LSU All-American cornerback Eli Ricks will miss the rest of the season after opting for surgery on his injured shoulder, coach Ed Orgeron announced Wednesday.
The Tigers will also be without defensive end Ali Gaye for the rest of the season as he recovers from an injury, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.
Ricks emerged as one of the top cornerbacks in the SEC as a freshman last season, intercepting four passes and earning third-team All-America honors from The Associated Press. He was also named to the freshman All-SEC team.
He left Saturday’s game against Kentucky with the injury. The loss dropped LSU to 3-3 on the season.
Orgeron said it was a preexisting injury that “kept on coming back” and that Ricks and his family decided he would get surgery.
The Tigers were already without their other All-American cornerback, Derek Stingley Jr., who has missed the past three games and is out indefinitely.
Gaye, an All-SEC selection last year, had 2.5 sacks in four games this season. The Athletic first reported that Gaye, who left Saturday’s loss to Kentucky with an upper-body injury, needed season-ending surgery.
On Monday, Orgeron announced that star wideout Kayshon Boutte would be out for the rest of the year with a lower-leg injury.
“It does make it tough,” Orgeron conceded Wednesday on the weekly SEC-hosted conference call with the league’s coaches. “Somebody’s got to rise up to the occasion. We’ve lost several players, especially starters on defense. We’ve got some young guys that have to step up.”
Without Ricks, who had one interception this season, LSU plans to move Cordale Flott to cornerback and freshman Sage Ryan to the nickel slot in five- or six-defensive-back formations, Orgeron said.
After winning its SEC opener at Mississippi State to improve to 3-1 overall, LSU has lost two straight conference games, to Auburn and the Wildcats.
The next four games for the Tigers (3-3, 1-2 SEC) are against conference foes ranked in the AP Top 25. Following their matchup in Baton Rouge with Florida this weekend, LSU visits No. 13 Ole Miss on Oct. 23 and No. 5 Alabama on Nov. 6 before hosting 17th-ranked Arkansas on Nov. 13.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
