On3 circles a pair of LSU freshmen as potential breakout players
With the 2023 season approaching, which LSU true freshmen are on the radar as potential early-impact players this fall?
The Tigers signed a Top 5 recruiting class, so there’s plenty of talented names to choose from.
On3 College Football Reporter Matt Zenitz weighed in with 20 names from around the Southeastern Conference who have turned heads since arriving to campus, and two LSU freshmen are on the list.
Womack living up to his 5-star billing
LSU’s highest-ranked signee was five-star edge rusher Dashawn Womack, who signed with the Tigers out of Maryland.
While he was sidelined for spring practices as he recovered from offseason shoulder surgery, the true freshman is primed to make a splash this fall if he remains healthy.
On3 ranked Womack as a five-star and the No. 12 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class.
“I think he has some flexibility as a guy that can play the big end position, but we haven’t ruled out how we play him,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly said during the spring. “Is he a stand-up two-point player in a manner that he’s 100 percent of the time a Jack linebacker? No, probably not. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be in four down and he can’t stand up and drop back in a limited fashion to change the looks up because he is so athletic.
“His athletic ability still lends itself to having some of the traits necessary to put him in a hybrid position.”
Howard garnering some buzz ahead of debut season at LSU
While Zenitz put one edge rusher in Dashawn Womack on the list of potential breakout players, he didn’t stop there.
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Another true freshman who landed on the On3 list of 20 SEC freshmen was four-star signee Jaxon Howard out of Minnesota.
Howard was an early-enrollee, so he’s got double-digit practices and a spring game under his belt. The Tigers brought in a pair of transfers at the JACK linebacker position in Texas’ Ovie Oghoufo and Oregon’s Bradyn Swinson, but it’s clear Howard is turning some heads.
Zenitz said sources circled Howard’s “work ethic, approach and intelligence” when highlighting him as a potential early contributor.
Howard had four tackles and a sack in the team’s spring game.
“You could see his progress and his grit kind of grow throughout the spring to the point where we were like, that was a really good spring for him,” Kelly said.
Howard’s father, Willie Howard, was an all-conference defensive lineman at Stanford and a second-round pick in the NFL Draft.
