2021 Receiver Malik Nabers Working Hard Everyday to Earn Scholarship Offer from LSU Football
It's an offer that 2021 four-star wide receiver prospect Malik Nabers has worked his tail off for and after years of hard work, it could finally be coming to fruition in the next few weeks or months.
A 6-foot-0, 190-pound prospect, Nabers' hard work has vaulted him into a four-star receiver prospect with 20 offers from Division I schools. That one school the Lafayette native is still hoping for is the hometown school LSU.
Right now Virginia, Kentucky, Louisville, Mississippi State and Miami are among the schools showing the most interest in Nabers that have made him an offer. Even without having an offer, that doesn't mean the interest is one sided. In fact, recently the Tigers have shown a growing interest in Nabers.
Invited to LSU's summer camp last year, Nabers said he was able to learn a lot about his game and the areas he needed to improve on to gauge the Tigers' interest.
"Going against all of those prospect DB's and knowing that their skills were increasing, I was able to read them and understand what I need to do to break them off more," Nabers said. "When I was a sophomore I was just doing stuff I thought would get me the ball a lot but college caliber DB's are smart and so I made a few adjustments in my moves this year and think I'll be ready."
Nabers was supposed to make a visit to Baton Rouge in March, the week when the COVID-19 outbreak put all sports, including recruiting visits on hold.
"I'll make the trip [to Baton Rouge] once all of this clears up and also probably go to Virginia, Michigan State and Kentucky," Nabers said.
While LSU hasn't made the offer to Nabers, that hasn't stopped wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph and running backs coach Kevin Faulk from communicating with Nabers on a regular basis.
"Coach Mickey calls me every week talking about how I've been doing and how I've improved as a receiver since I went to LSU's camp last year as a junior," Nabers said. "I've polished a lot of things up, improved on my routes, improved at catching and improved at making moves at the line of scrimmage to get away from defenders.
"As for coach Faulk he tells me how much he's seen me improve based off of one of the games he came to see last year and just how well I'd fit into their offense."
In terms of improvements he's seen in his game, Nabers said one of the great pieces of advice Joseph gave him was asking him to improve at the start of his routes. Nabers had a propensity to make a bunch of moves at the line of scrimmage that wouldn’t create much separation between him and the defender.
"The quarterback still has to make his reads so if I clear out of my route faster the reads will come out faster," Nabers said. "So really I've improved on my speed, coming out of my routes quicker and catching the ball as well."
While nothing is official and Nabers doesn't want to jinx anything, the fact that two of the top offensive coaches with the LSU staff are contacting him this much leads him to believe that opportunity is growing stronger.
"I don't want to rush it because whenever it does come I want to be surprised a little bit," Nabers said. "I worked really hard for it and last year I thought I was gonna get it but it didn't come. I think it will come in time, but for the time being I'm just going to keep on working."
If and when that offer comes, Nabers said it would give him a lot to think about as the allure of playing in your homestate is about as enticing as it gets for a college athlete.
"I grew up an LSU fan and it would be an honor to get an offer from there," Nabers said. "It's right there close to home and my people can come watch me at the games. It would be an honor to play for them."
