Starting slot receiver this year

Every week or so an article pops up somewhere predicting LSU’s big breakout wide receiver this year. One thing thats kind of crazy is at least five different names have been mentioned as our best receiver, most prominently Jayce Brown, Jackson Harris, Tre Wilson, Tre Brown and Winston Watkins.

To make it even crazier, for a school like LSU that has been recruiting and churning out NFL receivers the last twenty years or more, none of the five most mentioned as breakout receivers were not lsu high school signess out of high school. They are all transfers. It’s going to be confusing with two Tre’s and two Brown”s we never saw play before to learn who is who, lol.

Jayce Brown and Jackson Harris are the ones I see mentioned most often as probable starters, although I did see a big article recently crowning Tre Wilson as the jewel of the wr transfer class.

As for the slot, I was watching some video highlights of the group just for something to do. Highlight videos have a way of making everyone look all pro. One thing that caught my eye was the video of Watkins in the slot at Ole Miss and how fast he pops up after every tackle and is sprinting to line back up for the next play.

Kiffin is the master of the hurry up offense and punishes defenses with it. It takes players with discipline to do it, there’s no time to linger on the ground, no time do celebrate and no time to jaw with the defenders.its all about lining up and being ready to go for the next play faster than defense to get set, recognize the offensive formation, and call their defense.

in his highlights, there is no wasted time with Watkins after getting tackled, he’s lining back before they move the chains. I assume thats no accident, that Weis and Kiffin drilled that into him. Watson looks like one of those smaller, kind of fast twitch kids, you see in the slot that can be very hard for nickel backs or safeties to cover. I am guessing he is the guy to beat out to play slot wr for Kiffin with his experience in knowing what Kiffin expects of him and his familiarity with the offense.

On a completely unrelated note, anyone have any idea who is the mix for kick off and punt returns? I saw Harlem Berry mentioned as kick off returner. I would think punt returner comes from the group of wide outs listed above.

Here is link to Watkins highlights at Ole Miss, keep in mind he was a true freshman at the time:

LINK