Expectations are set for the LSU 2014 wide receiver corps. Spoiler: they’re high.
Sophomore Travin Dural and freshman John Diarse are charged with the responsibility of replacing more than 70 percent of the Tigers’ receiving production from last season following the departure of one of the best receiving duos Baton Rouge has seen in Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. 
Beckham and Landry became the first receiving tandem in program history to post a pair of 1,000 yard seasons, with Landry going for 1,193 yards and 10 touchdowns and Beckham with 1,152 yards and eight touchdowns.
No one is letting Dural and Diarse forget it, either.
“Every now and then, coach will throw in, ‘Jarvis would do this this way,’ or, ‘Odell would do this this way.’” Dural said. “Before the scrimmage on Saturday, we watched film on past receivers that were here. Coach was like, ‘Those guys played fast. They did this. They did that.’”
If following in Beckham’s and Landry’s footsteps wasn’t a daunting enough task, the Breaux Bridge, La., native didn’t do himself any favors by making his debut moment to Tiger Nation a 49-yard touchdown reception to defeat Arkansas in the closing minutes of last season’s Battle for the Golden Boot.
Since November, Dural has been fielding a barrage of questions about his late-game heroics against the Razorbacks, and with five months until he’s able to make his next catch, he doesn’t expect the questions to stop anytime soon.
But Dural doesn’t want his legacy to stop at Arkansas.
“I’d say it kind of ignited the fire that we’re trying to show everyone this year, that it’s not going to be a late-game heroic and that we can do it from the beginning of the game on throughout the whole game,” Dural said.
As for the constant comparisons to Beckham and Landry, Dural said he understands it’s a natural connection, but he added the associations drive him to become the next model receiver for future generations of LSU pass catchers.
“It’s a good bit of pressure,” Dural said. “Those guys were two good receivers. … It’s some pressure having to fill in those shoes, but like coach [Cam] Cameron says, ‘We’re the right guys to do it.’”
Dural entered spring practice as one of only two returning wide receivers to register a catch last season and the presumptive No. 1 option for sophomore quarterback Anthony Jennings. In limited snaps, Dural produced seven receptions for 145 yards and a pair of touchdowns. 
Diarse is the current No. 2 behind Dural, but has been inactive for the past week because of an unspecified injury that kept him in shorts during Tuesday’s practice and out of Saturday’s scrimmage. Diarse wasn’t made available to the media during the week because of the injury. 
Miles said the injury is unrelated to the ankle injury that kept him out all last season.
“Besides the little injury [Diarse] had, he was having a real good spring,” Dural said. “He was starting to develop into the receiver that we really needed. He was a big body, catching balls, making contact catches, making the right reads on certain routes, blocking people.”
The injury could be detrimental to Diarse if he doesn’t get back to full speed soon, with an influx of top-receiving talent coming in the fall.
Miles said he expects Diarse to finish out the spring with no further issues, but top recruits Malachi Dupre and Trey Quinn could jump into serious roles during their first season on campus.
“I think the wide receiver position will be one with a lot of competition and those young four guys will have an opportunity to compete very quickly,” Miles said before Saturday’s scrimmage. “They’ll have to pick up the passing game and route technique and how it all happens, but I think really all four of them will have opportunities to play significantly.”
Miles has made no attempts to hide the fact that he views Dupre and Quinn as the future of the program at wide receivers — with mention of incoming freshmen D.J. Chark and Tony Upchurch in the mix as well — even if they don’t see time right away.
Miles said Saturday that Dural is one of the Tigers’ fastest receivers. Miles also appears to have early hopes of Dural and Diarse filling the same roles as Beckham and Landry but isn’t ready to put anything into writing just yet.
“I think we’re trying to make a determination as we design summer plans and this is where this guys is going to be, this is where this guy is going to be and how to operate it,” Miles said. “I think the recruiting class will hit us right where we need to be hit.”