The strength of the LSU Tiger team is their fast, physical defense, coached by John “Chief” Chavis. They set their sights high at LSU. Despite losing defensive tackle Drake Nevis, fierce middle linebacker Kelvin Sheppard and Jim Thorpe Award Winner cornerback Patrick Peterson they are in a reload mentality in Baton Rouge. Chavis told Glenn Guilbeau of the Shreveport Times, “We’re going to have a national championship defense, and I think a national championship team.”
The heart and leader of that defense in 2011 will be senior Will linebacker Ryan Baker. Wearing number 22, 6-0, 236 pounds, with 4.63 speed in the 40, Baker was second on the the team to Sheppard’s 116 tackles with 87, while leading the team in sacks with seven. Baker is extremely quick and a fierce hitter. At LSU Media Day Les Miles said, “It’s his time to be a leader. There’s a responsibility for the veteran leading backer to lead that group. I think that he has taken that upon his shoulders.”
This is how tough Baker is: he broke his jaw in fall camp last year, and he only missed one game. He played the first month of the season with his jaw wired shut, recording six tackles and a sack versus Vanderbilt in his first start. He’s the kind of player who plays his best in big games, with 12 tackles versus Auburn, 10 tackles against Alabama, and a sack in the Cotton Bowl. Baker is a slashing, blitzing linebacker, with the speed to run down quarterbacks and running backs, and the Ducks have to account for him in key situations. They can’t allow him to be disruptive, as he’s a punishing tackler.
Baker echoed his coach at SEC Media Days, telling the press, “We were 11-2 but it didn’t feel like that. We want to win the national championship.” The Tigers aren’t shy about that expectation, and it’s clear they expect to hunt down the Ducks and ground their high-powered offense the way Auburn did.
If Oregon wants a different result than the National Championship Game, their guards and new center will have to win battles with Baker in the running game, and keep him off Darron Thomas when the Ducks go to the air.
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