During his fourth press conference and third mention of Colby Richardson through fall camp, head coach Brian Kelly stumbled, calling the graduate transfer “Cody Dickerson”. Richardson took no offense to it, laughing about it on the Jordy Culotta Show.
“He was probably just nervous,” Richardson joked. “I just laughed about it, and me and him both laugh about it a lot.”
Mistake or not, with how much buzz Richardson has received throughout the past few weeks, it would be a huge surprise if Richardson’s name ever got mixed up again.
If you’ve been following LSU Football on social media over the past week, chances are you who Richardson is. The defensive back has exploded onto the scene during camp and now has a realistic chance of landing a starting cornerback position alongside Jarrick Bernard-Converse or Mekhi Garner.
He spent most of his college career in the Southland Conference at McNeese State, where he was a solid, albeit a rather unnoticed contributor for most of his time there. He didn’t draw much attention in the defensive back room, with defensive back Andre Sam and cornerback Jarius Wallace earning first and second-team all-conference honors.
However, Richardson did earn honorable mention honors in 2021. He also had 22 tackles, two interceptions and three pass breakups in 10 games last season.
The New Orleans native attended McMain High School where he was a versatile athlete on McMain’s football team. He played cornerback, wide receiver, and quarterback in his senior year at McMain. He also ran on the track team where he ran the 100, 200, 4×100 and 4×200 sprints.
He announced his decision to transfer in January, originally considering a move to Colorado State before former McNeese State head coach and current LSU running backs coach Frank Wilson gave him a call, believing there was a spot on the team for him.
“I went out there to visit (Colorado State),” Richardson said on the Jordy Culotta Show. “The scenery was good, but the football atmosphere wasn’t there for me.”
There was a spot on the team for him, but there was no guarantee he would win it.
Early on in the offseason, one of the biggest questions for LSU’s football team was the secondary. LSU’s defensive back room was depleted by the transfer portal and NFL Draft. Its would-be starters for 2022 were originally set to be Dwight McGlothern and Eli Ricks, but they transferred to SEC West rivals Arkansas and Alabama, respectively.
While the defensive back room was vacant at the beginning of the offseason, that didn’t last long. By the time Richardson had even entered his name into the portal, Bernard-Converse and Garner had already joined the program.
And by the time Richardson opted to become a Tiger, they were projected to be the starters at both the outside corner positions, with the season being just three months away. To say the hill to a starting job at that point was steep would be an understatement.
“I was overwhelmed,” Richardson said regarding the situation. “I was going into a system where it was established but it was on the verge of being established.”
Not only did he have to compete for a chance at a spot, but he was going to have to put on some weight as well. He arrived on campus weighing 167 pounds, a non-proficient weight for a defensive back playing in the SEC. For comparison, Bernard-Converse, Garner and Banks all weigh over 200 pounds.
According to Brian Kelly, his initial impression was that additional pounds were all he needed to play at the SEC level. He already had the speed and skillset to do so.
“It was really just being myself,” Richardson said when asked about the coaching staff’s expectations of him. “They knew of the talent they had seen off my film back at McNeese.”
When he joined LSU in June, he had the resources necessary to put on the required weight. Strength and conditioning coach Jake Flint gave him a plan that would allow him to gain muscle weight without attributing fat and Richardson took advantage of it, gaining twenty pounds by the time fall camp began.
“He’s put a lot of focus into that side of the game, like the strength and conditioning, the mental focus and stuff like that,” Bernard-Converse mentioned when discussing Richardson.
With the required skills, and now weight, to play cornerback effectively at the SEC level, Richardson quickly impressed the coaching staff. Though few, if any, scouting reports had him on their radars, through one week of camp, he certainly was.
He was witnessed not only competing with Kayshon Boutte, one of the best receivers in the country, but beating him on a couple occasions. In a defensive back room that features multiple FBS all-conference players, he is the one that has been discussed the most.
Through the last week of fall camp, Richardson was featured most heavily at the No. 2 outside corner position, with Bernard-Converse at No. 1. Garner is still receiving first-team action, so it’s speculated that those two will regularly rotate.
With that being said, the graduate transfer has more than earned himself a vital spot on LSU’s depth chart, cementing himself as one of the best defensive backs on the roster in just three short months. In that period, his name has gone from being practically unknown to one of the most brought-up names in LSU’s locker room.
