DJ Chester is Ready to Lead LSU’s Offensive Line

DJ Chester is entering his redshirt sophomore season with the Tigers after starting all 13 games last year. As the youngest member of the veteran line last season, he is now expected to take on more of a leadership role in the upcoming year.

DJ talked about the knowledge he gained from his first full-season season. “I learned a lot just being the first time actually playing live college football. Yeah, practice is real. Yes, you get live reps in practice, but when you are in Tiger Stadium, and you got 100, almost 105,000 people counting on you and the…people watching at home, it's different is the pressure is different, the atmosphere is different but from my first year to [have] started every game, I feel like I got better every game. I struggled starting off the season but by the end of it, I was pretty good and I started playing my best football.”

DJ discussed how close his position group is and how that might translate on the field. “We’re a very tight group…We all love each other. We all try to play for each other, and I feel like the bowl game helped us… so we just didn't come out in the spring…the 15 bowl practices helped a lot…[those practices] were a great experience because they [Will Campbell, Emery Jones, and Garrett Dellinger] helped me, and we all played as one.”

In Thursday’s media session, DJ also addressed what he learned from facing SEC linemen. “I'm not the biggest, so most of the time, you're going to be going against somebody who's bigger than you. We play in the SEC, so these defensive linemen are probably going first round, so if you dominate them, you will be looked at as a first round or two.”

Lastly, he discussed how important Garrett Nussmeier has been in his development. “Oh, that's my dog. That’s my guy. My relationship with Garrett is great. We hang out off the field; we talk off the field…If I have a question…I just call like, hey, how are we doing this?…It’s a great relationship!”