Here's what the LSU football special teams room looks like heading into preseason practice
BATON ROUGE — Half of the special teams picture for LSU football heading into 2024 is settled.
Place kicker Damian Ramos is back for the Tigers. The junior made 80% of his field goal attempts in 2023, along with all 77 of his PATs.
At punter, on the other hand, a battle for the starting role that began back during spring drills continues to rage on with no one seizing the opportunity. Junior Peyton Todd has been at LSU longer than either of the other two punters on head coach Brian Kelly's roster. Freshman Badger Hargett redshirted last season and is in the mix for the job in preseason camp.
Senior Blake Ochsendorf joined the party late, transferring in from Louisiana Tech this summer, as he was brought in to possibly be the guy.
Aaron Anderson, Zavion Thomas, freshman Jelani Watkins and a couple of others will factor into the punt and kickoff return game for the Tigers this season.
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LSU football special teams options
Projected starters: PK Damian Ramos, Jr.; P Blake Ochsendorf, Sr.; KR Aaron Anderson, Soph. and Zavion Thomas, Jr.; PR Aaron Anderson
Reserves: PK Aidan Corbello, Fr., Nathan Dibert, Jr., Aeron Burrell, Fr.; P Peyton Todd, Jr.; Badger Hargett, Fr.; KR Kyle Parker, Fr., Jelani Watkins Fr.; PR Zavion Thomas Jr., Kyle Parker, Jelani Watkins
There's no guesses as to who'll be handling place kicking duties for LSU. Ramos improved his numbers last year from his All-SEC Freshman campaign two seasons ago and is a consistent performer.
There are three options at punter in Todd, Ochsendorf and Hargett. No one's ahead and the trio will rotate during practices.
LSU has plenty of speed and in the return game, and there are a couple of different ways the coaching staff could handle it. They could mix speed and shiftiness with physicality in the kickoff return game. With Thomas, Anderson and the two young options in Watkins and Parker, the Tigers will have good options.
The upside
It may take all preseason for a starter to be determined at punter but new special teams coordinator Slade Nagle hopes that the competition ultimately delivers a consistent punter by season's arrival. Whichever of the three handle the competition best will win the role.
LSU has some experience in the return game with Anderson. It knows what it's getting out of him. Thomas returned kicks and punts at Mississippi State last season and was pretty good at it. Kelly has mentioned that he wants to greatly improve in the return game and they have the ingredients that could lead to it.
One question or concern
What will Kelly and Nagle decide to do if no one emerged as the clear No. 1 in the punter battle? Could LSU open the season using multiple punters and if it did, does running different guys out there affect operation and structure of how the punt team works?
It's certainly something to watch.
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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 atbdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What LSU football's ST room looks like entering preseason practice
