LSU Football Gets Worse: DT Maason Smith Out For The Season With Knee Injury

BATON ROUGE - The fallout on LSU's splat showing in its season opening, 24-23 loss to mediocre Florida State on Sunday night continues.

And this is far worse than the four-game academic suspension of senior backup Arkansas transfer safety Joe Foucha, who did not play Sunday as his suspension began.

Sophomore starting defensive tackle Maason Smith, a cornerstone of the Tigers' defense, is done for the season after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on the first series against Florida State. He jumped in celebration of a play and landed badly on this knee.

Smith (6-foot-5, 300 pounds) was the No. 1 defensive tackle in the nation, No. 2 overall prospect in the country and No. 1 player in the state out of Terrebonne High in Houma, La., in 2021, according to Rivals.com, which broke the Smith injury story on Monday.

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A freshman All-American by the Football Writers Association of America in 2021, Smith also made the All-SEC freshmen team after sacking the quarterback four times in nine games last year. On the season, he had 19 tackles.

LSU (0-1), which hosts Southern (1-0) Saturday (7:30 p.m. eastern, SEC Network) could have used Smith against Florida State. The Tigers allowed 392 yards of total offense and 11 third down conversions out of 17 attempts with zero sacks of quarterback Jordan Travis, who completed 20 of 33 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - SEPTEMBER 04: Head coach Brian Kelly of LSU Tigers looks on during the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Caesars Superdome on September 04, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Senior defensive end Ali Gaye had two tackles and no quarterback hurries. Junior defensive end and preseason All-American B.J. Ojulari, who received the coveted No. 18 jersey before this season that annually goes to a top player, had six tackles and three quarterback hurries, but no sacks.

"We had a hard time getting him on the ground, quite frankly," LSU coach Brian Kelly said of Travis. "And we have some pretty good players that couldn't get him on the ground. We didn't tackle very well. We didn't communicate as effectively as we needed to on the back end of our defense. And again, that's coaching and execution. We're all in this together."

Kelly said Tuesday at his press conference that LSU had 16 missed tackles against Travis alone.

Sophomore Mekhi Wingo, a sophomore transfer from Missouri, replaced Smith and made six tackles. He made the SEC All-Freshmen last year as he had 27 tackles and one sack through 11 games and three starts.

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Kelly will be focusing on special teams as well before Southern and LSU's SEC opener on Sept. 17 against Mississippi State (1-0). The Tigers suffered a blocked field goal and a critical blocked extra point that ended the game with no time remaining instead of sending it into overtime. Punt returner Malik Nabers fumbled two punt returns.

"That might be the worst performance by a special teams unit in college football history," ESPN's Stephen A. Smith said. "I mean, it's up there."