LSU’s defense has landed an early spotlight, and it comes with two familiar names attached.
Veteran linebacker Whit Weeks and Ole Miss transfer edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen were both named to the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list, putting LSU among the schools with multiple players in the mix for college football’s top defensive honor.
The award goes to the nation’s best defensive player, and LSU’s pair fits the profile. Umanmielen arrives as the No. 1 edge rusher in the transfer portal and brings immediate pass-rush punch after following head coach Lane Kiffin from Oxford. Weeks, meanwhile, is heading into his fourth season with the Tigers and is ranked No. 6 nationally among linebackers for the 2027 NFL Draft.
Their inclusion adds more heat to what is already shaping up as a big defensive season in Baton Rouge. LSU enters the year with the No. 2-ranked defensive unit in college football, and both players are expected to be central figures in a group that could challenge some of the SEC’s best offenses.
The watch list includes 68 players, and LSU getting two of them says plenty about the program’s defensive reputation. It’s another sign that the Tigers are leaning hard into the identity that has long made them known as “D-line University.”
There’s also a bigger number hanging over all of this: 2007. That was the last time an LSU player won the Nagurski Trophy, when defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey took it home. Since then, Patrick Peterson in 2010, Morris Claiborne in 2011, and Grant Delpit in 2018 all reached finalist status but fell short.
Now LSU has two defenders with a chance to break that drought. With expectations already sky-high for the upcoming season, Weeks and Umanmielen have given the Tigers another reason to believe the trophy could make its way back to Baton Rouge.
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