LSU’s defense is making an early statement, and Princewill Umanmielen is the one driving it.
The Ole Miss transfer came up with three more sacks Saturday in LSU’s 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech, pushing his season total to five. That means Umanmielen has already topped Harold Perkins, who led the Tigers with four sacks in 2025, and he did it in just eight quarters.
That kind of start is turning heads for a defense that needs every disruptive snap it can get. Umanmielen already has more than half as many sacks as he had all of last season, when he finished with nine and ranked third among SEC defenders in the category. He entered the transfer portal last offseason as one of the top players available, and he’s now looking like exactly the sort of edge presence LSU needs for defensive coordinator Blake Baker’s plan to take shape.
The bigger picture is hard to miss. LSU’s 2025 defense finished 23rd in the FBS in scoring defense, but the pass rush never fully caught up, as the Tigers totaled just 27 sacks.
Nine SEC teams had more. This season, LSU has already produced 11 sacks, and the early returns suggest a unit that’s starting to create the kind of chaos Baker wants.
Through two games in 2026, LSU’s opponents have combined for only 285 yards, a number the Tigers said is the fourth-fewest they’ve allowed through the first two games of a season in program history.
“It almost felt like they were going to get a turnover on every possession,” coach Lane Kiffin said Saturday.
Louisiana Tech entered the game with some confidence after rushing for 232 yards and scoring 80 points in its season-opening win over Northwestern State. Against LSU, though, the Bulldogs were buried on the ground, finishing at negative-3 rushing yards.
According to the College Football Reference database, it was only the fourth time since 1995 that LSU’s defense has held an opponent to negative rushing yards. The Tigers last did it in their 2017 season opener, when BYU finished with negative-5 yards on 14 carries in a 27-0 LSU win.
Saturday’s numbers told the story all by themselves: 11 tackles for loss, seven sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception. Louisiana Tech managed just eight first downs, and every one of them came after halftime. By the break, the Bulldogs had zero net yards.
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