{"id":75309,"date":"2025-07-15T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=75309"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:48:07","slug":"tigers-talk-lsu-at-sec-media-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/07\/15\/tigers-talk-lsu-at-sec-media-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers Talk LSU at SEC Media Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s officially talking season, as Brian Kelly and three of his Tigers have given their thoughts on LSU at SEC Media Days. Garrett Nussmeier<\/a>, Whit Weeks<\/a>, and Chris Hilton predictably followed Kelly\u2019s precedent in avoiding bulletin board material and bold statements. However, they managed to find a happy medium between completely opening up and saying nothing at all.<\/p>\n

LSU at SEC Media Days<\/h2>\n

Kelly Stockpiles His Staff<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s generally accepted that the 2025 Tigers will be Kelly\u2019s most talented group<\/a> of players, but he could also have his most complete staff. Both Blake Baker and Joe Sloan are back for their second season as Defensive Coordinator and Offensive Coordinator, respectively. The staff is littered with proven position coaches and recruiters like Frank Wilson and Corey Raymond. Speaking of recruiting, Kelly spoke on the importance of Senior Associate Athletic Director Austin Thomas\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think Austin has done a terrific job in this new order that we\u2019re in. Brings a lot of experience being at multiple schools in the SEC; his ability. He\u2019s extremely bright and innovative when it comes to the revenue sharing plan we had in place, and certainly NIL,\u201d Kelly stated.<\/p>\n

Thomas served as LSU\u2019s General Manager in 2021 before leaving for a similar position at Tennessee. Just recently, he\u2019s added USC\u2019s Jeff Martin, Ohio State\u2019s Sam Pettito, and Kelvin Bolden of Ole Miss to the staff to streamline recruiting, NIL, and revenue sharing. The roster management specialist has spoken about “modernizing” LSU’s approach to player acquisition and retention.<\/p>\n

\"LSU
Photo courtesy:\u00a0 Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nussmeier on New Threats Emerging Sooner than Later<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Yes, we\u2019re talking about the former Oklahoma Sooners in the LSU passing game. And yes, we\u2019re willing to commit to a corny subheading to illustrate a point. The Tigers have added multiple receiving weapons via the transfer portal, and Nussmeier was asked specifically about Oklahoma transfers Bauer Sharp<\/a> at tight end and Nic Anderson<\/a> at wide receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cBauer has kind of added another level of backbone to our offense, and that type of mindset he has. He\u2019s ready to take somebody\u2019s face off. And he can make plays, and he\u2019s electric with the ball in his hand,\u201d said Nussmeier.<\/p>\n

With weapons like Trey\u2019Dez Green<\/a> at tight end, it\u2019s easy to overlook Sharp. However, Sharp was Oklahoma\u2019s leading receiver in 2024 and apparently adds a needed edge to the tight end position.<\/p>\n

Nussmeier on Anderson, \u201cNic, on the other hand, is around the same way. He\u2019s very electric, very, very good football player, and makes plays on the ball in the air that are unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

LSU returns its leading receiver, Aaron Anderson, as well as deep threats Barion Brown and Hilton. At 6\u2019-4\u201d and 210 pounds, Anderson presents a different challenge than the other Tiger receivers when healthy. He\u2019s a prototypical \u201cX\u201d receiver with the ability to make acrobatic catches as well as run after the catch. Anderson\u2019s emergence could take this group from great to elite.<\/p>\n

Chris Hilton Talks Redemption and Wide Receiver Depth <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A former top-100 recruit in 2021, Hilton has faced his share of adversity at LSU. Injuries have continued to impact his availability, and he\u2019s hoping to finally enter a season completely healthy. When on the field, he\u2019s pressed to make plays at times, which has resulted in drops and mis-timed jumps. When asked about an opposing venue he\u2019d like to visit, he thought back to Ole Miss in 2023. Hilton had a chance to make a catch in the end zone to win the game, but the ball bounced off his fingertips.<\/p>\n

\u201cOle Miss. That one is a little personal for me because back in \u201923, I had the chance to win that game. Didn\u2019t work out like that. So that would probably be what I would like to go back to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton also spoke about how the depth of LSU\u2019s receiving room should cause problems for defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, you try to put emphasis on one of us, you\u2019ve still got to worry about two others. If you somehow find a way to guard two of us, you still have a third you\u2019ve got to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n

A common theme for LSU at SEC Media Days was the skill and speed at the receiver position. If the Tigers can manage to play better complementary football with the running game, this should be a scary group.<\/p>\n

Whit Weeks Should be Ready to Go<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Weeks emerged as a consistent playmaker and defensive leader for the Tigers in 2024. He suffered an unfortunate lower leg injury in the Texas Bowl<\/a>, but his recovery is apparently going well.<\/p>\n

Weeks on his status, \u201cI feel like within these past four weeks, five weeks, whatever; since the start of June, I\u2019ve really been able to get back to being my old self. So I did sit out this spring, but now I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s encouraging news for the returning star, but his comments on a Tiger teammate could also excite LSU fans. Here\u2019s what Weeks had to say about another player coming off an injury, Harold Perkins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit for Harold. He\u2019s the best athlete I\u2019ve probably ever seen in my whole life. If you let Harold be Harold, he\u2019ll be a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weeks isn\u2019t the first person to make a statement like this regarding Perkins. Now, the question is if his move to the Star position will let \u201cHarold be Harold\u201d. If so, the LSU defense could make a significant step forward in 2025.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s officially talking season, as Brian Kelly and three of his Tigers have given their thoughts on LSU at SEC Media Days. Garrett Nussmeier, Whit Weeks, and Chris Hilton predictably followed Kelly\u2019s precedent in avoiding bulletin board material and bold statements. However, they managed to find a happy medium between completely opening up and saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4690,"featured_media":75313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10906,35582,3],"tags":[33444,35310,4504,729,8012,8399,451,35311,33751,35306,86,37,258,35312],"class_list":["post-75309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cfb","category-ole-miss-rebels","category-sec","tag-aaron-anderson","tag-austin-thomas","tag-blake-baker","tag-brian-kelly","tag-chris-hilton","tag-corey-raymond","tag-frank-wilson","tag-jeff-martin","tag-joe-sloan","tag-kelvin-bolden","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-sam-pettito"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75309"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75316,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75309\/revisions\/75316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}