College Football: Preseason Top 25 Projections

LSU is a tough team to gauge this offseason. So much of the talent from last year’s up-and-down squad is gone from last year. The majority of those losses, though, were on a perpetually-underachieving offense that never seemed to add up to the sum of its parts. The 2017 squad spent much of the season in the AP Top 25.

They fell out for two weeks after losing to eventual Sun Belt champion Troy. LSU dropped out of the polls a second time for a single week when they stumbled against eventual College Football Playoff national champion and perpetually SEC West nemesis Alabama. Working in LSU’s favor is the fact that they will be far less depleted on defense. And the Bayou Bengals have succeeded in the past on the strength of stout defenses.

A top-20 defense was betrayed by its offense a few too many times, but the Tigers still had a shot at a 10-win season in 2017 and managed to end the year No. 18 in the AP Top 25. This year should probably feature much more of the same. Expect at least one inexplicable loss, rendering the Tigers afterthoughts in the SEC West battle once again. But another 10-win season is possible in Baton Rouge.