by Caroline Domecq
LSU Sports Information
It’s their last year to catch the football for LSU, and three Tigers seniors will spend the rest of this season showing why they were such a catch for this football program.
Wide receivers Bennie Brazell and Skyler Green and tight end David Jones all have one goal as the season continues — to take the Tigers to the top.
Skyler Green: Closing Career as a Return Machine
The opposing team is set to punt to the Tigers. Suddenly, fans begin to chant louder and louder, “Skyler, Skyler, Skyler”.
That is for LSU wide receiver and return specialist Green, who is inundated with chants of his first name as he waits to catch a punt and try to gain a slew of return yardage as he so often does.
“When I go back there on punt returns I hear the fans chanting, ‘Skyler, Skyler, Skyler’, and when I hear that it lights me up and excites me,” Green said with a wide smile. “When I get the ball, I want to make them excited and make myself stick out to them so they can cheer my name every time.”
He was slowed by an ankle injury in 2004, but in his prime form in 2003 Green led the nation in punt return average with 18.5 yards per return. That stat earned him All-America honors that year.
Green knows his role as a play-maker on the LSU team is important, but just as important to him is his leadership role.
“I knew heading into this season that I wanted to show great leadership,” he commented “When you’re on the field, you show guys leadership by making plays they expect you to make, and off the field you tell them to go to class and study hard. I want to be that guy.”
Green is familiar with that role, because he was “that guy” in high school, the star of Higgins High School in Westwego, La., the team’s MVP, the district’s MVP and the All-New Orleans Metro team’s MVP.
Green has embraced that same role at LSU as a playmaker, both on offense and on special teams.
“When I go out there, I know what they expect me to do — to make the big plays, make guys miss and get the ball in the end zone,” he explained. “I want to show the coaches that if you give me the ball, I’m going to make the play you need me to make.”
Bennie Brazell: Receiver Plays Larger Role in Final Year
Mention the name Bennie Brazell, and thoughts of track and Olympic glory come to the mind of many who know him.
Brazell earned a total of 14 All-America honors and was a five-time NCAA Champion in his four years as a track star at LSU. His abilities even took him to Athens, Greece, last August, where he finished eighth in the 400-meter hurdle finals.
But though he’s been on that level, Brazell said he still focuses on football in the same manner.
“I treat it like it’s all the same, because I’m still representing LSU,” he explained.
In the 2003-04 school year, he represented LSU in two team national championships, both in football and track.
This year, Brazell is making individual accomplishments that have benefited the football team greatly. Prior to his senior season, he had brought in four catches. He has already exceeded that mark for the year.
“I feel like I’ve earned it after all of these years,” the Houston native said of his increased role in the Tigers’ offense. “I’ve been really patient the whole time. The chance might not come when you want it, but it comes in time. That’s how I’ve looked at everything in life.”
David Jones: Senior Embraces Farewell Season
Coming out of high school as Maryland’s Mr. Football, it would seem that winning was something Jones was accustomed to. However, most of his success in high school was on the individual level, so LSU’s team success was a new thing for Jones when he arrived in Baton Rouge.
“In high school, my team didn’t win too much,” the senior tight end explained. “So when I came to a big-time college, winning like that was a new experience for me.”
It was also a very different experience for Jones to have a smaller role on the team. He went from being the star in high school to having to redshirt a year to playing a diminished role his redshirt freshman year in which he recorded no offensive statistics.
Jones said he benefited from the redshirt, though, especially since he got to learn from two tight ends ahead of him who ended up making it to the NFL.
“The redshirt was good for me,” Jones commented. “There were two guys ahead of me — Robert Royal and Eric Edwards — who ended up going pro. I could just sit back and learn from them.”
Now Jones plays a more instrumental role in the offense, being called upon more often in both blocking and receiving duties.
“My role now is more significant to the team because of the experience I’ve had,” he said. “My number gets called more often now. And as a senior, it feels good.”
An interesting note on Jones is the connection of his family with the NFL’s Washington Redskins. His father, Joe, was a defensive end for the ?Skins, and Hall of Famer Charley Taylor is his uncle. Jones is also the nephew of former LSU receivers coach Stan Hixon, now a coach with the Redskins organization.
“I would love to get to that next level if I could,” Jones exclaimed. “The Redskins would be great to play for, but I’ll play for whoever pays the bills. Just to get to that level would be great.”
Shared Experiences
These three players are part of a team that has been through a lot together. Most recently, they had to deal with both hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the effects they had on the state of Louisiana, LSU and the Tigers football team.
They saw their early season schedule changed drastically, and much worse, saw several teammates lose homes and try for days to contact loved ones. Green even had several members of his family staying in his small on-campus apartment for a long period.
It was especially shocking for Jones, the Maryland native, who said, “Where I’m from, we have snowstorms. I can deal with snowstorms. You put some wood in the fireplace. This was just shocking. Most of it was just the fear of not knowing what’s going on.”
But when asked about the experience, all three said they felt it brought the team closer together.
“Everybody bent over backwards for everybody,” Brazell commented, “and that’s what it’s about. That’s what a team’s about.”
Another more positive experience these Tigers shared was playing for a national championship two years ago. That memory, more than anything else, will stick with them for the rest of their football careers and the rest of their lives.
“As a football player, your ultimate goal is to go pro and play for a Super Bowl,” Jones explained. “But in college, you really want to get into that elite club to win a national championship. We did that, and it was a great experience to be a part of that.”
Green, who scored the opening touchdown of the championship game, expressed that it was something he’ll never forget.
“I’ll pass it down to my kids,” he said, “and I’m sure my kids will pass it down to their kids. That national championship year was an outstanding year for this football team as a whole and the whole state of Louisiana. The way that football team represented the state of Louisiana was amazing.”