5:30 am CT

Good morning, Tiger Fans,

Man, I don’t know what feels better: Knowing that LSU football kicks off in one week or feeling this first cool front come through as I sit here on my back patio. Seems like a good day to make a preseason practice gumbo, but I digress…

In today’s report, we’ll continue the series we began yesterday on what to expect from LSU football this fall. In our first installment, we wrote that you should expect a completely different defense. That got a lot of folks excited, and I suspect today’s topic will too. After that, a word on who will wear LSU’s prestigious jersey numbers 18 and 7.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM LSU FOOTBALL IN 2020, PART 2

Stronger run game

Coach Ed Orgeron has said on multiple occasions that LSU’s run game will be stronger in 2020. Some may consider that a stretch after seeing the success Clyde Edwards-Helaire had last year and the outstanding start he’s had this year as Kansas City’s first-round draft choice. Also, we’ve spent so much time praising LSU’s passing game last year that you may not realize the Tigers averaged 4.9 yards per carry. That’s an approximate 0.9 yard jump from the season prior and is LSU’s highest mark since 2016. So when Coach O says this year’s run game will be even stronger, that’s really saying something.

Why is Coach O so convinced? Well, besides Edwards-Helaire last year, you had most of the backfield getting their first real reps in a college game. Sure Chris Curry ran the ball eight times in 2018, but that hardly compares to 37 rushing attempts and getting most of his carries in a College Football Playoff game. While Curry blossomed as the season went along, freshmen Tyrion Davis-Price and John Emery accounted for more than 100 combined rushes last season. That experience, as well as having some real bulls on the offensive line like Ed Ingram (had a run block grade of 81.4 in 2017) and Liam Shanahan, who helped Harvard running back Aaron Shampkin eclipse 1,000 yards, certainly gives Orgeron’s comments some validity.

And really, by this point, fans should know that Orgeron is a straight shooter. When players have a ways to go, he says it. When players are showing out at practice and Orgeron raves about them, nine times out of 10 those players show out on game day. Coach O has consistently praised his stable of backs, including freshman Tre Bradford, and he’s spoken very highly of the job LSU’s all-time rushing leader and three-time Super Bowl Champion, Kevin Faulk, is doing in his first year as LSU’s running backs coach.

So, let’s take inventory: LSU returns three veteran backs. One of them (Emery) was ranked as the No. 1 RB prospect in the country out of high school and he’s not even at the top of the depth chart. The Tigers also added a true speedster in Bradford, and brought in one of the sports’ all-time greatest running backs – who happens to be a former Tiger – to coach them. When you put it that way, it’s not hard to see why Orgeron is so high on this unit.

Writing about the running backs is timely today because one of them – Chris Curry – has been selected to wear the No. 18, along with linebacker Damone Clark. (See video.) These are outstanding selections for the prestigious number that has come to represent success – both on and off the field – as well as a selfless attitude.

Curry has patiently awaited his turn and now enters the season primed to become LSU’s next great running back. It’s an interesting coincidence that Curry, a sophomore from Lehigh High School in Lehigh Acres, Fla., has played in exactly 18 games. He started in only one of the games, when he filled in for an injured Edwards-Helaire and rushed for 90 yards on 16 carries in the Tigers’ 63-28 semifinal win over Oklahoma.

Likewise, Clark, a native of Baton Rouge and a product of Southern Lab, patiently awaited his turn behind Patrick Queen and Jacob Phillips last year and is now set to start at middle linebacker as a centerpiece in Bo Pelini’s 4-3 defense. Clark currently has three starts to his name, 51 career tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.

Both players now join an elite group of No. 18s at LSU, a tradition that was born in 2003 when quarterback Matt Mauck led the Tigers to their first national title in football since 1958.

And on a related note that just so happens to serve perfectly for today’s countdown to game Day – which is at the 7-Day mark – LSU also announced that senior safety JaCoby Stevens has been awarded the No. 7 jersey. (See video.) What the number 7 designates is a little less defined than 18, but it’s become synonymous in my mind with playmaking ability, a quality Stevens possesses in abundance.

“What this number means to me is to be complete – to be a complete person on and off the field,” Stevens said. “That’s how my parents raised me. To be a complete person in everything I do whether it’s in football or in life. I can go on and on about wearing this number and what it means to me. It’s a huge honor.”

As stated in a press release issued by LSU, Stevens wore No. 7 on his high school football team and while playing AAU Basketball. He said the No. 7 has always been his favorite number because of former LSU All-America Patrick Peterson.

Congratulations to all three of these Tigers for the well-deserved recognition. I have no doubt they’ll wear the numbers well!

Content continues below.

Closing Tidbits:

• Tiger fans who won’t be going to the games this year can still have a presence inside Tiger Stadium. LSU announced that for $50, you can have your image on a cutout like the ones you’ve seen on TV. Here’s more on the topic including how to place your order.

• In high school football, punter Peyton Todd of West Monroe has suffered an injury and will miss the 2020 season. Todd is heralded as the top punter in the nation for the class of 2021 and is committed to LSU. Reports indicate that he suffered an ankle injury in a non-football related activity.

• I was deeply saddened to hear that Denham Springs’ junior lineman Remy Hidalgo has passed away. Hidalgo collapsed on the football field during Tuesday’s practice and died early Friday morning in a New Orleans hospital, according to a social media post made by his mother, Ashley Roberson. I cannot imagine the pain the Hidalgo family must be going through. Please keep them, and the Denham Springs community, in your prayers.

• Lastly, another bit of sad news, and a prayer request that hits closer to home. My first cousin, Amy Elizabeth Ardoin Windsor, passed away this Thursday at the age of 61. (The same age my sister, Karen, was at her passing.) I ask that you please keep the family in your prayers.

Enjoy your Saturday, Tiger Fans, knowing that it’s the last one before the reigning national champions return to the field.