Dear Nick Brossette:

So this is it, huh Nick. Senior season already. Time flies.

I bet it seems like just yesterday you were across the way on the LSU campus, playing for University High. I bet every now and then you’d pause for a moment, glance over at Tiger Stadium and dream of being the guy leading the Tigers to victory.

There you were at U-High, scoring touchdown after touchdown. All in all, it was 141 trips to the end zone. That’s 23 more than the Louisiana high-school record Kenny Hilliard set and you broke. You probably watched Hilliard play at LSU. He graduated the year before you arrived.

The touchdowns haven’t come your way at LSU. In fact you have yet to carry a football into an end zone in Tiger Stadium in three seasons.

You had to bide your time, like most running backs do at a place like LSU. There are so many good ones that it’s rare that a guy can show up as true freshman and be the guy.

Leonard Fournette was an exception, becoming the guy in 2014, though he still had to share the ball with Hilliard, Terrence Magee and Darrel Williams. But even Fournette didn’t start writing his name in the record book until a year later.

That’s when you arrived. But Fournette and Williams were still there. And Derrius Guice showed up the same time you did.

When Fournette missed half of his junior season in 2016 because of an injured ankle, it was Guice and Williams, not you, who the coaches turned to. Those runners proved they were ready, just like you knew you could have – if you had been given the chance.

Then Fournette left for the NFL, but Guice and Williams were still there last season. Now Guice and Williams are in the NFL, and it should be your turn.

You’ve paid your dues. Did the dirty work on special teams. Waited for mop-up work that rarely came – 12 carries as a freshman, 15 as a sophomore, 19 as a junior. A total of 306 rushing yards in three seasons.

Now you’ve got one last chance to be the guy. You’ve done all you could to earn the chance. Stayed in the program, worked on the scout team, studied the other running backs, stayed ready in case you were needed even though you weren’t.

We’re less than a week from the first game of your last season and you still don’t know if you’re going to be the guy. Clyde Edwards-Helaire has skills and he’s going to get some playing time.

Those two freshmen – Tae Provens and Chris Curry – have potential and might get a shot. Heck, nobody seems able to mention Curry without bringing up that Marshawn Lynch comparison.

So you might not be the guy who gets the most touches in this platoon system. On top of that there’s a new offense. You’ve waited all this time and LSU chooses your senior year to finally emphasize the pass.

The football gods do have a sense of humor.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that on his first radio show of the season, head coach Ed Orgeron said you have been “our most steady back.”

That should be encouraging, but here’s the point of all this: You still can be the guy – and it’s really up to you if you are.

It doesn’t matter where running backs coach Tommie Robinson puts you on the depth chart, or how often Steve Ensminger calls plays for you.

All you can do is make the most of the opportunities you are given to handle the football. Maybe there will be plenty, maybe not.

But there are other ways you can be the guy.

This is a young team, especially on offense. You know that. You’re one of just a handful of guys on this team that have three letters. You’ve seen a lot and learned a lot that doesn’t show up in the statistics.

Put that to work regardless of how often your football skills are put to work.

Whether the quarterback is Joe Burrow for the entire season or Myles Brennan if he falters, it’s going to be a guy learning on the job. They’re going to need a calm presence in that huddle, starting with Miami, especially at Auburn and even later in the season. You can be that calming presence.

Curry, Provens, and even Edwards-Helaire, are learning. They need someone to guide them – how to approach practice, how to watch film, how to stay up on their classwork, how to encourage teammates, how to keep preparing themselves when the coaches aren’t around, how to stay out of trouble.

You watched Fournette and Guice and Williams. You learned from them. These other guys are going to be around after you’re gone, and the mark you leave isn’t going to be measured exclusively by your statistics.

It’s also going to be measured by how you help lead this team and by the way you help others have an impact after you leave.

But along the way, do yourself a favor.

Do everything you can to find that Tiger Stadium end zone as often as you can.

You’ve earned it.