Sophomores are rarely asked to be a No. 1 receiver in any major college football program.
LSU wideout Odell Beckham Jr. doesn’t think he’s any different.
“I don’t think there needs to be a label on my role,” the New Orleans native said after the Spring Game in March. “It’s like the running backs with our group. There’s so many threats that, at any given time, someone can make a play. We’re one family, not about who’s the best.”
But Beckham’s breakout freshman campaign last season, featuring 41 catches for 475 yards - both ranking second on the team - earned him a spot on the SEC Coaches’ All-Freshman team and made him the rising star of LSU’s receiving corps.
With Rueben Randle off to the NFL and junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger sparking a more aggressive Tiger offense, Beckham is next in line at a position that has had eight players drafted in the last seven years.
This spring has only intensified the spotlight on the 5-foot-11, 185-pound sophomore.
Beckham was one of five players to receive the Ralph Norwood Performance Award for outstanding offensive production in spring drills.
“I don’t think fans know how great an honor it is to win those spring awards honors,” Beckham said. “It always feels good to see your work rewarded. To be lumped in with the leaders on this team is where I want to be.”
He backed up the recognition and expectations in the Spring Game, hauling in three passes for 115 yards and a touchdown as LSU showcased a newfound vertical passing attack.
LSU coach Les Miles said Beckham’s performance surprised no one around the team.
“He made plays like that all spring,” Miles said. “There’s no magic there. We’ll challenge anybody down the field, and Odell is certainly an uncomfortable person to cover from a secondary perspective.”
Beckham’s enhanced role as a deep threat wasn’t the only thing that changed for him this spring.
He wore No. 33 last fall in honor of his father, who played running back at LSU from 1989 to 1992, but switched over to No. 3, the number from his prep days at Isidore Newman in New Orleans.
“I feel more myself again instead of just in my dad’s shoes,” Beckham said. “I loved wearing that number for him, but it feels natural in the [No.] 3.”
Beckham is a member of the touted “Fab Five” and “Quick Six” passing game units, monikers the Tigers receiving corps bestowed upon itself this offseason.
Fellow sophomore Jarvis Landry, Beckham’s running mate at receiver and roommate off the field, said his friend’s style is a perfect blend of talent and humility.
“For a guy his size, he has tremendous hands and balances a defense out with how clean his routes are,” Landry said. “The chemistry he’s got with our team makes him respected. He doesn’t show off, he shows out.”
While Beckham is the expected heir to Randle’s deep-threat throne, he spent 2011 preparing for the coronation.
After emerging as LSU’s primary third-down target early in the season, LSU’s offense took off when he became big-play Beckham.
He was the first LSU player since Bennie Brazell in 2005 to grab 50-plus-yard receiving touchdowns in consecutive games, with a 52-yard strike at West Virginia and a dazzling cross-field 51-yard catch and scamper against Kentucky.
The Tigers combined for 82 points in those two games.
Those credentials have already landed Beckham squarely on NFL scouts’ radars.
Local draft expert Mike Detillier said the rising sophomore is practically a carbon copy of former Baylor receiver Kendall Wright, who the Tennessee Titans drafted 20th overall last Thursday.
“He’s not a big receiver, but he’s got the flash-and-dash speed and hand-eye coordination that can blow the top off coverages,” Detillier said. “You look at Odell’s bloodlines and his speedy roots … he already looks like a potential first-rounder.”
Besides his father’s football pedigree, Beckham’s mother, Heather Van Norman, was a six-time All-American and won three NCAA individual titles as an LSU sprinter from 1991 to 1993.
Combine that background with the burgeoning expectations, and most 19-year-olds might feel overwhelmed. But the only heat Beckham felt this spring was from the unseasonably warm weather.
“I’m focused on playing for my team and fitting the role coaches need me to play,” Beckham said. “If that’s the major role, then I’ll step up and fill it.”
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected].