What’s another 7 pounds?
Trey’Dez Green said he’s already packed on about 20 in the two weeks since LSU began preseason camp. Only a few more, and he’ll be back up to the weight at which he finished last football season.
Green no longer has to slim down to play basketball after shifting his full focus to football following his freshman season at LSU when he played both sports. He now is focusing on developing into a complete tight end after LSU asked him to direct most of his attention to the passing attack a year ago. The sophomore already can run routes and catch. What needs to improve is his blocking, the skill that — if perfected — can turn him into an every-down player and one of the top tight ends in the country.
The first step is adding the weight back, so what’s his secret?
“Eat every day,” Green said Tuesday. “I eat like five meals a day.”
The fried chicken. The red beans and rice. The jambalaya. None of it has slowed down Green, the former high-profile recruit and two-sport star who’s emerged through the first 11 practices of preseason camp as one of Garrett Nussmeier’s favorite targets. The two have struck up a nice connection — and not just in the red zone.
In a one-on-one rep Monday, Green’s release off of the line of scrimmage forced Harold Perkins to stumble. There was no catching him after that, even for a speedy player such as Perkins. Green’s long strides propelled him about 2 yards ahead of Perkins, and Nussmeier didn’t have much trouble fitting a high-arcing pass into the large throwing window that his tight end opened.
Nussmeier then found Green open on a shallow out-breaking route on the first play of a team drill before firing him a pass in the flat after a play-action fake on the first rep of seven-on-seven work.
Then came the red-zone targets.
Nussmeier and Green connected on the first — a post route for a touchdown over the top of tight coverage — before misfiring on the second, a fade pattern against freshman cornerback DJ Pickett.
“He's a mismatch,” LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker said of Green, “and I think coach (Joe) Sloan and that offensive staff does a really, really nice job of trying to put him in advantageous situations.”
In camp, Green has lined up as a tight end and at wide receiver. He’s taken reps from the slot and along the boundary. In each spot, he’ll usually have an advantage. The cornerbacks and safeties are too small. The linebackers are too slow.
Now LSU needs to help Green take advantage of those mismatches.
On Monday, wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton spent time teaching the sophomore how to release off the line of scrimmage and how to separate from defenders at the top of his routes. Green said on Tuesday that he received special instructions from Alex Atkins, a former offensive lineman who’s now the LSU tight ends coach and run-game coordinator.
Atkins, Green said, is helping him put his hands in the right places when he blocks.
“You can't be an in-line blocker at that position unless you're willing,” head coach Brian Kelly said, “and I've had a lot of really good in-line tight ends that weren't willing. He wants to get in there and mix it up.”
Green is 6-foot-7, which means he won’t have trouble coming down with contested catches, but he may struggle with bending low enough to gain the leverage he needs for certain blocks.
“The game is played from low to high,” Kelly said, “so we've got to get him in great leverage positions. Most of it is not playing too high, and that's not an easy feat in his position in terms of his size.”
Green said he’s working on it, and LSU can afford to give him time to learn. Mason Taylor may be off to the NFL, but Oklahoma transfer tight end Bauer Sharp is a large part of the offense, and he’s shown in preseason camp both a willingness and ability to tackle the dirty work.
Green has the willingness. As for the ability, that’ll come from the weight he’s gained and the extra time he’s spent developing into the complete tight end LSU needs him to become.
“I’m all in on football right now,” Green said. “That’s my focus.”