LSU Football: 2017 Season preview and predictions

Offense

Derrius Guice is one of the best players in college football today. He’s also the entirety of the LSU offense, or at least that seemed to be the case last season. As a backup to future NFL draft pick Leonard Fournette, Guice led the SEC in rushing last year. In fact, Guice was responsible for nearly one-third of all the yards gained by the Tigers in 2016.

That’s not sustainable if the Tigers are going to compete for an SEC championship. The better defenses in the conference know how to stop a one-dimensional team. That’s what happened last year against Alabama and Florida. The passing attack is going to have to take a step forward. New head coach Ed Orgeron hired the right man to get that done when he brought in Matt Canada from Pittsburgh.

Canada will be hard at work this offseason with quarterbacks Danny Etling and Myles Brennan. The starting job belongs to Etling, for now, but there seems to be a higher upside with the new freshman signee. Whomever gets the call will have their eyes focused in on wide receiver D.J. Chark.

The Tigers haven’t had a top 40 passing offense in a decade. They’re not going to magically turn into a spread offense over night, but they should take significant strides in 2017. If they don’t they’re going to have a hard time landing elite quarterback prospects in the future with no track record of development and no Les Miles to sweet talk them to Baton Rouge.