Anything to read among changes to LSU football's starting defense at 1st practice?

[ASFN Admin]

BATON ROUGE – Going back to spring, there was little movement among LSU football's first unit on defense throughout the 15 allotted practices.

But there were some changes among the starting 11 for the Tigers during their first practice of the preseason Aug. 5 ahead of the 2026 college football season.

The most notable difference was returning starting junior safety Tamarcus Cooley running with the second team while freshman Jhase Thomas occupied the backend safety spot with the first unit alongside Boise State transfer Ty Benefield.

"Jhase really has done a good job, can play multiple things," LSU first-year head coach Lane Kiffin told reporters following LSU's first practice Wednesday. "We rotate a lot of guys through early in camp for competition."

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While Thomas was seen by media, who were allowed to view two periods of LSU's practice, taking most of the first time reps at safety, there is no expectation that he'll start over Cooley, especially considering the amount of football the latter has played compared to the former.

Cooley started all 13 games for the Tigers last season and was a starter as a freshman at North Carolina State before that. The 6-foot, 206-pounder has 113 career tackles including four tackles for loss and five career interceptions while putting together his best collegiate season in 2025 for LSU.


Last season as a freshman, Thomas appeared mostly as a special teamer and only played in five games total.

Another notable personnel sighting was freshman Deuce Geralds running with the ones at defensive tackle. Geralds (6-1, 279) did garner plenty of first unit reps during the spring and one of the questions on that side of the ball coming in was how he and fellow blue-chip freshman Richard Anderson were going to capitalize on time they got in the spring.

There are depth concerns up front and there's moving parts to the group as it's also notable that returning junior defensive tackle Dominick McKinley received reps with the third team defense during LSU's first practice. So there's a distinct possibility that Geralds starts for the Tigers in the season opener against Clemson next month.

Here's a look at how LSU lined up on defense for day one of preseason camp:

LSU football defensive practice lineup​

FIRST UNIT

Defensive line: Princewill Umanmielen, Deuce Geralds, Malik Blocton, Jordan Ross

Linebacker: Whit Weeks, TJ Dottery

Cornerbacks: DJ Pickett, PJ Woodland

Safeties: Ty Benefield, Jhase Thomas

STAR: Dashawn Spears

SECOND UNIT

Defensive line: Dylan Carpenter, Stephiylan Green, Richard Anderson, Lamar Brown

Linebacker: Davhon Keys, Tylen Singleton

Cornerbacks: Ja'Keem Jackson, Michael Turner

Safeties: Tamarcus Cooley, Faheem Delane

STAR: CJ Jimcoily

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Anything to read among changes to LSU football's starting defense at 1st practice?

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