Of the starters that we know are leaving Clayton,Lavalais,Hunt ect....who will be hardest to replace? In my opinion it will be Lavalais simply because we are not that deep on the DL. We are stocked with young talent at both WR and DB and someone should step up at both positions. We are also kind of thin at LB and have to replace one their also but I feel DL is more important and if Hill leaves also that leaves some big holes up front to fill.
Jack Hunt. He brought a QB type leadership to the secondary. He was a coach out there. We have Claude Wroten who will do a terrific job @ DT in place of Lavalais, but its hard to replace the type of leadership that Jack provided to the secondary.
As far as linebackers go, I'm interested to see what this kid, Luke Sanders can do. From what I'm hearing, he's the real deal. As far as D linemen, I think we've got enough depth to handle the loss of Lavalais.
Lavalais is the only irreplaceable player, in my opinion. Totally dominant consensus All-Americans don't come along very often. We have experienced backups that are ready to start at most all of the other positions.
Jack Hunt is gonna be a huge loss. DDTogerfan is on the money about Hunt's leadership ability. Remember the Florida game.
Even though we are very deep at DL, Lavalais will be missed the most. The way he knew plays from formations and OL stance, the little things that he was teaching Spears and Hill. Those are the things that you can't replace. Hunt was the QB of the defense, however, you have some very capable players. Landry has a full season, Jessie Daniels played a good bit, Travis Daniels has Sr leadership, and with Steltz coming in, the secondary will recover more quickly. Plus, Saban coaches those guys himself, so they will recover faster. Clayton will be missed on offense because he often drew double teams. He will be missed on ST because of his leadership and efforts to get down field, make hits, block, etc. LSU probably has more depth at WR than any other position. While Clayton will be missed, there is wealth of talent waiting to take the field. The likes of Skyler, Amp Hill, Bowe Davis, Doucet, and possibly Carter will continue to make defense shudder at our speed.
On special teams we will miss Clayton, Adrian Mayes, and Chad White the most. Those guys have always flown down the field with no regards to personal safety and layed the lumber to opposing returners.
