The LSU offensive line will be a man short when the Tigers face Washington on Saturday night at Tiger Stadium.
Standout left tackle Chris Faulk, whose start against North Texas in the season opener marked the 16th of his career, suffered an undisclosed injury at practice this week and will not play against the Huskies.
“It looks like Faulk’s got a bit of an injury,” LSU coach Les Miles said Wednesday after practice. ”We don’t know exactly how bad, but we hope to return him to the game sometime soon. I don’t know the specifics there.”
Filling the void at left tackle could take some reshuffling up front, but Miles said the Tigers have a few options.
One option is simply plugging jack-of-all-trades backup Josh Dworaczyk, who has 26 career starts at left guard, into Faulk’s position. Another is having Dworaczyk play left guard and slide sophomore La’el Collins, the top offensive tackle prospect in the nation two years ago, over to left tackle.
Or the Tigers could move right tackle Alex Hurst to left tackle and have freshman Vadal Alexander play right tackle.
“We’re kind of operating with the idea that we’re really moving guys around right now to give them a multiple feel for the position,” Miles said. ”No decision is going to be made right now as of how we’ll go Saturday, but we feel pretty comfortable that we’ll be good there.”
Miles said Faulk’s latest injury was not related to the one that forced the 6-6, 325-pound junior from Slidell to miss a significant portion of fall camp.
