LSU Defense Showing Signs of Growth, Blake Baker Eyeing Consistency in Fall Camp

LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker pushing his players, looking for consistency to close out camp.

LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker arrived in Baton Rouge with the challenge of transforming the defense, and with three weeks until the season opener against USC, the unit has shown signs of progress.

It's about finding an identity ahead of the 2024 season. For Baker, he's pushing his players and has a chance to see the defense take that next step this fall.

It starts with his "player-friendly" scheme that has the Tigers slowing down and "compartmentalizing" things.

Now, with three weeks until the season opener in Las Vegas, Baker is seeing signs of growth from his defensive unit, but is expecting more down the stretch.

A few takeaways from what Baker told reporters on Saturday:

Eyeing Consistency:

“Right now, I’ll be honest, we’re inconsistent. What I want it to be, if we do our job I think we have a chance to be pretty good. We have the pieces in place to be a good defense. What I want to see is more player led accountability and players doing their job on a consistent basis.

"We’re not there yet, but we have really good speed, we’re physical, we’re still improving as a tackling unit, but we’ve shown improvement in the spring. We have a chance to be pretty good, we just need to be more consistent.”

Harold Perkins' Elite Traits on Display:

“He’s doing an unbelievable job. Harold Perkins is playing on fire. He has a lot on his plate mentally with different packages and we’re not just playing him on the inside, but he’s fitting the run as well as anyone we have at linebacker right now.

"Really proud of his development. You talk about where we started this thing at the beginning of spring to where he is now it’s night and day. I still don’t think he’s scratching the surface of where he’s going to be.”

Ashton Stamps' Emergence:

“Ashton has worked his tail off to get where he’s at. He’s still a young player and I challenge him every day. I’m looking for more consistency out of [Ashton]. He has stepped his game up but he’s not where we need him to be overall.

"That’s not a knock, but we have two more weeks to get him where he needs to be to be from a mental consistency standpoint."

The New Defensive Scheme in Baton Rouge:

“Our scheme is very player friendly. It takes some time, but we compartmentalize things and use word associations so they can pick it up quickly. Our guys are playing really fast, sometimes too fast and that’s a part of our inconsistency right now, but honestly that’s okay.

"You’d rather have to pull the chain back than kick them in the butt on the way out. They’re playing fast and it really has to do with how we implement the scheme and we have really good coaches on our staff. The second part is communication and our guys have gotten a lot better at communicating pre-snap and post-snap, which builds trust.” 

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