Not all sophomore college football players are created equal.
Rushing for nearly 300 yards as a freshman and finding the end zone three times through the first eight games of a sophomore campaign may be considered a remarkable start for any run-of-the-mill college football player.
But it’s nothing to celebrate if your name is Russell Shepard.
The charming and charismatic wide receiver has struggled to meet the lofty expectations he set after inking his name to the
Tigers and becoming the gem of LSU’s 2009 recruiting class.
Shepard has 457 career rushing yards to go with 196 receiving yards and five touchdowns in 19 games played as a Tiger.
The 6-foot-1-inch, 188-pound sophomore will be the first to admit he is disappointed in his lack of staggering numbers. Shepard has 180 rushing yards, 162 receiving yards and three touchdowns through the first eight games this season.
Shepard graded himself “very inconsistent” this season.
“Going into the season, you want to be successful,” Shepard said. “I had goals that I put on myself for the season, and I’m not going to accomplish them.”
The dual-threat quarterback did it all for Cypress Ridge High School in Houston, accumulating nearly 4,000 total yards and 48 touchdowns his senior season before his No. 10 jersey was retired within a month of his final game.
Shepard said he would have been surprised if someone told him two years ago he was going to be a wide receiver for the Tigers.
“In a sense I’d be surprised, but in reality, you never know,” Shepard said. “Football’s a crazy sport.”
Junior running back Stevan Ridley said the high expectations come with all the hype Shepard received as a highly touted high school prospect.
“[The fans are] just not seeing the big plays out of Russell Shepard, and they’re expecting it,” Ridley said. “You just have to be a football player.”
The highlight of Shepard’s career so far are a 69-yard touchdown run against Auburn last season and a 50-yard touchdown run in this season’s opening game against North Carolina.
“When I’ve had the opportunity to make plays, sometimes I have and sometimes I haven’t executed,” Shepard said.
LSU’s No. 101 nationally ranked total offense and No. 113 passing game haven’t helped ease Shepard’s transition from signal caller to wide receiver in his second season.
“His performance hasn’t really been a bust or anything like that. It’s just getting this offense to come together as a whole and finding the ways to use him,” Ridley said.
Shepard has more carries (27) than receptions (25) this season, even though he is listed on LSU’s roster as a wide receiver.
Senior wide receiver Terrence Toliver and sophomore wide receiver Rueben Randle also each have 25 catches this season, while Ridley has recorded 152 rushing attempts.
LSU coach Les Miles said he doesn’t envision changing his strategy to utilize Shepard.
“Some of the things we have done with him you can count on us doing it again,” Miles said. “There may be some different slants to those plays, but I think how we will use him will be how we have used him in the past.”
Randle said Shepard’s production may increase with more screen passes.
“There’s been quite a few screens being put in to get the ball in his hands so he can make a big play for us,” Randle said.
Shepard practiced as a quarterback the bulk of his freshman season and even studied film with the quarterbacks to begin this season, but things changed when junior quarterback Jordan Jefferson and junior quarterback Jarrett Lee began alternating under center.
“At the beginning of the year, ‘Wildcat’ was still a big install in the offense,” Shepard said. “When we took on the two quarterback system, we pushed it to the side.”
Shepard said he has embraced the transition from his freshman to sophomore season.
“I’d love to play quarterback, but I got to do whatever the coaches say,” Shepard said.
When the LSU coaches designed a halfback pass this season using a player other than Jefferson and Lee, they chose freshman running back Spencer Ware, a former Cincinnati high school gunslinger, instead of Shepard.
Ware received a lateral from Jefferson and then launched a 39-yard touchdown pass to Randle against Auburn.
“People think I’m still going to throw the football at some point in my career, so using Spencer was something that they totally had no clue about,” Shepard said.
 
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Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]