Report: LSU Football Hiring Brad Davis as Next Offensive Line Coach

When LSU elected to part ways with James Cregg, it was expected the Tigers would move swiftly into his replacement. On Thursday news surfaced the program was narrowing its search down to Arkansas' Brad Davis to be the next offensive line coach.

The hire was first reported by Brody Miller of The Athletic.

Davis becomes the sixth coaching addition to the LSU staff this offseason and falls in line with what coach Ed Orgeron has been looking for as the staff goes towards a youthful rebuild. The 41-year-old coach is considered to be among the ascending young position coaches in college football and one of the elite recruiters at the position.

Before arriving in Fayetteville for the 2020 season, Davis spent time in the SEC at Florida in 2017 and Missouri in 2018-19 as the offensive line coach. He does have some Louisiana ties as he grew up in Baton Rouge and his first coaching job came way back in 2003 as the offensive line and co-offensive coordinator at Southern University Lab School.

Now he takes over an offensive line that's one of the more experienced in the SEC but has a lot of room to grow as a unit. Practically every starter is a veteran at the position now as Dare Rosenthal, Ed Ingram, Liam Shanahan, Chasen Hines and Austin Deculus make up a group that needs to prove consistency if the offense hopes to return to a semblance of its 2019 form.

Another area in which the Tigers are hoping Davis can excel is developing the depth behind the starters, which has been one of the concerns for Orgeron since the start of the spring session. LSU has a number of capable backups who for one reason or another haven't lived up to their potential quite yet.

Davis will also prove to be a huge addition for the recruiting at the position as he helped the Razorbacks recruit three elite level offensive linemen to the 2021 class in his lone season with the program. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, who is widely regarded as one of the elite o-line coaches in the country, has been very bullish on Davis' coaching ability.

“People ask about recruiting and all that stuff, the guys we signed, the biggest recruiting job we did yet to do was win the hearts and minds of the players that are here now,” Davis said upon being hired at Arkansas. “And that’s my No. 1 mission now, to win our players over, to let them know how much I care about them, how much their success means to me. And ultimately from there, I can go demand and ask that they go off and be great.”

It's a message that will certainly carry over now that he's taken over at LSU.