Tiger Watch: Five Seniors to Follow in LSU’s Final Home Game
Saturday's game between Texas A&M and the No. 1 Tigers promises to be a special meeting for a multitude of reasons, most notably how last year's game ended.
However, it will also be the final time fans will get to see the Tigers’ 15 seniors on the current roster, players that will all leave different legacies behind them. Here are five seniors we will be sure to follow in their last games in Tiger Stadium.
Joe Burrow (senior quarterback)
An easy cop out answer but there won't be a pair of eyes not glued to possibly the greatest quarterback in program history in his final home game.
Burrow's 2019 season won't be easily forgotten in Baton Rouge as he became the first quarterback in SEC history to throw for 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns in the same season. On Saturday against the Aggies, Burrow has a chance to cement himself in the SEC record books as he's 261 yards and four touchdowns away from holding the conference yardage and touchdown records.
In addition to the records, Burrow is the Heisman frontrunner, a Maxwell Award and Davey O'Brien Award finalist and five time SEC Offensive Player of the Week, also a school record. With one last cherry on top performance against Texas A&M, he'll likely wrap up most if not all of those national awards.
"This place is super-special," Burrow said. "I went up to our trainer and I said, 'You guys find me a sixth year? You know, I'm coming back.' Unfortunately, I was not able to find that sixth year, so this will be the last one."
With this being the final time he can play in his second home, it's hard to imagine Burrow not being at his best for one final curtain call this weekend.
Adrian Magee (senior guard)
Magee is certainly one of the feel good stories of the 2019 season after winning the starting left guard job in training camp and playing well enough to hold off Ed Ingram after his suspension was lifted.
We all of course remember this play from earlier in the season at Vanderbilt.
But it took a lot of growth in maturity for Magee to get to that specific point. The senior took snaps at left tackle and left guard in 2018, appearing in 10 games but was not able to carve out a consistent role because of inconsistent play and lack of focus.
This year has been a wake up call for the senior who said in last year's game against the Aggies, he was very "immature minded," because as those seven overtimes were being played, Magee was on the sidelines and he was frustrated about not playing.
"I grew from being in different positions, being all over the field," Magee said. "Just being able to run through the offense and know where everybody is going to be has been huge for my development."
Rashard Lawrence (senior defensive end)
Much like Lloyd Cushenberry on the offensive line, every college football team needs a leader on the defensive line like Rashard Lawrence. He's the old man in the locker room, being a three year starter on the defensive line while also being named a captain in each of those seasons.
He also goes by 'Juju,' an inside joke between the defensive line according to senior teammate and fellow lineman Breiden Fehoko. While the career stats are solid for Lawrence, 110 career tackles, 17.5 tackles for a loss and eight sacks, it's the leadership on and off the field that will be missed by this LSU team next year.
Perhaps the high point of his career came in the Tigers 40-32 win over UCF in the Fiesta Bowl, when the senior had five tackles, four tackles for a loss and two sacks, earning him Defensive Player of the Game.
As a freshman Lawrence also recorded his first sack in a win over Lamar Jackson and Louisville in the Citrus Bowl. Noticing a trend here?
The senior seems to step up in the postseason and with this being the most important postseason in nearly 10 years, it'll be fun to watch Lawrence in his final home game Saturday.
Kristian Fulton (senior cornerback)
Fulton has had one of the more bizarre careers at LSU, going from a five-star recruit that was poised to be the next great cornerback at LSU to being suspended for over a year by the NCAA for trying to use another person's urine for a drug test.
After a year of appeals and denials, Fulton was finally ruled eligible just before the 2018 season began. Since that time, the senior has been one of the most consistent secondary players on the roster, known more his coverage skills than his playmaking skills.
Multiple times over the last two years Fulton has let interceptions slip through his hands but has always made it difficult for opposing wide receivers to have big days. A likely mid-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Fulton has all the physical tools to be an NFL starter and will be key to the Tigers success in the postseason.
Blake Ferguson (senior long snapper)
Perhaps no player on the LSU roster embodies the meaning of a leader more than the senior Ferguson, who has been a special teams dynamo since arriving at LSU in 2015. Ferguson, whose brother Reid was a longtime long snapper for the Tigers, earned the starting job as a redshirt freshman and hasn't relinquished control since.
A four time SEC Academic Honor Roll member, Ferguson was named a first team All-America by Phil Steele Magazine in 2018 while also being named to the SEC Community Service Team.
A long survivor of Type I Diabetes, Ferguson has traveled the country, even visiting the White House in July of 2018 to advocate for the American Diabetes Association and their research initiatives.
Ferguson was also named a permanent captain for LSU in 2018, an honor that has carried over into 2019 as well. For a guy that receives none of the spotlight, look for No. 48 on punts and kickoffs. Ferguson is always around the ball and will be sorely missed in the locker room after this season.
