ESPN's Chris Low on LSU as "D-Line U"

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sec/0-1-64/Just-refer-to-LSU-as--D-Line-U-.html

July 23, 2008 8:58 PM
Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A few more tidbits from Day 1 at the SEC media days:

• LSU center Brett Helms had the perfect answer for how a team could lose a player the caliber of Glenn Dorsey and return the next season with perhaps the best defensive line in the country.
"I was talking to Glenn yesterday, and he was saying this is 'D-Line U.' That's what we call it now," Helms said. "For the past few years with Kyle Williams and Claude Wroten and some of those guys, we just keep reloading here."

The Tigers are loaded up front, all right. Junior defensive tackle Al Woods is projected as a top 10 pick in the 2009 NFL draft by ESPN's Todd McShay [Insider], and Woods isn't even a probable starter heading into the season.

• Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom joked that he won't miss Dorsey.
"If anybody else in this conference had lost Dorsey, they'd be in real trouble," Croom said. "LSU just puts another one in there."

Croom said Dorsey was one of three defensive linemen in his coaching career that he was truly afraid of going into a game.
The other two? Reggie White and Howie Long.
Some pretty heady company.

• Bobby Johnson has earned a dubious distinction at Vanderbilt. Entering his seventh season, Johnson is now the school's longest tenured coach since George MacIntyre, who coached the Commodores' last bowl team in 1982.
Johnson has guided the Commodores to 15 wins in the last three seasons, their best three-season win total since 1992-94.

"I remember in my first press conference, I think the very first day I was at Vanderbilt, some guy said, 'How long do you think you got before they fire you?' " Johnson recounted. "Really, he did. I said, 'I don't know.'

"The thing is that our coaching staff has invested a lot into this program. They've worked extremely hard. We want to see it be successful. We're hoping we can get it done. I think we made strides toward that. I think we were extremely close last year. A couple games go either way, and we're in a bowl."

The reality is that Vanderbilt may struggle this season when you look at everybody the Commodores lost, but 2009 could finally be the year they break their bowl drought.