LSU football coach Brian Kelly is hopeful injury situations involving offensive linemen Will Campbell and Garrett Dellinger are not serious nearing the midseason point of his first campaign. Campbell, LSU’s starting left tackle, missed Saturday’s loss to Tennessee after posting from a hospital bed on Friday night that he was undergoing tests.
Dellinger, a left guard, went down during the game against the Vols. Kelly updated the medical situations involving both players after Saturday’s loss.
“Will, in our walkthrough, had an episode, and we didn’t know what it was,” Kelly said. “He had a battery of tests. They’ve ruled out virtually any life-threatening medical severe situations. He will have a few more tests done before he’s released. That’s a positive thing. Some of it may be due to dehydration. I don’t know if that’s the only thing. Indeed, that affected our team. The young man went down during a walk-through, EMS is called, and the ambulance is on your field, but our thoughts are with him. He posted on Instagram that he seemed to be doing well.
“Garrett Dellinger took a blow to the knee. It’s a knee strain. We’ll get an MRI. He had a knee brace on, that’s the good news and we’ll have more information for you in the next press conference.”
Campbell, a former four-star signee, had started every game for the Tigers up front this fall. Campbell was one of LSU’s gems in its 2022 signing class and ranked nationally as the No. 9 offensive tackle, as rated by 247Sports.
A pair of LSU turnovers proved costly against Tennessee, including a fumble on the opening kickoff, but LSU’s offense managed just seven points through the first three quarters. Jayden Daniels completed 32 of 45 passes for 300 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He added 38 rushing yards, but LSU totaled just 55 rushing yards. Malik Nabers had a team-high six catches for 80 yards.
LSU wideout Kayshon Boutte finally found the end zone for the first time this season.
“That’s on me,” Kelly said. “I have to coach better. We’ve gotta coach better. That’s the group we have. We have to coach them better. Congratulations to Tennessee, they played well today. They were the better football team. They certainly deserved the win today. Have to coach this football team better, that’s the bottom line.”
Kelly said improving week to week is the Tigers’ mindset moving forward.
“Obviously, it allows you to really look clearly the areas you have to support the program in,” Kelly said. “Certainly, the offensive line, we don’t have anybody walking through that door that’s going to change this football team dramatically. We have to focus on ourselves as coaches and do the things necessary to make things better. We may be slow to the punch in terms of going to seven-man protection, to help our offensive line, we’re going to have to do stuff like that to help this football team. They want to win, they’re going to play hard and again, I’ll say I like this team, I like the grit in them, we have to do a better job coaching them.”
LSU travels to Florida this Saturday to battle the Gators, who are 4-2 overall in Billy Napier’s first season.
