LSU Safety JaCoby Stevens Hoping to 'Cement His Legacy' in 2020 Senior Season

The 2018 season for LSU safety JaCoby Stevens was about finding himself. It wasn't until the final three games of his sophomore year that Stevens received the playing time that made him start to believe he could be an impact player for the long haul.

In a win over Rice, a seven-overtime loss to Texas A&M and the Fiesta Bowl win over UCF, Stevens combined for 27 tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss and one interception.

The 2019 season, then, was about proving himself. After finally finding his footing at the end of 2018, Stevens quickly proved to be one of the most improved players on the team, recording 92 tackles, nine tackles for a loss, five sacks and three interceptions.

It's plays like this that helped him earn SEC Defensive Player of the Week three times and become a second team All-SEC honoree.

JaCoby Stevens with a ONE-HANDED PICK for LSU.
You know who else wore No. 3 for LSU? @obj pic.twitter.com/VfpiiftnUV
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 19, 2019

"Really and truly the whole season was just fantastic," Stevens said of the 2019 season. "I don't think there's going to be any team or any school any time soon that's going to have a season like LSU did in 2019. It was just a historic year and I'm just blessed that I really contributed to that season."

For Stevens, the 2020 season is about crossing off one more goal as a senior.

Cementing his legacy.

"I want to keep building my resume up until the last game of my senior year," Stevens told LSU play-by-play man Chris Blair on "LSU Sixty" Monday night.

That 2020 season is off to an uneven start, as LSU was able to squeeze in just three spring practices before all sports were shut down by the COVID-19 outbreak. Stevens said that first day where the team was told practice would be canceled was disappointing because he and the team wanted to start preparing to defend their title.

"It was a disappointment because we were all looking forward to spring and just being able to compete again," Stevens said. "Although we did come off a national championship run, we had a lot of doubt coming into the offseason. We wanted to get ready and prove those people wrong."

The theme of this 2020 team that will carry on into the fall is change. Not only will the Tigers be replacing 20 major contributors on the football field but two coaches, Dave Aranda and Joe Brady, are no longer a part of the program either.

Instead the defense will be adapting to new coordinator Bo Pelini, who returns to Baton Rouge after a successful three-year stint that resulted in a national championship back in 2007. Stevens said Monday night he's excited to work with Pelini as the Tigers look to maintain that “standard of performance” in a 4-3 heavy defensive scheme.

"Just the installs are getting me excited with how aggressive we're gonna be and how loose we're going to be able to play," Stevens said. "The short amount of time we had with him during the spring, it was fun. He fit right in to our culture and the best thing I love about coach Pelini is that he's not going to make a player adjust to his system. He's going to put players where they best fit and he's going to adjust his system to the players."

Until some semblance of football can return, Stevens has been keeping busy trying to stay in shape. It hasn't always been easy but Stevens said he's making the most of it by finding a variety of ways to accomplish his goals away from the LSU training facility.

"Right now I'm just training, doing some workouts in Covington," Stevens said. "When they first told us to go back home I went to the levee and did some running and went to the field and did some drill work. I'm just doing things that I took from LSU and things I'd do in high school to stay in shape because you never know when you're gonna get the call to come back."

Stevens is hoping that call to return to practice will come sooner than later. In the meantime, what’s fueling him is making sure he and the team are ready to prove they aren’t “one hit wonders.”

"They said that as soon as we won the national championship that we were a one-year wonder. For us, the guys that are coming back and the guys that will be asked to step up, we take that to heart," Stevens said. "When it comes time for us to prove them wrong, whenever that is, we're going to do that."