BATON ROUGE — A day after getting passed over in the NFL Draft, LSU center Ben Wilkerson signed a free agent deal with the Cincinnati Bengals, the club announced on Monday.
Wilkerson, the co-recipient of the 2004 Rimington Award as the nation’s top center, started 41 games during his LSU career, leading the Tigers to a 33-8 mark over that span.
Wilkerson, a two-time First-Team All-Southeastern Conference selection, had his career cut short by a knee injury, which he suffered on the final play of LSU’s 24-7 win over Vanderbilt on Oct. 30.
Despite the injury and missing LSU’s final four games, Wilkerson still went on to earn First-Team All-America honors in 2004 as well as sharing the Rimington Trophy with Michigan’s David Baas.
Wilkerson joins quarterback Marcus Randall (Tennessee Titans) and linebacker Lionel Turner (Miami Dolphins) as LSU’s three free agent signings. That trio joins LSU’s three draft picks – Marcus Spears (Dallas Cowboys), Corey Webster (New York Giants) and Travis Daniels (Miami Dolphins) as the six Tigers entering the pro football ranks this year.