With the 2003 season around the corner, a big part of LSU’s offense could depend on the wide receiver corps, which returns two veteran starters and has three top recruits looking to grab part of the spotlight.
Junior Michael Clayton will be LSU’s featured receiver. In 2002 Clayton caught 57 passes for 749 yards and five touchdowns while starting in all 13 games and earning second team All-Southeastern Conference honors.
Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher said Clayton is a role model to the other receivers and has taken a leadership role on the team.
“He can set the tone for us with his toughness, his effort and his desire,” Fisher said. “All parts of his game are getting better because he wants to get better. He’s been an example to the young guys. They see a guy that’s getting all the media attention, a guy that goes out there every day and is one of the team’s hardest workers.”
With Clayton, senior Devery Henderson (23 catches, 447 yards, eight touchdowns) and quarterback Matt Mauck focusing more on his passing since his foot injury last year, many of the receivers think LSU’s offensive game plan could become more pass-oriented, as it was in 2001.
“It depends on our competitiveness, who we play and who’s hot,” Clayton said of being more focused on the pass. “If the passing game is hot then that’s what we’ll base our offense on like we did in 2001 with (Rohan Davey). If the running is hot, then that’s what we’ll do and the receivers are going to have to block this year.”
When Henderson broke his arm late last season against Ole Miss, then-freshman Skyler Green emerged and caught seven catches for 123 yards.
“We have a lot of speed there,” Green said. “I hope we go back to New Orleans this year, but for the national championship.”
Green said Henderson and Clayton are the backbone of the receivers and provide a lot of leadership for the younger players.
“They keep it going,” Green said. “When you’re down and out, and you feel like you’re going to die at practice, they tell you to pick it up, that you can’t stop now.”
Clayton said he has a big role in taking the freshman under his wing this year, showing how they can contribute early in their careers. Clayton said many of the new receivers have the potential to be like him in his freshman season, when he caught 47 passes for 754 yards and earned 2001 third team Freshman All-America and Freshman All-SEC honors.
“They come in with a little more talent and more speed,” Clayton said. “As the years go on, they’ll get better. We’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of heart out here, a lot of competitiveness and it’s going to come out in all of us.”
Dwayne Bowe and Amp Hill could be the top freshman to see action, especially if Clayton gets more time at safety, which he’s been practicing at since the Cotton Bowl.
Hill underwent surgery to repair damage to his medial collateral ligament, which he hurt in practice on Aug. 12, and will miss at least three months.
LSU coach Nick Saban said there is a remote possibility Hill could be available for the Aug. 30 game against UL-Monroe. Hill, who caught 60 passes for 765 yards and eight touchdowns in 2002, still could be redshirted at the end of the season, Saban said.
“We are going to coach him and try to get him ready to be a good player when he gets back,” Saban said. “He is very disappointed, but he certainly has taken a positive attitude into re-establishing his goals to be a starter next year.”
Bowe, a 6-foot-3, 202-pounder from Norland High School in Miami and Rivals.com No. 21 receiver, said watching Clayton in practice and being around him has helped him grasp a lot of the offense.
“Every night we go over plays in his room. He tries to make sure we stay on top because he needs us this year to take some of that pressure off his back,” Bowe said. “That’s why I’m with him now, so he can show me what he did as a freshman, so I can come in and be a big factor to the team.”
Craig Davis, a freshman wideout from O.P. Walker High School and Rivals.com No. 12 receiver, also is out with a dislocated elbow.