After a career-best three sack performance, forced a fumble and five total tackles in LSU’s 36-33 win over South Carolina on Saturday in Columbia, LSU defensive end Bradyn Swinson has been named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week.

The honor is the first of Swinson’s career and the first for the Tigers in 2024.

All three of Swinson’s sacks had an impact on the outcome of the game. His first sack came late in the second quarter on third-and-10 at the LSU 35-yard line, resulting in a 4-yard loss and pushing the Gamecocks out of field goal range.

In the fourth quarter, Swinson’s sack resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Major Burns at the LSU 12-yard line.  LSU didn’t score on the ensuing possession, but the flip in field position followed by a 3-and-out on South Carolina’s next possession helped lead to the game-winning drive by the Tigers.

After LSU took a 36-33 lead late in the fourth quarter, Swinson registered his third sack for a 7-yard loss as the Gamecocks tried to mount a comeback. The sack forced South Carolina to burn one of its final two timeouts with 35 seconds remaining in the game. South Carolina ended up missing a 49-yard field goal as time expired.

*LSU press release

Brian Kelly’s thoughts on Swinson

“Bradyn Swinson definitely deserves recognition for being named the SEC Player of the week,” Kelly said. “With Swinson, Saivion Jones, Gabriel Reliford, Dashawn Womack who will be healthy this week, we were able to move Paris Shand inside, that front is doing very well. More than anything else, it’s about creating havoc and we did that. We forced turnovers, got key stops. We’re not there yet, but we’re making the progress necessary with the guys that we have. We’re getting closer.”

For Kelly, a lot of that improvement comes from coaching, but a strength of this team has been its resilience under Kelly, constantly coming back from slow starts in his tenure. Still, his team has the right mindset.

“What’s important is from a team standpoint, to win games like that, you have to understand habits have a lot to do with it. Winning is a habit and losing is a habit and if you have losing habits you can’t win that game. This team has winning habits. This group understands there’s so much more to this game than what’s between the lines, it’s also about what’s between the ears as well.”

Kelly complimented the defense’s overall effort, despite allowing two long touchdown runs, saying if they can clean up the little things, the defense will take a significant step forward.

“If you eliminate those mistakes, you could’ve put 50 points on the board and if your run support structure is better you eliminate those runs and they don’t get into the 30s. That’s why our staff is so anxious to get back on the practice field.”

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