{"id":146820,"date":"2025-08-15T03:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T03:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/146820\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T03:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T03:52:09","slug":"lsus-5-star-freshman-creates-all-time-college-football-record-as-brian-kellys-staff-raves-about-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/146820\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU\u2019s 5-Star Freshman Creates All-Time College Football Record as Brian Kelly\u2019s Staff Raves About Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans must be wondering how Brian Kelly<\/strong> got blessed with the flip of luck? Well, the LSU head coach\u2019s seat is supposed to be hot. After all, this year marks his litmus test, and he is yet to gift his squad a Natty. On the other hand, his predecessors, from Nick Saban<\/strong> to Ed Orgeron<\/strong>, all have National Championship feathers in their hats while they held the head coaching role at LSU.<\/p>\n

But turns out that Kelly\u2019s seat has cooled down. As ESPN analyst Peter Burns<\/strong> stated, \u201cThere is no way in hell that Brian Kelly is on the hot seat in 2025.\u201d To him it\u2019s \u201cabsolutely asinine.\u201d The 2024 season has been a complete mess, as Kelly\u2019s boys from DJ Chester<\/strong> to Major Burns<\/strong> struggled on the gridiron. Cut to 2025, their 5-star freshman is catching all the buzz. That\u2019s none other than DJ Pickett<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On August 14, Logan Graffia<\/strong> shared a clip of Pickett\u2019s play and tweeted, \u201cFun fact: DJ Pickett at 6\u20195 is the tallest CB on record in CFB history.\u201d This time last year, Kelly was going through a rough patch. Courtesy? They lost 5-star offensive lineman Lance Heard<\/strong> to Tennessee. That\u2019s when the universe blessed Kelly with Pickett to get over Heard\u2019s snub. But even after locking Pickett, Kelly could not sleep in peace. As Izubee Charles<\/strong> stirred some fear of his decommitment,\u00a0 \u201cDJ Pickett has been Miami\u2019s guy for the entirety of this cycle, and despite him committing to LSU, they still continue to push and kind of put that full court press on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But Kelly has moved past all these insecurities. Right now, he might be thanking the universe for giving him Pickett. The skyscraper of a defensive back is listed at 6-foot-5, 195 pounds. While no one can give him competition when it comes to his height, Pickett found himself a decent spot on ESPN\u2019s Billy Tucker\u2019s<\/strong> projections for college football\u2019s top 10 freshmen. In Tucker\u2019s rankings, the cornerback stands at No.7. Besides Pickett, there are two more SEC stars on the list- Tennessee\u2019s David Sanders Jr.<\/strong> (No. 6) and Texas\u2019 Graceson Littleton<\/strong> (No. 10).<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s star is the second-highest defender behind Ohio State cornerback Devin Sanchez<\/strong> (No. 4). And Tucker could not stop himself from singing highly in Pickett\u2019s praise. \u201cIt will be difficult to keep a 6-foot-5, 195-pound perimeter defender with 10.6 100-meter speed off the field in Baton Rouge. Though Pickett is competing against experienced defensive backs for meaningful snaps, none possesses his rare frame, range, and ball skills,\u201d noted the analyst. \u201cThe Tigers have thrown him in the mix early. He provides scheme versatility in the back end and should find a significant role in Brian Kelly\u2019s overhauled secondary. The former five-star should reestablish the Tigers\u2019 reputation for producing elite defensive backs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Few schools match LSU\u2019s history when it comes to defensive backs. LSU was dubbed \u201cDBU\u201d in the early 2010s. Kelly\u2019s squad has been the home to defensive greats like Patrick Peterson<\/strong>, Morris Claiborne<\/strong>, among others. Now, if the analysts are already wooed by Pickett, can you fathom his craze in the Tigers camp?<\/p>\n

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DJ Pickett\u2019s daily grind wins Brian Kelly\u2019s coach\u2019s heart\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This season, LSU has opened its gates to 30 newcomers. They have wrapped up their fall camp, during which multiple true freshmen caught the spotlight. LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker<\/strong> faced the media, giving a rundown of the freshmen\u2019s stints, and could not stop talking about Pickett<\/a>. \u201cDJ has grown so much from when we had him in bowl practices to spring practice to now. Ten days in, there have been some days where we got to continue to work on his consistency, but the biggest improvement from spring to fall has been his physicality. He has done a really good job tackling this fall,\u201d shared Kelly\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n

Pickett\u2019s 2025 mission has been to turn himself into a bigger force. As Blaker noted, \u201cHe has done a really good job tackling this fall. He\u2019s put on, I don\u2019t know, 20 pounds or something since he\u2019s been here, so the weight room\u2019s gonna build confidence from that standpoint. But I\u2019ve been really impressed, more impressed with his physicality so far than the coverage skills.\u201d It was last December that Pickett officially signed with LSU. Ever since then, he has hit the weight room to add those extra pounds. And his efforts did not go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

As Blaker is truly impressed by DJ Pickett\u2019s commitment to routine, \u201cEvery day I go in the indoor, he\u2019s got the VR on. He works at it. He\u2019s very, very humble. He loves football. He\u2019s very hardworking.\u201d And guess what? Pickett\u2019s efforts did leave a positive influence on the LSU locker room. Another LSU athlete is now going through the 20-pound transformation<\/a> process. That\u2019s none other than tight end Trey\u2019Dez Green<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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On August 12, LSU insider Wilson Alexander<\/strong> tweeted, \u201cLSU TE Trey\u2019Dez Green says he had to gain 20 pounds since the start of camp. He\u2019s been eating five meals a day. Lot of fried chicken, red beans and rice.\u201d Like DJ Pickett, 6-foot-7 and 245-pounder Green\u2019s mission is to become more \u201ccomplete.\u201d If the rookies keep paddling like this, Brian Kelly\u2019s hot seat might finally drift into cooler currents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans must be wondering how Brian Kelly got blessed with the flip of luck? Well, the LSU head…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[2967,86772,1641,2359,2944,1638,1318,2941,47065,2945,2942,2943,1317,1315,1316,1647,86771,1618,1645,15545,62,27833,2959,2960,2958,67,132,68,1646,86773,86774,1640,1615],"class_list":{"0":"post-146820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-2967","9":"tag-30er","10":"tag-am","11":"tag-auf","12":"tag-brians","13":"tag-der","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-fusball","16":"tag-gegen","17":"tag-kellys","18":"tag-kopf","19":"tag-kutsche","20":"tag-ncaa","21":"tag-ncaa-football","22":"tag-ncaafootball","23":"tag-nur","24":"tag-oklahome","25":"tag-quer","26":"tag-redaktionelle","27":"tag-schaut","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-staat","30":"tag-stadion","31":"tag-staffelstab","32":"tag-tigern","33":"tag-united-states","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-verwendung","37":"tag-vierte","38":"tag-viertel","39":"tag-wahrend","40":"tag-x0x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115030756292765208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}