Nick Brossette said he and fellow running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire have not forgotten about people calling them the biggest question marks on the team during the preseason.
The duo was overlooked for various reasons coming into 2018.
Now a senior, Brossette’s most memorable moments in an LSU uniform prior to this season for some were fumbles against South Carolina near the Tigers’ goal line in 2015 and on the first play of the game against Troy in 2017.
The knock on his sophomore counterpart was his lack of height and size at 5-foot-9, 212 pounds. Never mind the fact former LSU running back Terrence Magee, who wore No. 18 in 2013, accounted for 1,511 total yards and 11 touchdowns in his last two seasons, and 2009 Heisman winner and current New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram are both listed at 5-foot-9.
The two current LSU running backs are an embodiment of the 2018 LSU football team — guys written off who are now playing with a huge chip on their shoulder. They heard what was said about them in August, and now, it’s time to prove everyone wrong.
“A lot of people doubted us, and they called us the big question mark, so we used it as motivation,” said Brossette, who never had more than 19 carries in a season before this season.
They aren’t question marks anymore.
Brossette and Edwards-Helaire are both top-10 in rushing yards in the Southeastern Conference with 640 and 475 yards respectively, and the senior’s nine touchdowns are tied for the SEC-lead and sixth in the country.
“For us, I definitely feel like we are a duo,” Brossette said. “We both came from BR, so it’s an honor playing for this city, putting this state on our backs.”
Against Georgia, it was Edwards-Helaire who constantly gashed the Bulldogs for big gains. He ran for a career-high 145 yards on 19 carries and his 47-yard run at the end of the first quarter set up LSU’s first touchdown of the game. Edwards-Helaire looked like he was going to score on the run, but he was chased down Georgia’s JR Reed at the 7 yard-line.
“I got a lot of jokes for him now, I can’t wait,” Brossette said. “He always tells me I’m slow and all this and other stuff. I don’t even mind it. Now, I can joke with him and have an argument about everything now.”
The two Baton Rouge natives are no laughing matter for SEC defenses, however. They have combined for 588 rushing yards, 209 of those came last week, and six touchdowns on 123 carries in LSU’s four conference games.
They are continuing a 76-game streak of LSU starting a running back from Louisiana. The last non-Louisiana running back to start a game was Ohio-native Spencer Ware against Texas A&M in 2012.
“You had two great All-Americans on the 1957 LSU football team — Jimmy Taylor, who just passed away this weekend was a senior, and Billy Cannon was a sophomore — and they were both from Baton Rouge,” said legendary high school football coach Neil Weiner, who coached at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge from 1987-2016 and coached Edwards-Helaire during that time.
There were a few other times when you had a local running back go to LSU from the 60s and 70s, but we haven’t had two outstanding like one and two rushers on the team from Baton Rouge high schools. It’s just super.”
Weiner is not surprised by the success Brossette and Edwards-Helaire are having this year. He had a first-hand view for Edwards-Helaire’s career, who was the first player Weiner let play on varsity as a freshman.
“Number one, Nick is very good,” Weiner said. “Nick had proved in high school he was a quality player, and Clyde had proven that. They were just unknown quantities because they didn’t see much action, and LSU didn’t have to have them.”
The two running backs are also great complements to each other. LSU coach Ed Orgeron said they use Brossette as more an inside runner and Edwards-Helaire as an outside zone runner, but it doesn’t mean that’s all they can do.
“Nick and I are going to have our contrast, and we’ve talked about that before as far as how patient Nick and how much more of a scatback I am,” Edwards-Helaire said. “You have two great running backs who can do whatever on the field. It’s not like one person has to leave the field if we want to run an outside zone or run an inside zone or even catching passes out the backfield.”
Edwards-Helaire had most of his success up the middle against Georgia, and Brossette ran multiple toss sweeps and outside runs against the Bulldogs.
The sophomore running back believes he was put in the scatback category because of his size and the other running backs on LSU’s roster, but said running up the middle and breaking tackles is something he has done since high school.
“I’d say I’m more versatile than [the scatback label],” Edwards-Helaire said. “Just being able to contrast off other backs, that’s just kind of the word that fits. I’m going to with multi-purpose. I guess it fits.”
No matter what Brossette and Edwards-Helaire label themselves it’s been hard to deny the success they have had as a duo in 2018.
“We knew we could do it, a lot of people were just doubting us and stuff like that,” Brossette said. “We didn’t believe that so we came prepared each and every day, and we’re bringing our A-game.”
“Everybody was writing about it before the season. Everybody didn’t know about us before the season, so I guess we’re just starting to wake them up now.”

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Aurianna Cordero

LSU sophomore running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (22) runs with ball during the Tigers' game against Georgia on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at Tiger Stadium.