LSU crushed No. 23 Texas A&M 35-6 on Saturday night, giving Lane Kiffin the response he needed after the ugly Ole Miss loss. But even a blowout came with a price. In the third quarter, with LSU taking control and stretching the lead to 28-3, senior linebacker Whit Weeks went down, hopped off the field, threw his helmet in frustration, and headed into the medical tent. He later emerged on crutches with a boot on his right foot. Kiffin got his statement win, but he may have lost one of the biggest pieces of his defense in the process.
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“It’s really unfortunate,” Kiffin said, according to Jerit Roser’s X post. “I don’t have an update on Whit Weeks, but obviously it didn’t look good when he walked up. Those things will catch up to you… It doesn’t matter how good of plays you draw up.” Kiffin also credited LSU’s backups for stepping in and said he had rarely dealt with this many significant injuries so early in a season.
Weeks spent roughly 10 minutes in the medical tent before heading toward the locker room and was later seen being taken away on a golf cart. He finished the night with four tackles after entering the game with 20 tackles and one pass breakup through LSU’s first three contests.
The next player listed behind Weeks at WILL linebacker is sophomore Charles Ross II, a 6-foot-1, 217-pound former four-star recruit from Houston. Ross had already made an impact through LSU’s first three games with four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and an interception, giving the Tigers an experienced rotational option if Weeks is forced to miss time.
LSU did not immediately suffer after Weeks left. Texas A&M never reached the end zone, finished with only 197 total yards and scored just three points in the second half. Even after Sam Leavitt’s interception handed the Aggies favorable field position late in the third quarter, they managed only a 54-yard field goal. For one night, LSU absorbed the loss without allowing the game to turn.
The concern now is what comes next. Weeks has dealt with significant lower-leg injuries before, including a gruesome ankle injury against Baylor in the 2024 Texas Bowl that ended his game. He then missed five games in 2025 because of another lower-leg injury, including a four-game stretch against Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Alabama and Arkansas.
His importance goes well beyond one night. Weeks entered Week 4 with 225 career tackles, including 20 through LSU’s first three games of 2026. He had already compiled 205 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks across his first three seasons in Baton Rouge. His breakout came as a sophomore in 2024, when he finished with 125 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks while earning first-team All-SEC honors.
“I want to bring back that nasty mentality to an LSU defense,” Weeks said at SEC Media Days, according to Dylan Sanders of Roundtable on July 27. “I think we’ve lacked that in the first three years, and I take that personally on myself. I want to bring back that nasty defense when teams turn on the tape, and they’re like, ‘holy cow, we’ve got to play these dudes on Saturday.’”
Kiffin did not provide a timetable for Weeks’ return, but his in-game reaction made the concern clear. Speaking to ESPN’s Kris Budden before the start of the fourth quarter, after Weeks had already left for the locker room on crutches and in a walking boot, Kiffin said, “Whit left, it looked really bad. It’s the next people up and hopefully we don’t keep having to say that.”
LSU is already dealing with several significant absences, including safety Dashawn Spears, tight end Trey’Dez Green and wide receiver Phillip Wright III, so any extended absence for Weeks would put even more pressure on the roster. That makes the timing of LSU’s next game especially important, because the Tigers at least get one relatively forgiving week to sort through the damage before the SEC grind resumes.
LSU Has One Game to Fix This Before SEC Play Bites Back
LSU gets McNeese next, which is about as favorable a spot as Kiffin could ask for after losing Weeks. The Tigers are 3-1 and back in the win column, but this is where the schedule stops being about the Texas A&M result and starts becoming about whether LSU can survive its own injury list. McNeese gives the staff a chance to redistribute snaps, get Charles Ross II more work at WILL if needed and figure out how much the defense changes without Weeks in the middle of it.
The real test comes immediately after that. LSU goes to Kentucky on October 10, then gets Mississippi State before traveling to Auburn. That stretch is manageable on paper, but it becomes much less comfortable if Weeks is unavailable and the Tigers are still patching together the defense. Texas A&M never forced LSU to pay for losing him. SEC opponents are far more likely to attack that weakness directly, especially if the communication and run fits start slipping.
And LSU cannot afford to spend October still searching for answers. Alabama and Texas both come to Baton Rouge in November before road games at Tennessee and Arkansas close the regular season. So McNeese is not just a breather. It is LSU’s best chance to find out whether the next-man-up approach actually works before the schedule gets considerably less forgiving.