LSU’s passing game is currently…well, it’s not good. With sophomore quarterback Anthony Jennings struggling in each of his five starts and Brandon Harris suffering through the same kind of struggles last week against Auburn, things aren’t going swimmingly for the Tigers offense on the whole.

Just because some of the numbers are ugly — namely, a 53.2 completion percentage as a team — that doesn’t mean LSU isn’t racking up some big numbers. Their 9.5 yards per attempt, good for third in the SEC, although they’re only 10th in the conference in passing attempts.

What’s fueling the passing attack? You know the answer: two big-play receivers, Travin Dural and Malachi Dupre. Both are tall, long, lean receivers (6-foot-2, 192 pounds and 6-foot-3, 187 pounds respectively) with speed to burn. Which receiver is more impressive? Let’s go to the tale of the tape.

  • Dural: 6 games, 22 catches, 574 yards (26.1 per catch), 5 TD
  • Dupre: 5 games, 10 catches, 249 yards (24.9 per catch), 4 TD

By sheer numbers, it’s pretty clear that Dural is the main guy for LSU. Ah, but let’s remember back to the first few weeks of the season, which feel like forever ago considering how LSU has played in its league games so far. In the first two games of the season, Dural had 6 catches, 291 yards and 4 TD. Meanwhile, Dupre didn’t make his debut until the fourth quarter of that game, and he immediately made an impact with 2 catches, 23 yards and a score in just a few snaps of playing time.

Dupre was shut out in the Louisiana-Monroe game, but in the three games since (a 1-2 stretch for the Tigers), things are a bit more even.

  • Dural: 10 catches, 204 yards (20.4 per catch), 1 TD
  • Dupre: 8 catches, 226 yards (28.25 per catch), 3 TD

Coincidentally (or maybe not), Harris has played much more in those three games than he did in the first three games of the season. He’s shown a fantastic connection with his fellow freshman Dupre, and he’s been the man to deliver the ball on eight of Dupre’s 10 catches.

After a review of ESPN’s play-by-play data for LSU’s games, here are the target and catch numbers for both receivers from the two quarterbacks.

  • Dural: 31 targets, 17 catches, 4 TD from Jennings; 12 targets, 5 catches, 1 TD from Jennings
  • Dupre: 9 targets, 1 catch from Jennings; 11 targets, 8 catches, 4 TD from Harris (one of Dupre’s catches came on a halfback pass from Terrence Magee)

In total, Dural has 22 catches on 43 targets, while Dupre has his 10 catches on only 21 targets. As you can see, he and Harris are always on the same page, with Dupre sporting 72.7 percent catch rate on passes from Harris. While Dural isn’t to blame for a lot of the incompletions on his targets, as many of those passes have sailed out of bounds or hit the dirt, he’s very much a boom-or-bust receiver. Dupre, at least when Harris is throwing him the ball, has shown that he can be relied on to haul the ball in.

At this point, it’s hard to say who is the more complete receiver. Dural and Dupre both have excellent leaping ability (Dural was a high jumper in high school, with a best jump of 6-foot-10) to go along with their size. Dural, despite a year’s experience on Dupre, isn’t a notably better route runner, and Dupre’s hands are the better of the two. While it’s not easy to dig up 40-yard dash times for high school players, both came to LSU having been clocked between 4.5 and 4.6 seconds, depending on reports.

If Jennings does take back over the starting job this weekend, he should start looking Dupre’s way a whole lot more. If he can develop the same rhythm with the star freshman that Harris has, he might hold onto the job this time.

Who should be getting more looks? It’s Dupre, no question. Dural is fantastic at blowing the top off a defense. He has a knack for catching defensive backs slightly off guard and sneaking behind them, which can do wonders to soften up the coverage when the back line has to worry about him streaking down the sideline. But at this point, it’s Dupre that looks like he can be the real game breaker.

Take his second touchdown against Mississippi State, which pulled LSU within 34-29. Dupre went up with a defensive back, used his body to box out the Bulldogs defender, and showed the excellent hands necessary to rip the ball down despite contact. Those are things you can’t teach.

After battling injury in preseason camp, Dupre is as healthy as he’s been all season. Of course, there’s no reason that both can’t be heavily involved in the passing game. But as Dupre gains experience, he’ll begin to look even more like his five-star recruit label. That is, as long as he keeps getting the targets he needs.

LSU will have the chance to test an inconsistent Florida secondary this weekend. While whoever Gators cornerback Vernon Hargreaves ends up on might have a harder time getting open, it’s the perfect opportunity to see what the Dupre can do.