LSU’s freshmen got a long look Saturday night, and the timing was no accident.
With No. 11 LSU racing past McNeese State 63-14, Lane Kiffin started emptying the bench late in the first half while the Tigers were already ahead 28-0. That gave the 2026 class a chance to pile up real snaps in a game LSU controlled from the start.
“The goal was to get up, but then to evaluate these guys because they’re going to need to play with injuries that we have and down the stretch - got seven conference games in a row,” Kiffin said during his postgame press conference. “101 plays of offense, a lot of snaps for backups to get in there and do some things.”
Some of those first-year players only dipped a toe in. Others made the most of the spotlight.
Corey Barber Jr. was the headliner on offense. The former four-star receiver from Clay-Chalkville High School in Pinson, Alabama, caught six passes for 76 yards and two touchdowns, and he logged more snaps than any other LSU wideout. A lot of that work came with the first unit.
“Corey’s done a great job,” Kiffin said. “Winnie dropped two easy touchdowns, and so we put Corey in. And Corey stepped up and did a really good job.”
On the other side of the ball, Deuce Geralds kept building on an impressive start to his LSU career. The Collins Hill High School product from Suwanee, Ga., recorded his fifth sack of the early season - leaving him 2.5 behind Harold Perkins Jr. for the freshman record - and also scored on a 1-yard run.
Geralds has started all five games for LSU this season, and he wasn’t alone in getting a meaningful taste of the action. Defensive end Lamar Brown and defensive tackle Richard Anderson, both already important pieces in the rotation, briefly shared the field with Geralds on the defensive front.
“Right before we took the field, we were talking about it on the sideline how crazy it was that we all were about to be on the field at the same time,” Geralds said after the game. “So, it was like a real surreal moment, and I was glad to share that with my guys.”
Brown, ESPN’s No. 1 recruit out of University Lab, finished with one tackle. Anderson, a five-star from Edna Karr in New Orleans, did not post a stat, though each played 23 defensive snaps.
“That’s the future right there,” Geralds said. “When this is all said and done, this is gonna be our D-line.
This is gonna be our defense one day, and it’s just something that we all really talked about, even when we was committed here as recruits. We just couldn’t wait for the day where this was our stuff.
We all dreamed to be at LSU. It was all our dream schools growing up.
We all Louisiana kids at heart.”
The freshmen also had a noticeable footprint in the secondary. Safety Isaiah Washington, a former three-star from Haynesville, didn’t show up in the stat sheet, but he matched redshirt freshman safety Faheem Delane and redshirt sophomore Michael Turner Jr. for the most snaps among LSU defenders.
Cornerback Havon Finney Jr. was in the mix as well. The four-star defensive back, who had been the top cornerback in the class of 2027 before reclassifying to arrive a year early, made one tackle in 19 snaps.
Up front, LSU leaned on a freshman who wasn’t among the most celebrated names in the class. Ryan Miret, a former three-star offensive lineman from Miami Southridge High School, played 49 snaps - third-most on the team - while filling in at center for Braelin Moore. Brysten Martinez, a four-star from East Ascension, added 21 snaps at left tackle.
The Tigers also got work from all three of their freshman wideouts. Along with Barber, Jabari Mack, a four-star from Destrehan, played 14 snaps, and Brayden Allen, a three-star from Lafayette Christian Academy, was on the field for 13. Allen did not catch his lone target.
The final freshman to appear was tight end JC Anderson. The former four-star from Mt. Zion, Illinois, took part in eight offensive plays and got his first collegiate action against the Cowboys.
In Other News...
LSU May Have Found A New Weapon In Saturday's Rout
Saturdays rout offered LSU something it has been searching for on offense: another young target who can do real damage as soon as the ball is snapped. True freshman Corey Barber Jr. made the most of his chances in the first half, hauling in four passes for 45 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers quickly separated from McNeese State and turned the game into a runaway before halftime.
The timing matters, too, because LSU got that burst while quarterback Sam Leavitt was still managing a hamstring injury and still finished the day efficiently through the air. By halftime, the Tigers had already piled up a 35-0 lead, outgained McNeese State 347 yards to 31 and owned a 20-2 edge in first downs, a sign that the offense was operating with more rhythm and more answers than the opponent could handle. [Read more 🡒]
LSU's QB Plan Just Got More Complicated Than Fans Hoped
LSUs quarterback picture already had a little fog around it, and the McNeese State game only made it thicker. Sam Leavitt was back under center as the regular starter even while working through a hamstring injury from the previous week, a reminder that the Tigers are managing more than just the normal September wear and tear. Behind him, Landen Clark and Husan Longstreet were also slated for meaningful snaps, keeping the offense in a state of shared responsibility rather than a clean, settled hierarchy.
It was not just the quarterback room feeling the strain. Safety Ty Benefield and William Satterwhite II also started in place of injured or replaced players, which says plenty about how many moving parts LSU has had to sort through at once. For a team trying to establish rhythm early, the challenge is no longer simply who starts, but how quickly the Tigers can get continuity while those rotations keep shifting around them. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Sent LSU A Clear Message In A Blowout Win
LSUs 63-14 win over McNeese State looked one-sided long before it was over, but the bigger takeaway may have been the way Lane Kiffin handled it. The Tigers piled up a program-record number of first downs and offensive plays while finishing with the second-most total yards in school history, a reminder that the performance stayed sharp from start to finish even after the margin opened up.
Kiffin still found ways to keep the edge intact, calling timeout before the second half despite the comfortable lead and making substitutions that were as much about message as matchup. It was a clear push to reinforce his standards and the culture he wants in place, even in a game that could have easily drifted into empty snaps and soft focus. [Read more 🡒]