LSU fans who go back to the Nick Saban and early Les Miles days will inevitably tell you that Kyle Williams, who was a superstar defensive tackle from 2002-05, is one of their favorite players. Williams was a starter from halfway through his sophomore year in 2003, pairing with Chad Lavalais to form a terrific combo at defensive tackle for that national championship team, and then turned into one of the best defensive tackles in college football his junior and senior year. The Kyle Williams-Claude Wroten duo in 2004 and 2005 might go down as the most frightening pair of defensive tackles LSU’s program ever had.

And then Williams went on to play 13 years for the Buffalo Bills as an All-Pro defensive tackle. He retired in 2018 and he’s been back home in Ruston ever since, where he’s been Ruston High School’s defensive coordinator and the school’s athletic compliance officer. A month ago, Williams resigned to pursue other opportunities, so he’s currently a free agent.

Why am I bringing this up? Because as of right now LSU is about to lose its defensive tackles coach, Bo Davis, who is on the verge of taking a similar job with the New Orleans Saints.

LSU DL coach Bo Davis is set to take the same job with the New Orleans Saints, per @ByLukeJohnson.

As has been the case each offseason since Ed Orgeron took over as head coach in 2016, the Tigers will be hiring a new DL coach.

The news of the day:➡️ https://t.co/IMhxyhxVll pic.twitter.com/zMA4qhssQF

— Shea Dixon (@Sheadixon) February 27, 2025

You can’t fault Davis for jumping to the NFL. That’s a new challenge for him, and college coaching is infinitely harder in the time of NIL and the transfer portal, so it’s very common for college assistants to jump to the league.

And it’s a very, very good hire for the Saints. Defensive tackle play, particularly against the run, has been utterly abysmal over the past couple of years. Davis has a well-earned reputation for fixing that exact problem. If he does it for New Orleans the single largest problem the Saints have on defense will go away (and then they can focus on lots of other problems that franchise is plagued by).

But it’s a shame to see for LSU. Head coach Brian Kelly had finally put together a defensive coaching staff worthy of a playoff team, and now perhaps the best coach of the group is leaving.

Defensive ends coach Kevin Peoples is also excellent, and Peoples has coached defensive tackles as well at several stops. There is no reason to panic that the product on the field will collapse with Davis’ departure. LSU still has a very good shot at taking the next step and becoming a playoff participant this fall.

But with Davis’ departure we’re going to be just about a full decade of someone new coaching defensive tackles practically every year at LSU. It’s like a curse now.

Ed Orgeron was the defensive line coach for Les Miles in 2015, but he took over as the interim head coach when Miles was let go during the 2016 season. Orgeron brought Pete Jenkins back out of retirement to coach the defensive line.

Then in 2018 Dennis Johnson took over as the defensive line coach. Then he was gone and in 2019 Bill Johnson was brought in to take over. That lasted a couple of years.

Then in 2021, Orgeron replaced Bill Johnson with Andre Carter. And after Orgeron was let go that year, Kelly took over and he hired Jamar Cain as the defensive line coach for 2022.

Cain left after one season and Kelly hired Jimmy Lindsey. But an illness knocked Lindsey out of action and Kelly brought Pete Jenkins back out of retirement to work with John Jancek on the worst defense LSU’s ever had.

Then Kelly hired Davis last year hoping to fix the problem once and for all. It was thought that he had, but now we know he hadn’t.

This position needs stability.

Which is why I’m suggesting it’s time to get Kyle Williams and bring him home to LSU.

Normally I would say LSU’s best move is to get a national search going and find a superstar defensive tackles coach on his way up. But those kids have had to get to know a new coach every year they’ve been at LSU and it’s time for somebody who will stay a while.

Kyle Williams is a guy who stays a while.

He got drafted by the Bills and he played in Buffalo – which isn’t a typical destination city – his whole career. And when he retired he could have gone anywhere but he went home to Ruston and took a high school coaching job rather than try to break into big-time coaching.

Williams knows everything there is to know about the defensive tackle position. By every account, those kids at Ruston High School love him. It’s not surprising that Ruston has responded to his being there by turning into one of the true powerhouse programs in the state. And two players on LSU’s roster, defensive tackle Ahmad Breaux and incoming freshman cornerback Aidan Anding, were products of Kyle Williams’ coaching.

And Williams is a Tiger. It would be awfully hard to pull him out of LSU once he got here with his large family.

He’s relatively young; Williams is 42 years old. It’ll be 10 years before he sends his youngest off to college. Baton Rouge is close enough to Ruston that he could still keep a house back home and be there a lot in the offseason. Williams would likely be a huge asset recruiting in North Louisiana, and he’s a known name as a former six-time All-Pro player, which carries some weight in living rooms.

To me, this is a no-brainer hire, and it’s the kind of move that could finally resolve the merry-go-round at defensive tackle which has held back the position’s productivity for LSU for almost a decade. Kelly obviously knows more about this decision, but here’s hoping he sees what a Kyle Williams return to campus could do.