| Hello again, LSU newsletter readers. Your friendly neighborhood sports columnist is back after taking an extended break to cover the Paris Olympics. It was great, something special every day, but it's now time to transition back from sports in meters to sports in yards. Namely, of course, football. Tuesday means we're all 12 days away from LSU's season opener in the desert against Southern California (6:30 p.m. CDT, Sept. 1, ABC). The sports news has slowed a bit with no current access to LSU football in its preseason preparations, but we do have a couple of items to shoot your way. We'll start with the most prominent former Tiger, Heisman-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels, and what some of his plans are for his rookie season with the Washington Commanders (still can't get used to that name). Also, the AP preseason All-America team is out (with the AP it's always All-America, not All-American), with two current Tigers featured on the first team. Finally, our Ted Lewis dives into the Sugar Bowl's place in this season's new expanded College Football Playoff and looks at some key CFP questions going into the 2024 season. That's all for now, folks. Got to ease back into this LSU newsletter thing. Kind of like Mondo Duplantis, I'm not going for the world record on the first jump. I'll be back Thursday morning and again Saturday, so keep reading and subscribing for the most comprehensive LSU sports coverage around. Scott Rabalais | 