Malachi Dupre, Travin Dural see better LSU passing game despite attrition
BATON ROUGE, La. — Slowly but surely, the veterans started to drop from LSU’s receiving corps.
John Diarse left just after the 2015 season for TCU. Trey Quinn followed shortly after and eventually landed at SMU.
Then, in the biggest surprise of the bunch, rising sophomore Tyron Johnson announced he was transferring in the middle of August camp, announcing his intention to find a more wide-open offense.
With all the attrition, it makes it that much more important that the “big two” in LSU’s receiving corps step up with big seasons.
Junior Malachi Dupre and senior Travin Dural now represent every single reception by a returning receiver last season. They combined for 71 catches for 1,231 yards and 9 touchdowns a season ago. The rest of the returning LSU receivers?
None.
Sure, the departed trio didn’t add much to the totals — Diarse, Johnson and Quinn combined for a mere 27 receptions last year — but the leadership responsibility now rests more heavily on the two stars.
“It kind of feels surreal,” said Dupre, one of the 2014 recruiting class’ top receiver prospects who blossomed into a threat last year with 43 receptions for 698 yards and 6 touchdowns. “It’s just the fact that we are the older guys now. We have to embrace the role and lead the younger guys.”
And improve their own production. LSU has famously lacked a reliable passing game, finishing 11th in the SEC in passing. It’s something that Dupre and Dural admit they can’t put all on Harris, who was solid early in his first year as the Tigers’ starting quarterback but slumped during LSU’s three-game losing streak late in the season.
“We take the same responsibility (as Harris),” said Dural, the speedster who saw his production dip from 37 receptions as a sophomore in 2014 to 28 last year, at least partly due to a hamstring injury. “We have to be better. We don’t want him to have to put it in a tight window. We want to make it as easy as possible on him. We don’t want him to have to squeeze balls in there in tight windows.”
If Harris needs to lean on two receivers to put together an explosive passing game, at least LSU knows there is precedence for it.
In 2013, Dural’s freshman season, Zach Mettenberger threw for 3,082 yards throwing predominantly to two receivers: future Pro Bowlers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. Dural was tied for third among the receivers with just seven receptions.
And while it would be unfair to try to project the Tigers’ current big two to be as good as what we now know are two of the NFL’s rising stars at the position, there is reason to see upside.
For Dupre, it’s a matter of getting out of the mold as a deep, jump-ball threat to a more complete receiver worthy of the No. 2 ranking nationally he received as a high school senior. He started showing signs in a productive sophomore campaign, but one he felt could be better.
“Everybody who is good always thinks they can do better,” he said. “That’s how I feel.”
And he and the receivers worked on it this summer with Harris, who is in his first season as the team’s unquestioned starting quarterback. Seven-on-seven drills were early every morning, and Harris and Dupre said they got a lot out of it.
“I think guys did a great job of being there and being on time and working their tails off,” Harris said.
Where it was about refining skills for Dupre, for Dural, it was about coming back.
His season was ended when he suffered a torn hamstring muscle in the Ole Miss game on Nov. 21, and he missed the spring while recovering from corrective surgery. In the meantime, he ballooned to 230 pounds, 27 pounds higher than his playing weight, thanks to eating too much Popeyes chicken while idle, he said.
“I didn’t like all the fullback and tight end jokes I was hearing,” he said.
So he changed his diet and when he recovered from the surgery, he hit the summer workouts hard, regaining his chemistry with Harris.
“We’re very used to each other,” said Dural, who said he feels he’s physically as good as he was before the injury at 208 pounds. “When I first came back this summer, we were off, but now we are very comfortable with each other.”
The defense noticed the difference.
“The receivers are definitely running better routes,” said cornerback Tre’Davious White. “Their routes are sharper.”
Having two deep threats in Dupre and Dural is good for Harris, but maybe he won’t have to lean on those two as much as Mettenberger leaned on his big two.
There are hints that young receivers like Drake Davis and Stephen Sullivan could make an immediate impact. Dupre suggested that, despite the attrition, the talent level at the position is improving.
“People talk about how much talent we have in the backfield,” Dupre said. “I feel like we have that same kind of talent at receiver.”
He bases that purely on the eye test. The physical talent of the young receivers has his attention.
“I used to be one of the tallest receivers here, and now I’m one of the shortest,” Dupre said. “Physically, we have all the tangibles. We have a long way to go, but I think once the season starts, we’ll be very dominant, dangerous.”
That would leave Harris as the one piece left that needs to develop for a better passing game. Dural said he sees the improvement already.
“He’s a lot better mentally,” he said. “Of course, he’s bigger, stronger and faster. But the main thing I see is he’s stronger mentally. He’s being a better leader. He’s being a lot more vocal than last year. Being a second-year starter, he knows what to do.”
All that sounds great now, but will it translate to Saturdays?
Dupre said count on experience.
“The biggest thing is we’re more mature, myself (and Harris). With (Harris) being a second-year starter, I feel like he has the ability, and with myself and Travin and (reserve junior) D.J. Chark having been here as long as I have, we have great leadership in the room.”