A bumpy offseason for the reigning national champion LSU football team has continued.
Following an arrest on a weapons charge in late January, Donte Starks was indefinitely suspended by the LSU football program. Tuesday, Ed Orgeron confirmed that quarterback Peter Parrish has been indefinitely suspended by the Tigers. The only reason given was an unspecified violation of team rules.
The Baton Rouge Advocate wrote that “Parrish hasn’t been with the team ‘for a while,’ Orgeron said, and was not with the team during off-season workouts following the program’s national championship win in mid-January.”
Parrish was a four-star member of the Tigers’ 2019 recruiting class. The Alabama native was rated as the No. 11 dual-threat quarterback in that year’s class. His true freshman season, Parrish didn’t see the field. That will allow him to enter the 2020 season as a redshirt freshman.
Myles Brennan will continue as the overwhelming favorite to take over as the starter under center. Prior to whatever issue led to the suspension, Parrish had been seen as the likely No. 2 option to Brennan. A pair of true freshman early enrollees, TJ Finley and Max Johnson, are also on the roster as well.
Coming off a national championship, it will be a season of change for Orgeron’s LSU football squad. And we’re only two months into the offseason.
Assistant Joe Brady, widely credited with turning LSU’s 18th-century offense into a modern-day, record-setting powerhouse, left to become the offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, considered one of the best in the sport, is now the head coach at Baylor. On top of that coaching upheaval, LSU also lost nine players to early entry into the 2020 NFL Draft. And Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow is out of eligibility as well.
In mid-February, it was confirmed that the top two signees in the LSU football Class of 2020 would miss some or all of spring because of shoulder surgeries. Earlier this month, the LSU football program announced that Dare Rosenthal had left the school for personal reasons. It’s expected, though, that the favorite to take over as the Tigers’ starting left tackle will return to the team in the summer.