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Going into the 2020 season, LSU Tigers freshman wide receiver Kayshon Boutte wasn’t expected to contribute right away. The team had Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Jr from the national championship team still in the fold. However, Chase would opt out prior to kickoff of the season and Marshall would later in the season in preparation for the NFL draft.
Boutte ranked as the No. 1 player in the state of Louisiana and the No. 2 wide receiver in the country for the 2020 recruiting cycle. The team and staff knew he was talented enough to start, but it would take some time to get him acclimated to the college game. When it was his turn come December, Boutte showed just what he was capable of.
Against the Alabama Crimson Tide, the freshman caught eight passes for an average of 13.9 yards per catch. The 111 yards and eight receptions were both season highs up until the final game of the season. Against the Florida Gators, Johnson found Boutte five times for another 108 yards. He also hauled in his second touchdown of the season. No one saw the Ole Miss performance coming.
He would light up the Rebels’ defense with a career-high 14 receptions, 308 yards, and three touchdowns. That 308-yard performance was an SEC record for a freshman. Boutte averaged 22 yards per reception on that day. Of his 735 receiving yards in 2020, 41.9% of that total came in one game. Still looking at those three games, it is hard not to get excited about the young budding star.
Boutte was ranked among the top breakout candidates for the upcoming season, many believe that a monster year could be on the horizon for the sophomore wide receiver. Last year he was working his way up in the rotations, in 2021 he will be the feature wide receiver in the offense. As we saw last year in the final two games, Max Johnson and Boutte can be a lethal combination.
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What Chris Hummer of 247Sports Says…
Boutte was a fourth or fifth option for LSU entering last season. By the end of the 2020 campaign, he became one of only two freshmen since 2000 to post 525-plus receiving yards over a three-game stretch. A five-star in the 2020 class, Boutte always had the natural talent. But his late-season emergence happened largely because of his growth as a receiver with one source who scouted Boutte ahead of a late-season contest saying, “He got so much better in the detail of his routes and understanding coverages.”
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