LSU Football’s Ja’Marr Chase, Terrace Marshall Named to 2020 Biletnikoff Award Watch List

As watch list season continues with the 2020 college football season still scheduled in less than two months, LSU players continue to rack up the preseason accolades. On Thursday, junior receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall we’re named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list after historic 2019 seasons.

For Chase, it’s the second consecutive year he’s been on the Biletnikoff Award watch list as he was named to it before the 2019 season only to go on and have one of the more prolific receiving seasons college football has ever seen.

In 2019, Chase brought in 84 receptions for a nation-leading 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns en route to winning the Biletnikoff. It was a goal of his he wrote down on a piece of paper before the season and hung it on his dorm room wall.

“I had that as a goal of mine since the summer,” Chase said after being named a finalist. “I came into the season thinking I wanted to accomplish something like that. It means a lot to me that I got this far.”

With a new quarterback in place and all of the attention of the defense focused on slowing him down, it’ll be difficult to replicate arguably the greatest SEC season ever by a receiver. That doesn’t mean Chase still won’t be chasing history.

He’s just 909 yards and four touchdowns away from breaking the LSU record in yardage, held by Josh Reed, and touchdowns, held by Dwayne Bowe. But it’s his development as a leader that coach Ed Orgeron has been most impressed by this offseason.

“He’s been phenomenal. Ja’Marr is an excellent young man,” Orgeron said on “Off the Bench” Tuesday. “He’s very humble. He doesn’t require a lot of attention. He’s not in the media a lot, he just comes to work. He’s a leader. I think he’s in the best shape has ever been. I can’t say enough good things about Ja’Marr Chase and what he’s done for LSU.”

As for Marshall, if it hadn’t been for a broken foot that cost him four weeks of the 2019 season, he may have come close to that 20 touchdown mark that Chase posted. In 11 games for LSU’s championship team, Marshall brought in 13 touchdowns, which would’ve broken the program single-season record had it not been for Chase and teammate Justin Jefferson.

With much of the defensive attention expected to be about slowing Chase down, if Marshall stays healthy, 2020 could be an even better season for the Bossier City native. At 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, Marshall proved to be an elite red zone weapon for Joe Burrow and that should continue with Brennan.

With offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger calling the plays, the passing game figures to be the integral part of the offense once again, giving Chase and Marshall all the targets they can handle. Chase and Marshall are at the epicenter of why Ensminger believes the Tigers can have similar success in 2020.

“I challenged our offense last year with the goal of being No. 1 in the country,” Ensminger said on “LSU Sixty” in May. “I challenged this group to break every record we set last year. I don’t know if we can achieve it, but we’re going to go after it.”

For the full 2020 Biletnikoff Award watch list click here.