Editor’s note: With LSU’s spring practice now in the rearview mirror, this week we’ll empty our notebook from the spring and cover a few topics that we weren’t able to hit before the Tigers’ spring game. On Wednesday we focus on a senior who is still learning how to play his position.
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A year ago at this time, not only was Logan Stokes preparing for his rookie season in SEC football, he was also a virtual rookie at his position, tight end.
And yet the junior college transfer played in every game and even started three in LSU’s tight end-heavy offense last fall.
“I started playing tight end my sophomore year in junior college -- and I’m still learning,” said Stokes, who up until that point had played defensive end. “I’m still young at this. I think I may have the least experience at tight end of any of them. This is my second year really playing tight end.”
Stokes had other options when he picked the Tigers more than a year ago, but he knew he’d have a chance to play immediately despite his relative youth at the position. There were only a couple of tight ends on campus when he arrived last January, and all of them -- plus freshman DeSean Smith -- played once the season rolled around.
Stokes played a role as a blocker but never dented the stat sheet with a reception. He made improving as a receiver one of his priorities during spring practice. In fact, Stokes said all of the tight ends worked to diversify their games so they could fill all of the roles required of a well-rounded tight end.
“Obviously DeSean’s more of a deep threat than I am. I’ll just face the facts there,” Stokes joked of Smith, who is enough like a receiver that the Tigers might flex him out into a slot receiver position at times. “I mean, I can get out on the routes and I can do what they ask me to do in the route game and DeSean is getting to where he can do what they want him to do in the blocking. Now when we play teams and we’re in the game, they can’t be like, ‘Oh, they’re running the ball’ or ‘Oh, they’re throwing the ball.’
“Now we can kind of mix it up on people and they won’t know what’s going on. I feel like this year we’ve all been catching balls in the scrimmages and we’ve all been active in all aspects of the game.”
All of them were active in the passing attack during the Tigers’ spring game. Smith caught three passes for 45 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown from Brandon Harris. Dillon Gordon caught two balls for 32 yards and Travis Dickson one for 8. Stokes hardly looked like a guy with limited receiving skills when he went over the middle to make a pretty, 26-yard grab from Anthony Jennings in the second quarter.
“The tight ends you saw involved more [in the spring game] than you’ve seen. I thought our tight ends did an outstanding job,” offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said after the game. “I thought Dillon Gordon did a good job, DeSean Smith really an outstanding spring, Logan Stokes, Travis Dickson, that group. So they’re doing some things today that we enjoyed and I thought our guys did well.”
The Tigers’ tight ends echo Cameron’s optimism and expect their increased involvement to be a trend that lasts beyond the spring, thanks in no small part to the progress they made during the 15 spring workouts.
“I think we’ve had a great spring,” Stokes said. “Everyone’s gotten better at their weaknesses. DeSean’s improved a lot on his blocking, I’ve improved a lot on my receiving game – me and Dillon both. Me and Dillon are both still strong blockers. Travis is good at both. So right now, we’re all working on our weaknesses and we’ve all made improvements.”