Where Does LSU Football Land in Sports Illustrated's Preseason Top 25?

LSU's standings heading into the 2021 season will likely be all over the place and the latest Sports Illustrated's top 25 only adds fuel to the fire. This week, the Tigers were listed at No. 21 in the SI preseason rankings.

The purple and gold return a veteran team with a ton of intriguing talent and a new, youthful coaching staff. But the results of last year's shortened season will stick with this group until it proves otherwise. That's why these rankings won't be all that surprising wherever the Tigers fall ahead of the season.

Other than benefiting from a thrown shoe in The Swamp, not a lot has gone right for the Tigers since winning that 2019 national championship. Last season was bad, the offseason was worse, and then quarterback Myles Brennan broke his arm and gave the starting position to Max Johnson (perhaps the best man for the job regardless). Ed Orgeron hit the reset button on his coordinators, trying to rekindle some Joe Brady magic on offense and to forget entirely about the Bo Pelini fiasco on defense. The bottom line remains forever true at LSU: There is talent. Expect a solid bounce-back season.

Earlier this week, the preseason coaches poll was released and the Tigers were ranked No. 13, with the AP top 25 poll set to be released on Aug. 16. This team's strengths will lie on the offensive and defensive lines and developing better communication in the secondary will help this team see marked improvement on defense.

The Tigers are fully immersed in fall camp, with the team's first scrimamge of the fall coming later today. LSU coach Ed Orgeron talked about some of the advancements he's already seen out of this LSU team.

"Had a tremendous practice, practiced inside. Spirited, very competitive, physical practice. Guys competing on both sides of the football," Orgeron said. "I thought it was an outstanding job by our coaching staff of getting our guys ready to play. Tomorrow, we're going to go in helmets, we'll go in redzone again and we'll let the guys sleep in Saturday morning then we'll go to Tiger Stadium Saturday afternoon and have our first full scrimmage."