starter.

Vadal Alexander was slated as the backup RT from the start of the season. He did very well during the summer and already has the size coming out of HS at 6'6" 350 pounds.

Other true freshmen who had their red-shirts removed:

OLB Deion Jones (backup)
OLB Lorenzo Phillips (3rd string)
OLB Kwon Alexander (3rd string)
MLB Ronnie Feist (backup)
DE Danielle Hunter (ST)
SS Corey Thompson (3rd string)
CB Jalen Mills (starter)
SNP Reid Ferguson (starter)
TE Dillon Gordon (4th string)
P Jamie Keehn (backup)



[This message has been edited by JapanLSUfan (edited 9/8/2012 2:04a).]

Hope the kid recovers. Never wish an injury on someone.

I hate serious injuries, too. Sorry.





[This message has been edited by Harry Angstrom (edited 9/10/2012 9:10a).]

That sucks for Tiger fans. You never know though. The next guy behind him may step up.

I don't know about y'all, but every time an opponent has a player go down, I'm fearful that their replacement will come out rolling and having some sort of (non-ghey) coming out party.

Can a former starter 6th yr sr have a coming out party?

You can have a coming out party at any point in your career, I suppose.

Didn't look like it slowed them down a bit!

What about these 4?

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/tahj-jones-among-four-lsu-football-players-academically-ineligible-091212

quote:

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Linebacker Tahj Jones and tight end Tyler Edwards are among four LSU players declared academically ineligible for the remainder of the football season, The Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.
Citing a source close to the program, the paper reported linebacker D.J. Welter and offensive lineman Evan Washington, both sophomores, are the other ineligible players.

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Tahj Jones was the biggest loss because he was projected to start at SLB. Klein, TX native Luke Muncie has started in his place since game 1 and has looked pretty good.

The next biggest loss would be OT Evan Washington due to the loss of LT Chris Faulk to a season-ending injury. If anyone can remember, Washington came from DeSoto HS as one of the best TX o-line prospects in his recruiting class.

Tyler Edwards is a senior blocking TE in a roster full of blocking TE's.

DJ Welter was getting passed up by true freshmen LB's so his loss should not be a huge blow. In the last recruiting class, LSU signed 6 linebackers. 4 of them had their red-shirts burned since game 1. Lamar Louis hasn't played yet due to a hamstring injury he suffered during the summer and Trey Granier may still be recovering from an injury that ended his senior season in HS. This may turn out to be the most talented LB haul in recent LSU history.

DE Jordan Allen suffered a season-ending leg injury in the Washington game. The 6'6" 252 pound sophomore from West Monroe was listed as the 6th DE in the depth chart. This will most likely move true freshman Danielle Hunter of Katy, TX into the 3-deep. He had already burned his red-shirt in the first game of the season playing on special teams.

At what point do you start to worry about the depth of the Tigers? Or are you already concerned?

No concern at all yet.

Rusty, you see that Ag tag by your name? That means you won't ever be concerned with LSU's depth (or lack of).

[This message has been edited by Rusty gcs (edited 9/12/2012 12:13p).]

I used a buddies name to get the AgTag so I could get super secret AggiesOnly info

That's it! Where's my pitch fork??

And by no concern I meant that I don't feel it any more likely for LSU to lose a game, specifically to the Fightin' Farmers.

So, no concern in their depth yet. Now if Mett, Mingo, Montgomery, ODB, or pretty much anybody in the secondary go down then we're talking.

If Russell Shepherd gets hurt that's a net positive for LSU haha

Maybe not to the Ags, but all these losses could cost the Tigers a game somewhere.

The Tigers top 5 DE's can start just about anywhere in the country. Same can be said about the DT's. LSU's entire backup and third string at linebacker are all true freshmen so they are pretty much interchangeable. A loss of a starting LB would mean a drop-off in experience but no drop-off in talent. A loss of an OT or CB in the 2-deep would be a major blow. After Tharold Simon, the rest of the CB's are all freshmen with no game experience. The 2 TD's that North Texas scored against LSU were the result of their best WR matched up against an LSU safety.

LSU starting RB Alfred Blue suffered a knee injury in the latest game against Idaho. He is expected to sit out at least a month to recover from his injury.

Blue is the only RB on LSU's roster not rated at least a 4-star coming out of high school. He had worked his way up to #1 RB after improving his game to the point where he became the most dependable RB on a roster full of great RB's.

Expected depth chart excluding Blue:

Kenny Hilliard, soph.
Michael Ford, RS junior
Spencer Ware, junior
Jeremy Hill, freshman




[This message has been edited by JapanLSUfan (edited 9/18/2012 3:06a).]

Back in time for the game at Kyle?

Also, crazy that Ware is 3rd...didn't he start most of last year?

quote:

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Back in time for the game at Kyle?

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Very probable but I doubt he gets his starting job back. Competition at RB is pretty fierce.

quote:

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Also, crazy that Ware is 3rd...didn't he start most of last year?

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He started for the first 4 or 5 games but got passed up by Hilliard, Blue, and Ford. Sophomore RB Kenny Hilliard has a chance to lock down the starting job.

Yeah it looks like injuries have caught up to LSU. The o-line is held together by pieces of bubble gum. There is no time for the QB to throw the ball. LT Chris Faulk looks to be an even bigger loss than Tyrann Mathieu.

FB Copeland out with knee injury. Hopefully back soon. He's very very good and important to this team

LSU has recruited good enough that their 2nd team OL should be better than most team's 1st team. You will have to forgive me if I don't shed a tear for the "poor" LSU Tigers and their depleted OL.

^ That is correct when you are talking about LSU's second string o-line vs most schools in the nation not possessing Bama, USC, UGA, UF, Auburn, and MSU defensive lines. Looks like A&M's defensive line can be included in that list from what I've been seeing. Demontre Moore looks very impressive at DE. The o-line is the make or break position group for an offense that makes its living off a powerful run game. The most important lineman out is a major dent to the chemistry of the o-line. Talent can easily be accumlated from recruiting but youth cannot readily replace that missing chemistry. Reference Bama vs Utah in the Sugarbowl when star LT Andre Smith got suspended.

Rusty, you are absolutely correct about J.C. Copeland. The 6-1 285 pound monster at fullback is a major piece of the run game. Without him, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to pound the rock against the Gators at their home stadium. He is a huge loss.

I read somewhere that Blue might be out for a while?

Best case is that Blue will be back sometime in November. It's start to look more and more likely that he may not be back this season.