Once again, a football season will be cut short for LSU’s once-prized star running back John Emery Jr.

Following rehabbing a torn ACL last November, Emery will miss the entire 2024 season with the same injury.

“He was devastated,” head coach Brian Kelly said. “He knew in his heart what happened because it had happened before. You just feel sick about what happened to John. Sometimes you think about this and just wonder how can this be fair to this poor kid.

Emery showed flashes of elite play in LSU’s season-opening loss against USC after he rushed for 61 yards in 10 carries.

Moving forward, the Tigers will be without Emery and will have to shift around their running back room amidst his injury and Trey Holly’s indefinite suspension from the team.

This week, Brian Kelly gave us a dive into what the Beyou Bengals running back room could look like for the rest of 2024.

Sixth-year senior Josh Williams and Sophmore Kaleb Jackson will get a bulk of the carries for a team that struggled to rush the ball at times in week one.

However, don’t count out true freshman Caden Durham in this equation. After being a top-five running back in the 2024 class Durham is now going to get some opportunities to show why he was a top recruit.

“He’ll be involved. He had a good week,” Kelly said of Durham. “We try to tailor the offense around them and give them plays they’re really comfortable with and set the offense accordingly. We feel good about where we’re at”.

LSU is also moving freshman defensive back Ju’Juan Johnson to running back after he played both sides of the ball in High School.

“We moved Ju’Juan Johnson to running back. He’s getting carries this week and I think he’s going to win the Heisman,” Kelly said joking. “He gives us the fourth back and gives us balance back there. He’s an exciting player and we felt like we could shuffle things around on the defensive side of the ball and get him involved. There’s a learning curve, but I think he can do some things for us this weekend.”

The Tigers take on Nicholls Saturday night in their home opener in the 100th year of Tiger Stadium. We’ll get a brief look at what the running back position could look like the rest of the season as LSU looks to return to the College Football playoff since 2019.