Pass rush shines as LSU football conducts open practice. Here are seven takeaways (2025)

BATON ROUGE – It’s not the official bow — that’ll be the schedule come next Thursday — but LSU football held an open practice Saturday inside Tiger Stadium, displaying the work its put in over 13 sessions this spring.

In two-plus hours in front of a smattering of Tiger fans sitting in the west side stands, LSU worked through red zone offense, seven-on-seven drills, special teams periods, sprinkled with some good-on-good team drills as well.

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There are two more practices in LSU’s spring schedule but the two sessions next week are not open to the public.

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Here are our observations from LSU’s open practice.

LSU football starting running back Caden Durham out with injury

Starting running back Caden Durham was not available for the spring scrimmage, sitting out due to an ankle injury an LSU spokesperson told The Daily Advertiser. Durham practiced Thursday, which the media viewed the first 20 minutes.

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Kaleb Jackson took the first-team reps in Durham’s place with freshman Harlem Berry being the next running back in line.

Jackson looked OK, catching plenty of balls out of the backfield but struggled to consistently find the running lanes while Berry had some mistakes, including a fumble at the goal line during red zone drills. Berry did break a 22-yard run late in practice, the longest rush on the day.

How LSU football rotated along the offensive line

The first-team offensive line has pretty much remained the same all spring with Tyree Adams at left tackle, Paul Mubenga at left guard, D.J. Chester at cetner, Coen Echols at right guard and Weston Davis at right tackle.

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During Saturday’s practice, Virginia Tech transfer Braelin Moore rotated in at center and Northwestern graduate transfer Josh Thompson rotated in at left guard, both getting ample work with the other first-unit players.

As LSU ventures into the offseason and fall camp later, the competition at those interior offensive line spots will be highly contested.

Barion Brown heavily involved in LSU passing attack

Whether it was Garrett Nussmeier or Michael Van Buren in at quarterback, it didn’t matter as they both looked Barion Brown’s way early and often.

The Kentucky transfer wide receiver and speedster consistently worked his way open and was sure-handed. Defensive backs had trouble guarding Brown for longer than a few seconds at a time.

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Brown scored a few touchdowns, showing off his dance moves and his arsenal of TD celebrations.

Zavion Thomas, Aaron Anderson and Chris Hilton have been LSU’s first rotation of wide receivers all spring but Brown seems to be playing his way into more and more time on the field.

LSU's pass rush shines

As practice rolled on, the tackles behind the line of scrimmage started piling up.

Florida transfer Jack Pyburn tackled Jackson behind the line of scrimmage on a red zone play. Nebraska transfer Jimari Butler recorded a couple of quarterback hurries and a sack.

Sophomore defensive end Gabriel Reliford had himself a nice day, blowing up pass protection consistently in individuals drills as well as in good-on-good. Reliford got a couple of sacks and a few hurries.

Defensive backfield flashes skill for LSU

There were some nice plays that LSU’s defensive backfield made.

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Sophomore P.J. Woodland picked off a pass during seven-on-seven and he’s shared first-teams reps with Ashton Stamps opposite of Mansoor Delane, signaling that Woodland has had a good spring.

Javien Toviano had a solid day at safety and Tamarcus Cooley had a couple of pass breakups along with allowing a couple of catches.

Defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell, wide receiver Destyn Hill out

Texas transfer defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell sat out LSU’s practice Saturday with a hamstring injury.

Mitchell, the biggest body LSU has on the defensive interior at 6-6, 355 pounds, has been in and out of the action the last couple of weeks of the spring.

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The Tigers are a bit thin at defensive tackle as Jacobian Guillory continues to work his way back from his ruptured Achilles tendon so the missed reps for Mitchell are not ideal.

Florida State wide receiver transfer Destyn Hill also missed Saturday's practice with an ankle injury. Hill has impressed the offensive coaching staff so far in his time with the team.

LSU special teams a mixed bag

During special teams drills, LSU’s field goal defense team got their hands up and blocked a couple of kicks. Middle Tennessee State transfer punter Grant Chadwick had the best day booting the ball with a couple of 50-plus yarders.

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Thomas was LSU’s first punt returner, followed by Anderson and then Brown.

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAYNetwork. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regardingLSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz atbdiaz@gannett.com.

This story has been updated to correct typos.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football holds spring scrimmage. Here's what stood out