Sports Illustrated Predicts Every 2024 LSU Football Game
The LSU Tigers are set to embark in year 3 of the Brian Kelly era, and expectations are pretty high. Not like "National Championship" expectations, but "double-digit wins and playoff" expectations.
Which is honestly a little shocking for a program that just lost a Heisman Trophy quarterback and two wide receivers in the First Round of the NFL Draft. But like they often say, LSU doesn't rebuild, they reload.
The starting quarterback job is now in the hands of Redshirt Junior Garrett Nussmeier, who got off to a hot start in his first audition for the job. In last season's bowl game, Nussmeier threw for 395 passing yards and 3 touchdowns in a 35-31 win over the Wisconsin Badgers in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Nussmeier should have plenty of time to throw the ball this year, with the best offensive tackles in college football in front of him. Will Campbell and Emery Jones could both be First Round NFL Draft picks, and are starting on the same line. There will also be plenty of weapons to throw to, including a transfer who caught over 1,000 yards last season.
CJ Daniels has transferred in from Liberty, and brought some expectations with him. Even though the competition wasn't the strongest at Liberty, he caught 1,067 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. If his skills transfer to better football, he could be a huge asset for the Tigers. If Daniels can't keep up with better ballplayers, Kyren Lacy will be the main offensive weapon for the Tigers.
Last year, Lacy played in over 575 snaps for LSU, and while he only caught 25 passes, 7 of them went for touchdowns. His role will definitely expand in 2024.
Even with some overhaul on the offensive side of the ball, the expectations for LSU are higher than one might expect. With former LSU and Alabama National Champion Coach Nick Saban projecting LSU as a College Football Playoff team, and others calling for at least 10 wins from the Tigers.
Sports Illustrated dropped a game-by-game prediction for the Tigers, and have some pretty high expectations for Brian Kelly's squad as well. Here's what they project:
The Season Breakdown:
Week 1 (USC): Win
Week 2 (Nicholls State): Win
Week 3 (at South Carolina): Win
Week 4 (UCLA): Win
Week 5 (South Alabama): Win
Week 6: Bye
Week 7 (Ole Miss): Win
Week 8 (at Arkansas): Win
Week 9 (at Texas A&M): Loss
Week 10: Bye
Week 11 (Alabama): Loss
Week 12 (at Florida): Win
Week 13 (Vanderbilt): Win
Week 14 (Oklahoma): Win
Sports Illustrated says the Tigers will be 10-2 when they wrap up against Oklahoma. Their predictions actually call LSU's schedule "favorable", which is surprising when they're opening against perennial powerhouse USC and have a full SEC schedule. Not much "favorable" about playing multiple Top 10 ranked teams...but that's just an SEC schedule I guess.