A Look At What LSU Football is Getting in 2022 Offensive Line Commit Bo Bordelon
Bo Bordelon is an all-around football player. The LSU commitment provides the necessary toughness, size, and athleticism to help LSU in multiple ways.
LSU needs to bring in a tremendous offensive line class for 2022. In fact, LSU needs to flat out hit the home run. The Tigers signed two offensive linemen -- Garrett Dellinger and Kimo Makaneole -- within the class of 2021. That’s a small class by offensive line standards.
Ideally, power five programs want to sign at least seven, if not eight, offensive linemen within a two-year span. For the class of 2022, that means LSU needs to watch at least five offensive linemen send in faxed letters of intent. There’s also the concept of signing versatile offensive linemen to help bridge the gap of a smaller 2021 signing class. That’s where LSU commitment Bo Bordelon comes into play.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Bordelon plays for Isidore Newman School, located in New Orleans. It’s of course the institution that produced all three of Archie Manning’s children, and it’s also the school where heralded 2023 quarterback Arch Manning plays. Protecting Manning’s backside as a left tackle is Bordelon’s primary role, but he’s quite versatile.
Runs His Feet
One of the best attributes for Bordelon would be how he continually ‘runs his feet’ after contact. That’s an old offensive lineman saying, which simply means that an offensive lineman utilizes his entire body to block a defender after contact; far too often an offensive lineman just pushes with the upper body after placing hands upon a defender.
Bordelon truly runs his feet. He’s been well coached with run blocking. Sometimes even college offensive linemen (yes, even at LSU) fail to do this skill consistently. Out of everything Bordelon showed on film, this was his best skill set.
Athlete
The big fellas along the offensive line rarely hear the label athlete attached to their name. Bordelon deserves that distinction. Yes, he’s 250-pounds, but he’s an athlete. What he does with that mass would be move laterally when needed, over power smaller defenders when needed, and pull and pin when needed.
Whatever the blocking assignment, Bordelon provides the ability to make it happen. He’s not a player with limited overall skills, and that means position flexibility.
Guard or Tackle?
Bordelon will still continue to fill out his frame. He will easily reach 290, perhaps 300-pounds. With his feet and natural movement, he could play outside or along the interior.
As noted above, his overall skill set allows him to be one of those versatile offensive linemen who will play where needed. Thus, if LSU lands two very good offensive tackles, Bordelon could slide inside to guard. If big-time offensive tackle Will Campbell becomes the only true offensive tackle in the class, Bordelon can easily play offensive tackle as well.
Consider Bordelon a swiss army knife. He’s going to be a player LSU can plug in and play at different positions, if needed. That’s very important to an offensive line depth chart. There are areas where Bordelon will need to continue to develop like any other young offensive lineman.
Hand Placement/Fine Tuning Blocking Skills
Bordelon sometimes loses position on the defender a little quicker than he should. That’s especially true when he’s playing against many players smaller than him that simply cannot match his physical prowess.
He needs to strike with good hand placement, keep those hands in position, and drive against inferior opponents. He was simply much better than most of the players he went against his junior year and he mauled many of them regardless of hand placement.
As he fine tunes his skills, it will be little things like specific hand placement that allow Bordelon to defeat talented defensive linemen that play in the SEC. Against a big-time defensive end from Texas A&M, the difference between two inches of hand placement can mean the difference between a first down or a sack.
Offensive line play is very complicated as it relates to specific hand placements and even first steps. It’s why college coaches work on the basics during practically every opportunity they receive. That’s not going to change.
The good news is Bordelon is already far and away ahead of many other high school players being recruited by top-notch programs like LSU. There were many plays where he did well with his hand placement. Bordelon simply needs to continue to improve that facet of his game.
He’s just literally in the fine tuning stage, as it relates to being a high school player. It will be interesting to see how technically sound his hands are next fall, as well as other nuances of offensive line play such as proper blocking angles, his first step out of his stance, etc. There’s one more item to discuss.
Aggressiveness
Bordelon’s film shows him playing some defensive tackle. Not only does this help display his overall athleticism, perhaps more importantly it showed Bordelon’s natural aggressiveness and power.
While attacking the line of scrimmage, Bordelon proved he could engage an offensive guard, push him back, stop, and retrace his steps to make a play on the ball carrier. He wanted to finish plays as a defender. That’s a very good sign.
College coaches will watch offensive linemen and see how well they change direction. That’s a primary indicator of how good a player's natural athleticism would be, but that mentality to fully utilize that athleticism comes in the form of aggressiveness. Bordelon possesses that trait.
While grading Bordelon’s film right now is quite difficult, like most underclassmen in high school, his film is good. Take a few minutes and truly watch as many clips as possible. This young man’s game provides a lot of upside.
Final Thoughts
Bordelon has the ability to help LSU in a myriad of ways. While he grows into his body and fine tunes his skill set, LSU already knows it’s going to be signing a versatile offensive lineman that can help in a multitude of ways. He’s a very valuable piece to an offensive line class that LSU simply must hit the home run.
