SEC football power rankings after spring portal closes: Did Aggies get better?

Post-SEC Spring Power Rankings: #8 - LSU Tigers

Maybe this is low for the Bayou Bengals. It’s certainly lower than how the preseason pollsters have them ranked. Even so, I think this is where they appropriately slot ahead of next season.

Losing Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas isn’t something this program will just shrug off. Garrett Nussmeier is a decent QB, yes, but I don’t think he will step right into Daniels’s role without a hitch—for one thing, part of what made the former Heisman winner so deadly was his ability to run the ball, which Nuss does not have.

And that’s not to mention the loss of Mike Denbrock to Notre Dame or Logan Diggs to the portal. The architect behind LSU’s most effective unit, along with the guys that made it go, are all gone. That must and will be felt very acutely by the Tigers.

And I don’t think the addition of Blake Baker fixes the Tigers’ issues on the defensive side of the ball, either. Harold Perkins is a good player, but they’re still trying to put him as a middle linebacker—where he is far less effective. Their highest-rated signee, former Texas A&M football commit Dom McKinley, is extremely toolsy but may not make an impact right away.

All this to say: LSU should be good. But you need to be better than simply good to compete in this conference, and I am not optimistic about their ability to rise above that level.