BATON ROUGE – Omar Speights, an All-Pac-12 linebacker from Oregon State, has joined the LSU football program, head coach Brian Kelly announced on Thursday.
Speights, who graduated from Oregon State with a degree in business administration, is enrolled at LSU and will take part in spring practice.
Speights comes to LSU after a four-year career with the Beavers, one that saw him rack up 308 tackles, 25 tackles for loss and five sacks. His 308 career tackles rank No. 9 on the Oregon State all-time list. He had nine games with at least 10 tackles, which included a career-best 18 against Washington as a true freshman in 2019. His 18 tackles against Washington were the most for any freshman in college football that year and earned him Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors.
In 2022, he led the Beavers defense that ranked No. 1 in the Pac-12 in both total yards (332.8) and rushing yards (108.2) with 83 tackles along with 8.0 tackles for loss. He played a pivotal role in the Beavers posting a 10-3 mark capped with a 30-3 victory over Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl.
His top game in 2022 came against Oregon as he tallied a season-high 13 tackles and a tackle for loss in the 38-34 come-from-behind win over the Ducks.
Other standout games for Speights include 12 tackles in 2021 season-opener against Purdue, 13 tackles and a tackle for loss against Utah in 2020, and 10 tackles, two sacks and a tackle for loss in a win over Cal in 2020.
Speights was named to the 2022 watch list for both the Nagurski Trophy (nation’s top defensive player) and the Bednarik Award (nation’s most outstanding defensive player)
Speights appeared in 45 games in his four years at Oregon State, starting 39 times. As a rookie in 2019, he earned Freshman All-America honors from USA Today, the Football Writers Association of America and The Athletic.