Despite being new to LSU, Omar Speights’ experience playing college football at Oregon State automatically places him in a leadership role. His journey to Baton Rouge, however, was not a typical one.
Speights was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unlike many college football players, he didn’t grow up playing football. His career took off in the eighth grade and his recruitment started to pick up in his early high school years.
“I was born and raised in Philly. I was raised by my mom, me and my brother and my sister,” Speights said. “I didn’t play football too much growing up. I didn’t start playing football until about eighth grade. And once I got to eighth grade then everything just took off from there.”
Speights moved to Oregon during his last year of high school, a place that couldn’t have been more different than Philadelphia.
Speights finished his high school career at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, Oregon. As a recruit, he was a three-star prospect in the Class of 2019, according to 247sports. He held offers from schools like Baylor, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. Living in Oregon, however, Speights ultimately chose Oregon State.
The 6-foot-1 linebacker was able to get on the field right away as a freshman, recording 71 total tackles, including 42 solo tackles, 3.5 sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception. He made freshman All-American teams on several publications and was Pac-12 honorable mention freshman defensive player of the year.
Speights received many accolades in the years to come, but his junior season is when he really made a statement. In the 2022 season, Speights recorded 83 total tackles, including39 solo tackles and eight tackles for loss. He received All-Pac-12 first team honors, and Phil Steele All-Pac-12 First Team and he were on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List and the Bednarik Award Watch List, both given to the top defensive player in college football.
In his career at Oregon State, he totaled 308 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, five sacks and seven pass deflections.
In mid-January, however, Speights announced that he planned to enter the transfer portal as a graduate transfer. Shortly after, he signed with LSU.
“I just was ready for the change, and I think I wanted to challenge myself and come play SEC ball,” Speights said. “It [LSU] just felt like the right place.”
Speights finding himself in Baton Rouge was just as big of a change of scenery as when he moved from Philadelphia to Corvallis, Oregon. But as for this spring season, Speights found himself not only having to adjust to a new locker room, but he now finds himself in a leadership role.
The LSU linebacker corps exceeded expectations last season. Harold Perkins Jr. turned many heads alone with a stellar season that earned him freshman All-American honors.
“He’s a good guy,” Speights said of Perkins. “Good player, good person.”
With Perkins, a sophomore, and Greg Penn III, a junior, both returning to the linebacker room, the two now have a more experienced linebacker alongside them to watch and learn from.
“It’s an exciting challenge,” Speights said. “You got to develop relationships with guys. When you develop relationships with people, you could tell them the hard stuff that they need to hear.”
While both Perkins and Penn have college experience, the experience Speights has is second to none. Not only has he recorded impressive numbers during his time at Oregon State, but he is a player that has had to adapt to different environments while still trying to perform at his best.
Lessons that are learned in experiences like these aren’t found within many, and it could be experience useful for when Penn and Perkins eventually go onto the NFL draft.
For now, the three look to command an LSU defense that is returning a lot of talent. Speights finding himself as a potential ringleader of that defense is something nobody could have expected. A kid from Philadelphia found himself in Oregon and now in Baton Rouge, and that journey is indeed one of a kind.
