The LSU Football team put an official wrap on the 2024 season on Tuesday Night, as the Tigers beat Baylor in the Texas Bowl. We're now both onto a new season and onto a New Year with a ton of excitement building for the 2025 season as LSU landed a loaded transfer class. As we officially have entered 2025, we got into the Holiday Spirit and came up with 5 attainable New Year's Resolutions for the LSU Football team.
Become more efficient in the Redzone
One of the things that cost LSU the most this season was inefficiency when the Tigers got down into the Redzone. Through the Bowl Game, LSU made 53 trips to the redzone scoring 44 times (83.02%), 30 trips resulted in touchdowns (56.60%), and 14 were field goals (26.42%). Next season, the Tigers need to do a better job at ending the trips with touchdowns which will take the offense to the next level.
In the Bowl Game, we saw one potential fix as Trey'Dez Green used his size to elevate for a score on the opening drive and later got open to score again. The offense will get a similar boost from transfer Nic Anderson who is 6 foot 4 and was a touchdown machine in 2023. The other fix could be an improved rushing attack as LSU often got stuffed in the redzone which forced them into obvious passing downs.
Become more effective in the rushing attack
This season, the Tigers were far too reliant on the passing attack passing for 315.3 yards per game which ranked 7th in the country while the rushing attack ranked 108th picking up 116.6 yards per game. Over the final three games of the season, Brian Kelly got more involved in the offense and the play calling to try making the rushing attack more effective.
The Tigers passing attack will only get better in 2025 as LSU brings in Nic Anderson, Barion Brown, Destyn Hill, and Bauer Sharp. This offseason, the Coaching Staff is going to need to figure out what changes to the scheme need to be made so LSU has a balanced approach on offense in 2025.
Create more turnovers
The easiest way to improve the defense is by creating more turnovers as it instantly ends the drive keeping points off the board. Several times this season including in the Texas Bowl, we've seen LSU drop an interception only for it to cost the Tigers as the opponent got a second life on the drive. Including the Bowl Game, LSU came away with 6 interceptions and 8 fumble recoveries forcing just over 1 turnover per game.
Next season, the defense needs to force more turnovers especially, in the SEC portion of the schedule. The Tigers should get some help as the cornerback room will be overhauled with Ja'Keem Jackson, Mansoor Delane, and DJ Pickett coming in. The Tigers need to add help at safety as the Tigers clearly need help there as they lack impact players while they'll hope an edge rusher like Patrick Payton can help in forcing fumbles.
Cut down on Pre Snap Penalties
This season one of the biggest issues for the LSU Football team that flew under the radar was the number of times that the Tigers took a Pre-Snap penalty on offense. Far too often, the Tigers took false start penalties on important drives in important games making a tough situation even tougher for the offense. This wasn't just young inexperienced players but, multi-year starters making crucial unforced errors. In 2025, the Tigers need to cut down on the false starts and stop putting themselves in a hole because of a lack of focus.
Have a 1,000+ yard receiver
This season, Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson gave the Tigers solid production but, the Tigers didn't have a 1,000 yard receiver after having two in 2023. The Tigers should easily be able to get a wide receiver above the 1,000 yard mark considering Aaron Anderson and Chris Hilton Jr are returning while the Tigers add Nic Anderson and Barion Brown.
The biggest reason LSU may not attain this goal is because there are simply too many receivers to feed as the Tigers may have the best receiving core in the Country. On the other hand, LSU's struggles running the football should make the Tigers lean on the passing attack and with Garrett Nussmeier running the offense the receivers should get plenty of catches.
Stop having field goals blocked
At most levels of Football, blocking a field goal is a rarity and extra points are seemingly a free point. This season for the LSU, it seemed like a weekly occurrence where LSU was missing out on points as a kick was blocked or rushed and misses whether it was due to a bad snap, a bad hold, bad blocking, or just missed all together. The first step in this resolution is hiring a full time special teams coach rather than assigning it to a position coach. From there, LSU needs to drill this constantly in practice so the Tigers get to the point where this is no longer an issue.