Speed, Speed and More Speed - 24/7 Article

quote:

---

With fall camp starting up Thursday morning, there have been several freshmen in this 28 player 2024 class who have been written and talked about at length this offseason.

But as camp nears, there's more and more reason to be excited about freshman wide receiver Jelani Watkins.

An absolute burner in terms of speed, Watkins may be a little undersized at 5-foot-9 but even as a summer enrollee he was turning a lot of heads for what he was able to do on the track during his final high school sprinting season. Already known as one of the fastest high schoolers in the country, Watkins backed it up with some pretty electric times, including edging out one of his current LSU teammates.

In a recent episode of the 247Sports recruiting podcast, Andrew Ivins and Cooper Petagna broke down some of the football athletes around the country who have athletic traits that translate to the 2024 Olympics. Watkins' name popped up when the 100 meter dash conversion started.

"He ran a 10.19 personal record, I went back and watched that video of him doing that. The other guy in there that he beat was Caden Durham, who ran 10.28. He [Watkins] will be taking his talents to Baton Rouge to not only play football but track and field as well and for good reason. When you hear 10.19 you know it's blazing but then when you see the tape, the football speed and track speed is pretty unique," Petagna said.

"He has the second best time in the United States for a high schooler in a 100m dash. They're pairing him with Derek Meadows [in the 2025 class] you wanna talk about two complete opposites but they share the same thing, they're both very athletic. Cortez Hankton is creating quite the cache of weapons and then you can throw Caden Durham in there as well," Ivins said.

Just as a comparison for how Watkins compares with some of the top athletes in the world, at the Paris Olympic trials, the second and third place finishers Kenny Bednarek and Fred Kerley finished with a 9.87 and 9.88 second times respectively. For Watkins to already be topping out at 10.19 as a senior in high school is incredibly impressive and points to a strong collegiate track record in his future.

But on the football field that speed translates as well and it'll be interesting to see if he pushes some of the other young, speedy wideouts on the roster come fall. Zavion Thomas, Chris Hilton and Aaron Anderson all have the common trait of speed and Watkins is arguably faster than all of them.

Of course there are other components to the position that need to be considered but to a football observer, the one trait that typically stands out above all else is speed. If Watkins starts blowing defensive backs away in 1v1 drills this fall, expect his name to come up on practice reports.

LSU's offense has no shortage of weapons it wants to incorporate but one of the identities that could emerge this year is a passing offense that's built around four, five or even six quality contributors. Watkins is a name that not many have brought up mainly because he hasn't been seen on the field.

The speed element he brings to the game will be hard to miss starting on Thursday and is yet another freshman in this class who could carve out a role if he develops in the system quickly.

---