On Monday afternoon, LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron confirmed a report that the team’s receiving threat — Kayshon Boutte — will be out for the rest of the year after exiting Saturday’s game with an ankle injury.
Boutte had eight receptions for 73 yards against the Wildcats when he exited the game with the Tigers trailing 35-14.
It will not be easy to replace Boutte’s skillset or his rapport with quarterback Max Johnson. Boutte is tied for the lead in receiving touchdowns in all of college football with nine touchdowns.
On the year, Boutte has 38 catches for 508 yards and nine touchdowns. After getting the nod for the starting lineup as a freshman in 2020, Boutte finished the season with 45 catches for 735 yards and five touchdowns. He also holds the SEC single-game record for receiving yards after hauling in 14 catches for 308 yards and three touchdowns.
Even through LSU’s struggles offensively at times this year, the Tigers always seemed to rely on and find a way to feature Boutte in the passing attack. How will his absence be felt and what does this mean for the Tigers moving forward?
Other pass-catchers will certainly have to step up. That list starts with Jack Bech and Brian Thomas Jr., the second and third-leading receivers on the LSU offense, both freshmen.
An interesting name to keep an eye out for is freshman Malik Nabers. Nabers has 106 receiving yards on the season but only seven receptions for an average of over 15 yards per catch. The young, downfield threat could potentially see more playing time and could give Johnson and the LSU offense a downfield threat in Boutte’s absence.
The Boutte injury also means the offense needs to prioritize fixing the run game that much more, not that the offensive staff needed any more motivation to do that. The Tigers ran well on Saturday against Kentucky.
Tyrion Davis-Price ran for 147 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns in LSU’s loss to Kentucky. Orgeron said Monday that he was pleased with the way his team ran the football and said the offensive staff tried out different formations to get the running game going. With no Boutte, an emphasis has to be put on the running backs.
LSU is sitting at 3-3 on the season and has six games remaining, including a matchup at home against Florida on Saturday. It’s the first of four games against Top 25 teams (Florida, Ole Miss, Alabama, Arkansas) who will then finish the season with home games against Louisiana-Monroe and Texas A&M.
Injuries continue to pile up for this year’s Tigers team. Boutte is the latest in a string of impact players to go down and an easy way to sum up how LSU will likely cover up their losses on each side of the ball is that they likely won’t. Especially with such a talented player like Boutte. Just when you think LSU’s season couldn’t weirder or worse, it somehow did today with the Boutte news.