BATON ROUGE, La. — Donte Jackson took a kickoff in the second quarter against Southern Mississippi last Saturday and exploded to his left like a rocket.

He seemed to move at a different speed than the Golden Eagles’ special teamers as he ran towards the left sideline and bolted across midfield before getting pushed out of bounds.

Unfortunately for Jackson and LSU, the return was called back by penalty. But it was enough to make an impression on head coach Ed Orgeron and special teams coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto. With kickoff returner Derrius Guice carrying a larger load at running back, it’s time for Jackson to be LSU’s kickoff returner along with Nick Brossette.

And during practice this week, he’s also been taking punts.

“We like his ability to break a long one,” said Orgeron of Jackson, who had the fastest 60-meter dash among college football players during track season last spring, earning him the mock title as the fastest man in college football among his teammates. “He has tremendous vision.”

Orgeron indicated that he would eventually like Jackson to take over the punt return duties as well.

It’s part of an ongoing effort by Orgeron to revamp LSU’s special teams that, frankly, hadn’t been very special when he became head coach.

LSU was mediocre in most categories, something that has increasingly not been the case in the two games under Orgeron.

Consider:

  • In the last two games, freshman punter Josh Growden is netting 46.1 yards on nine punts. Extended over the entire season, that would lead the SEC. For the year, he’s averaging 42.1 net yards a punt, so he’s shown consistent improvement.
  • LSU’s kicking game has been one of the nation’s best, leading the SEC in coverage at 45.2 yards per kickoff. That’s five yards better than a touchback. This is about deep, hard-to-field kicks from kickoff specialist Cameron Gamble and good coverage from the kickoff team.

The next step is to make the return teams sing as well, hence the move of Jackson. The Tigers are just 10th in the SEC in kickoff returns and in the middle of the pack in punt returns.

The progress has been made since Orgeron made Peveto’s special teams coach duties full-time when he became the interim head coach, replacing Les Miles. Under Miles, Peveto split his time between special teams and coaching outside linebackers.

“I talked to Coach Peveto and I asked him just to — to devote all his time to special teams, and we gotta get better there,” Orgeron said at his introductory press conference, going on to add, “You’re going to see a new and improved special teams.”

The improvement since has been notable, but there’s still work to.

Jackson’s called back return was the second long return he had that was negated by penalty, including a 100-yard kick return that was brought back against Jacksonville State.

That’s an issue that a full-time special teams coach should be able to correct.

And kicker Colby Delahoussaye is just 4-for-6 on field goals and 1-for-2 under Orgeron. LSU seems to have cleaned up the issues that led to two early blocked PAT attempts prior to the move to Orgeron.

But the evolving role of Jackson showed that Orgeron and Peveto aren’t done tinkering. The coverage teams are better. But the return teams need work, and the move showed that Orgeron and Peveto are committed to finding a better formula.