LSU football spring practice 2023 Day 1: Brian Kelly deals with injuries, absences

BATON ROUGE - On the first day of LSU football's spring practice, the offense and defense were separated into two fields. Defense to the left. Offense to the right.

To the left field, it was mostly business as usual. But to the right, something was off, particularly at running back.

During the media availability portion of practice, only three running backs participated in a balancing drill instructed by running backs coach Frank Wilson. With John Emery Jr., Armoni Goodwin, Josh Williams and Kaleb Jackson not available, only two of the three backs – senior Noah Cain and early-enrollee freshman Trey Holly – were on scholarship. The third running back was walk-on Malachi Lane.

According to coach Brian Kelly, Williams will be back soon, but Goodwin (knee) will be out until preseason practices; Jackson, a freshman signee, won't join the team until the summer; and Emery is away from the team for an undisclosed amount of time for academic reasons.

"(Emery) got some marks that he has to hit from an academic standpoint before we talk about football with him," Kelly said.

LSU's running backs room was the starkest example of what is wrong with the Tigers as it began their second set of spring practices under Kelly: Injuries and absences.

On the offensive line, the Tigers only have seven available scholarship players. All four of their freshman signees (Lance Heard, Tyree Adams, DJ Chester and Paul Mubenga) did not enroll early and starting center Charles Turner is out for the spring with an injury. LSU added Maryland transfer Mason Lunsford from the portal this week, but he has yet to enroll.

"We're really thin on the offensive line," Kelly said. "So the charge will be after today, really focusing on shoring up that group."

LSU's defensive line will also be light this spring, with star defensive tackle Maason Smith and freshman signee Da'Shawn Womack limited as non-contact participants and West Virginia transfer Jordan Jefferson and Mekhi Wingo out for the entire spring with injuries.

At quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier participated in practice, but Kelly said he still isn't 100% after having corrective surgery this offseason. Other notable injury absences include Alabama wide receiver transfer Aaron Anderson, Syracuse cornerback transfer Duce Chestnut and Mason Taylor, who are all out for the spring.

"Aaron Anderson is coming back from surgery so we haven't seen him yet," Kelly said. "But we know about his story and how great of a high school player he was in the state. If he can carry that onto the field here at LSU, we're penciling him in, obviously, somewhere."

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Thankfully for Tiger fans, none of the injured players are in jeopardy of missing LSU's season opener against Florida State on Sept. 3, at least for now.

And although the roster may not reflect this currently, Kelly knows that LSU has the depth to survive injuries better than it did a year ago. The Tigers may currently have holes at spots like running back and offensive line, but they still have a much deeper roster after reloading the defense through the transfer portal and adding 25 signees from the high school ranks.

By the end of this upcoming season, Kelly is hoping that LSU's extra depth will pay off.

"If you look at the SEC (Championship) Game, there were a lot of compressed formations where they were cracking down on our best players and forcing some guys that were less than 100% to make plays in the running game," Kelly said. "...Certainly (by) the tail end of November, it was becoming pretty clear that (our depth) needed to be addressed."

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football: Injuries, absences highlight Day 1 of spring practices