A daunting playbook. A competitive corps. A lack of confidence.
Looking back at his time as a Tiger, junior linebacker Kevin Minter finds himself in the middle of a surreal season.
“It’s like, man, I just walked on campus and now, I’m being spoken about on ESPN,” Minter said. “It’s a feeling you can’t describe. It’s crazy. I was just on the bench the other day.”
To be fair, he’s not exactly fresh off the bench, but that must be the modesty talking. Minter started in 11 of LSU’s 14 games last season, ranking fifth on the team in tackles. Still, he never quite reached the level his teammates thought possible.
A 20-tackle game was more like it.
Minter caught the nation’s collective eye with his record-setting performance against Florida a month ago and he’s continued to produce since, racking up national awards and the notoriety that comes with them. And as the heart of LSU’s defense, Minter is coming along at just the right time with Alabama looming.
“I always knew he had it in him,” said junior safety Eric Reid. “He just had to show the world.”
That transition was necessary, Reid said, for both of them.
Bunking together during fall camp, Reid and Minter grew close. Both were inheriting the leadership post of their respective positions. They would sit in their room and discuss their new roles.
They were now the ones who had to set the example. They were now the ones tasked with teaching.
But for Minter, it doesn’t seem that long ago that he was being coddled. Coming into LSU from Peachtree Ridge as Scout.com’s No. 4 middle linebacker, he quickly realized he wasn’t in Suwanee, Ga., anymore.
Defensive coordinator John “Chief” Chavis is known for his complicated schemes. This was not a “see ball, hit ball” defense, to which Minter was accustomed.
“The playbook is like an encyclopedia,” Minter said, trying to show its size with his thumb and forefinger extended and separated by several inches of air. “Freshman year, it was like, ‘Man, what am I doing?’”
The high school game played right into his instinctual style. Minter never had to study football before, but he had plenty of time to do just that, toiling behind players like Jacob Cutrera and Kelvin Sheppard. He redshirted his first year and played just enough as a freshman to tally 15 tackles.
Just as it looked like he was a lock for the Mike linebacker position with Sheppard’s departure to the NFL, Karnell Hatcher, a well-worn senior, was moved from safety to fill the void in the spring. They battled through the summer, fall camp and the first half of the season, but Minter eventually sealed the spot, starting the final seven games of 2011.
He would finish with 61 tackles, 3.5 of them for a loss, a sack, a forced fumble and fumble recovery, which he fell on in Ole Miss’s end zone; a solid season for a first-time starting sophomore. But still, he admits something was missing.
“I had the size, speed and strength to play that position, but I was lacking confidence to actually make those calls,” Minter said. “I feel like I’m doing that this year and Chief does too.”
Playing against teams like Saturday’s opponent and on a Tiger team like last year’s helped build that confidence. In the BCS loss, Minter registered five tackles and his lone sack. He continued to perfect his knowledge of the playbook in the offseason.
Sitting in that room at camp, Reid and Minter knew what they had to do.
“Even last year, he was feeling his way through, he still had a presence about him,” said junior linebacker Lamin Barrow. “If there was one thing, he’s been more vocal this year and he’s really putting the team on his back right now.”
So far this season, Minter is ranked fourth in the Southeastern Conference in tackles with 75, 9.5 of them for a loss, good for fifth in the SEC, with three sacks. He’s made nine or more tackles in five of eight games. Of course, he set the school record with 17 solo tackles against Florida, coming up one short of LSU’s total tackle record of 21 and earning co-SEC Defensive Player of the Week.
Two weeks later against Texas A&M, he made 12 tackles and two pivotal plays with a sack and an interception. That performance earned him not only the SEC honor, but also the weekly Bronko Nagurski, Chuck Bednarik and Walter Camp awards.
Even with that kind of recognition, Minter’s teammates said he stays humble. Reid went so far as to say, “He may be the most humble guy you’ll ever meet.”
No matter his 6-foot-2-inch, 245 pound frame; that kind of understatement just begs for a needling.
“If he was on the field for a few more plays, he could’ve been the record-holder around here,” Barrow said of Minter’s breakout performance in Gainesville, Fla. In reply to a simple, recent request by Minter, his bunkmate remembers quipping, “So you make 20 tackles, now you want me to do stuff for you.”
Joking aside, he has the respect of his peers, and the country. He also has six promising freshman backers looking up to and learning from him. Minter’s done what he and Reid set out to do, but this may just be the beginning.
“It’s really starting to pay off,” Minter said. “And I’m really starting to play my game.”
