LSU Football EDGE, Florida State Seminoles Transfer Has Brian Kelly's Attention

Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers will wrap up Fall Camp on Saturday night in Death Valley with the program set to wo a live scrimmage.

After four weeks of preseason practice, Kelly and Co. will put the finishing touches on camp with all focus shifting towards "Clemson Week" beginning on Monday.

As Fall Camp reaches the finish line, rotations are emerging on both sides of the ball with significant competition brewing along the defensive line.

LSU has operated with edge rushers Jack Pyburn and Gabriel Reliford as the first-team weapons, but Florida State Seminoles transfer Patrick Payton is poised to take on a critical role for the Tigers.

"I think he's going to impact our football team. Some people show up differently," Kelly said during Fall Camp. "He is a player that is still learning the position he's playing, just working on his drops, for example, coming out of a system where he wasn't in that. He was strictly a rush end.

"So there's been a little bit of a learning curve for him, but I love the way he comes at it. He's very conscientious, and I think when it's all said and done, we're going to have pretty good rotation of players coming in and out of the game."

LSU Tigers Football: Patrick Payton. — Courtesy of Patrick Payton's Instagram.

For Payton, the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder logged 109 tackles, 32 tackles for loss, 16 sacks, 12 pass breakups and three forced fumbles across three seasons with Florida State.

Now, it's about transitioning to life in the Southeastern Conference as he prepares for the 2025 season.

"Patrick would tell you if you asked him, he'd say, this is a big workload for him, one that he's not quite as familiar with. He's done a really good job of handling the additional workload," Kelly said during Fall Camp.

"He's rounding into that kind of football shape that we all need him to be in to play at the highest level. But he's been great. I mean, he's done everything we've asked him to do."

LSU has operated with Jack Pyburn and Gabriel Reliford as the first-team rotation along with Payton and Nebraska transfer Jimari Butler battling for reps as members of the second-team.

"It's a competitive situation. He knows it. But he's learning every day. Look, he came here because he wanted to obviously develop at a higher level. Not that they didn't develop at Florida State, but he was looking for more of that. That's why he transferred," Kelly said.

"We want to meet and exceed his wishes, so we spent a lot of time and coach Peoples spent a lot of time with him on his technique, developing his technique."

Now, all eyes are on Payton and the LSU edge rushers as the unit looks to wreak havoc in 2025 as a talented position group for the Bayou Bengals.

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