A Competitive Fire Fuels Tight End Richard Dickson
For LSU tight end Richard Dickson, the only numbers that have ever mattered are those on the scoreboard.
“My motivation comes from my desire to win,” he said. “I’ve always been a competitive person. I hate losing. I’ll do whatever it takes to win and that’s my outlook on sports in general. That’s really what pushes me.”
Dickson, a native of Ocean Springs, Miss., said the desire to play for a successful program heavily impacted his college decision. Despite having a grandfather play for Ole Miss and his father play for Mississippi State, Dickson chose to start his own legacy by coming to LSU.
Although many high school athletes living in the football-obsessed South often face intense pressure to choose a certain school, Dickson said he was never criticized for selecting LSU.
“My dad couldn’t say anything because his dad went to his rival school,” he said. “My dad never mentioned once where he wanted me to go. He’s happy with the decision, and he likes LSU. He’s the same way as me; he wanted me to come to a winning school. At the time, Mississippi State was winning three or four games a year and he knew that’s something I couldn’t do.”
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One thing Dickson has done in his time here is win. As a true freshman in 2006, he quickly climbed the depth chart after Keith Zinger suffered a season-ending injury and started the last nine games of the season. Despite only catching six passes, he excelled in a scheme that primarily utilized him as a blocker. The Tigers won 11 games and Dickson was named an honorable mention Freshman All-American and also picked up a second team All-SEC selection.
One year later, Dickson capped off an impressive sophomore season by catching two touchdown passes in the BCS Championship Game against Ohio State. However, reaching college football’s pinnacle of success hasn’t made him any less hungry for victories.
“If we all relied on what we did two years ago, this season wouldn’t mean anything,” he said. “You can’t really dwell on that. It was a great accomplishment, and it was an outstanding part of my life, but that glory can only last for a couple of months after the game. You’re only as good as your last season and we have to come back and work hard every day to make sure that we can get to that point again.”
That strong work ethic and desire to succeed have driven Dickson on a four-year assault on the LSU record book. He has twice tied the season record for touchdown receptions by a tight end, and against Georgia this season, he broke the record for career receiving yards by a tight end. He is currently tied for first all-time in career touchdown catches and is only seven catches away from having more receptions than any other tight end in LSU history. Put simply, he is very close to owning every significant record for tight ends in LSU annals. However, Dickson would be the last person to brag about these accomplishments.
“I didn’t even know they kept up with tight end records until this past year,” he said. “My goals were really just to get here and establish myself and work hard to get myself into position to be able to play. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a career here where I’ve gotten to play a lot of football.”
Even in discussing his place in LSU history, Dickson is deferential to those who played before him.
“It’s a great feeling to have your name put in there with guys like David LaFleur and Robert Royal, guys who have been here and established themselves on great teams at LSU and then made their way through the NFL,” he said. “Any time your name is mentioned with guys like that, it’s a great accomplishment.”
Although he’s aware of his place in the record book, to hear him talk about it gives the impression that he’d rather have it any other way.
“I hear about it because people tell me,” he said. “I don’t like to look at it because then you’re putting extra pressure on yourself to do certain things. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. It has to be within the game plan. I can’t change what’s going to happen in the game. I just have to go out and play and see what happens in the end.”
Dickson’s team-based focus and commitment to winning rather than simply compiling statistics makes him an ideal leader for a team determined to gain back its swagger. True to form, he credits those who came before him for instilling a proper example of leadership into him and his fellow seniors.
“Our senior leadership is great. The reason we have great leadership is because we’ve been around such great leaders the whole time we’ve been here. We had guys like Jacob Hester, Matt Flynn, Glenn Dorsey and Dwayne Bowe who were able to show us the way,” he said.
“You pick up on those things as you grow and get older. We’re trying to establish what they established before we got here. We’re trying to keep the winning program. This group of seniors, after having a down year last year, we don’t want to repeat it again. There’s a lot of fight in this team and everyone is trying to keep each other going to keep up and play our best every game.”
Although Dickson leads by example, he also makes sure he’s heard. Once on the field, his easygoing nature takes a backseat to his desire to win.
“I’ve always been the guy who is always trying to push guys on the sideline,” he said. “I’m a real quiet person off the field, but when I’m in a heated situation in a game I start talking a lot more than you’d ever think I would.”
Perhaps the most tangible sign of Dickson’s leadership role, however, is his jersey number. After wearing number 82 for two years, he inherited the 18 jersey that was passed down from Matt Mauck to Jacob Hester.
“We have a tradition where we switch jerseys for the last practice before the bowl game, and Jacob and I switched,” he said. “We started messing around with Coach Miles about it because we didn’t really think he was going to let me switch my number. I showed up in the spring, and my locker was changed to number 18. When people like that want you to wear their number, it’s a great accomplishment.”
At the end of the season, Dickson plans on choosing the new recipient of the jersey after talking with Mauck and Hester.
“We talk about it all the time and it’s going to be a group decision. We have to sit down and figure it out, but we definitely want to keep the tradition and pass it on to someone else,” he said.
In the end though, it’s not the numbers in the record book or on his jersey that matter most to Dickson.
“I want to be remembered,” he said, pausing, “as a player who did what it took to win.”