Texas football: LSU's new spread offense might play right into UT's hands

The Tigers' new look offensive scheme will probably help in the SEC, but the UT defense is built to stop the spread

After years of pedestrian offenses and elite defenses, the LSU Tigers finally made a change in the offseason, electing to spread the field and attack defenses with their playmaker wide receivers and power running game. 

The new-look offense certainly looked to be humming along last week, when the starters played all of two quarters in a 56-3 drubbing of Georgia Southern. 

It's an offensive scheme that will probably be successful against SEC opponents that spent most weeks prepping for more pro-style attacks.

There's just one problem for the Tigers in their mammoth showdown against Texas - the Longhorns have seen just about anything you could expect from the spread. 

"Being in the Big 12 you're pretty used to seeing that (fast tempo) every game day in and day out so I don't think the tempo will affect us that much," Texas safety Caden Sterns said. 

Texas players have prepped for the likes of Oklahoma, Texas Tech, West Virginia (under Dana Holgerson) and Oklahoma State on a year-in-year-out basis, adapting their defense to combat top-notch quarterbacks and recruiting speed at every defensive position. 

Texas' base defense features an hybrid linebacker-defensive back  position. They also have a special eight-defensive-back grouping called Cowboy that allows for maximum speed on the field in obvious passing situations. 

Safeties Caden Sterns and Brandon Jones have gone up against the likes of CeeDee Lamb, James Washington, Marquise Brown and David Sills to name a few. 

While LSU's trio of Justin Jefferson,  6’1”, 200-pound sophomore Ja’Marr Chase and 6’4”, 200-pound sophomore Terrace Marshall are all big, physical and fast receivers who will challenge the Longhorns defensively, it's nothing UT hasn't seen before.

That's not to say that LSU's offense won't stand a chance to move the ball against the Texas defense, but playing a scheme specifically built to stop what the Tigers want to do means they will have to execute at an extremely high level to be productive on offense.