NEWS: LSU DE Desmond Little Enters NCAA Transfer Portal
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LSU defensive end Desmond Little has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
This season, the Alabama native totaled six tackles in seven games played while breaking up a pass against Southern. In 2021, Little tallied 10 tackles, three tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in five games.
Little was a member of the 2019 national championship team despite redshirting the season. A player Head Coach Brian Kelly has raved about from an improvement perspective, this certainly hurts the depth of the defensive line going forward.
It was a given LSU would dip into the transfer portal to add depth with this position group, and after the departure of Little, it became that much more obvious.
Defensive Line Transfer Portal Plan
What does BJ Ojulari do? Jaquelin Roy? Ojulari’s stock has soared over the course of the last two years, but as for Roy, it certainly fell this season. All signs point to Ojulari entering the draft, but stranger things have happened (Kayshon Boutte’s return).
For Roy, he could benefit off of an extra year in Baton Rouge. Therefore, this position group will need to retool going into 2023. With Maason Smith returning, Mekhi Wingo looking to take an even bigger role next year, Quency Wiggins stepping in and a few more talented guys up front, this unit will need a couple of savvy veterans.
Jamar Cain has proven to be one of the top recruiters in the country at the defensive line position. How will he utilize the portal this month? LSU has dished out an offer to Western Michigan defensive tackle Braden Fiske already.
Fiske has played five years of college football, but remains with one final year of eligibility. He finished the 2022 season with 58 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, six sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, seven quarterback hurries and three pass breakups. For his collegiate career, he’s tallied 148 tackles, 27.5 tackles for loss and 13.5 sacks across his career.
Brian Kelly’s Transfer Portal Message:
“They have got to be the right fit first,” Kelly said. “They have to recognize the value of an education from LSU. They have to have the right traits. We are not just open for business. We’re not just putting a sign up saying, hey, we are going to take whoever. They have to be the right fit. I prefer that they are from the state of Louisiana if we can find them. And then we are going to address needs based upon how that freshman class marries into it by the particular needs by position class.
“So we are not going to overload a particular position group. In other words, if we have got three or four wide receivers that are freshmen coming in, you may not see a heavy influence in the portal in that position.
“We are going to develop based upon our freshman class, too. So we are doing this at the same time, and also allowing our program to be younger, too. We want to bring both of these along. We don’t always want to be a turn-it-over program where we are bringing in transfers and turning the program over.”
