LSU Tigers spring practices continue confirming exciting breakout 2025 college football seasons on both sides of the ball
The 2025 LSU Tigers college football team has quite a bit of pressure building as it's becoming quite clear the roster looks absolutely stacked this spring. Brian Kelly and his staff have built up the roster in all critical areas where they needed improvement from a year ago via the Transfer Portal and recruiting. Now […]
The 2025 LSU Tigers college football team has quite a bit of pressure building as it's becoming quite clear the roster looks absolutely stacked this spring. Brian Kelly and his staff have built up the roster in all critical areas where they needed improvement from a year ago via the Transfer Portal and recruiting. Now spring practices have confirmed that LSU fans should expect to see some exciting breakout seasons this fall.
Who's standing out the most? Let's dive in.
Gabriel Reliford & Top Transfers at EDGE
The defensive front will essentially be completely new this fall, which might have some fans worried, but it doesn't sound like that's going to be a bad thing at all. All spring long the new transfers and developing young talents have been stepping up, unsurprisingly. Especially Gabriel Reliford.
When I talked to Bradyn Swinson about him at the NFL Combine earlier this spring, Reliford was the number one name he mentioned as the next man up (as you can see in the post below), so clearly his teammates aren't surprised by his early spring breakout.
Brian Kelly has been talking up Reliford as well. He did imply a couple times that Reliford might need to be a bit more "assignment correct", but it's clear that the young sophomore edge rusher is just built different compared to most anyone else on the team.
"Gabe's a kid that plays with a lot of confidence. Obviously his physicality is a little bit different than the other [defensive] ends that we have. His size. When you're talking about him, he's a different profile than some of the ends and the edges that we have. So I think what we've asked him to do is to be really physical in the run game and be assignment correct. There were times where playing a freshman, you kind of go, "Well, he's learning." He's past the learning stage. So what we're looking for is a consistent performance play in and play out, and somebody that's really really good against the run. And very capable when we cut loose to get to the quarterback."
And it's not just Gabriel Reliford standing out either. Jack Pyburn (transfer edge from Florida) has apparently been making plays, even more than fellow transfer Patrick Payton (edge from Florida State) who received more hype this offseason. On top of those two, both Dominick McKinley and Ahmad Breaux have been talked up this spring for their physical play, size and strength. The defensive front might actually be the best LSU fans have seen in a few years.
Barion Brown & Caden Durham bringing the speed
Barion Brown continues to shine as he has all spring long for the LSU Tigers, showing off his incredible speed, agility, explosiveness, and ball tracking on targets from Garrett Nussmeier. He's also mixing it up in the return game, so the Tigers may get to see why he's already tied the SEC record for kickoff returns here soon.
Caden Durham began his true breakout last season after the team began leaning on him a big more starting last October, but if spring football has been any indication, his speed and athleticism is going to be too much to keep him off the field very much this fall. LSU may see one of their most productive running back seasons ever out of him this fall.
Trey'Dez Green & Bauer Sharp at Tight End
Bauer Sharp started making impressive plays as soon as he stepped on to the practice field this spring as a grizzled veteran presence at tight end for LSU, but it's still Trey'Dez Green who likely breaks out in a huge way this fall.
Replacing Mason Taylor might seem like an impossible task given all he did for the LSU Tigers offense, but according to offensive coordinator Joe Sloan the sky is the limit for Trey'Dez Green.
Green is fresh off of making a ton of plays for LSU's basketball in January and February. Since rejoining the football team he's been dominating one-on-ones for a month now, showcasing some of the absurd receiving talent Tigers fans are likely to see more of this fall.
We'll be back with more LSU Tigers coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
And if you want to look at some of the plays that proved Barion Brown to be one of the most explosive players in all of college football prior to transferring to LSU just check out his highlights from last year in the video below!
