Inside the quiet of LSU’s indoor practice facility, cornerback Jalen Mills played the role of tutor — yes, because the Tigers secondary is so young, this job can fall to a sophomore — to freshman Rashard Robinson.
On Saturday, Robinson mastered the lessons aptly, limiting Biletnikoff Award finalist Mike Evans to three catches for 13 yards in their matchups (with Evans finishing with four catches for 51 yards) and thus shutting off quarterback Johnny Manziel’s favorite target in a 34-10 victory in Tiger Stadium.
Not too shabby for a freshman whose tangle with the NCAA Clearinghouse forced him to miss all of preseason camp.
In late August, LSU coach Les Miles said simply that Robinson’s first task was simply to find the library and an academic advisor’s office.
Ten games later, Robinson, a four-star prospect out of Pompano Beach, Fla., drew the toughest assignment in an LSU secondary slathered in youth.
That’s why Mills sought his pupil after practice during the open week.
“I knew he was going to go against him,” Mills said. “I was really trying to get my young guys ready for this game.”
To accomplish that, Mills and Robinson got together for 45 minutes, with Mills laying out how to stop the back-shoulder throw, how to stay low, and not get bulled over trying to reroute a man averaging 126.3 receiving yards per game.
They lined up in their presnap positions. Mills would slide inside to play nickel back. On an island, Robinson would take his place at cornerback.
And they talked about the matchup. Evans, a devourer of cornerbacks, is a beast who stands 6-foot-5 and tips the scales at 225 pounds. Robinson, at 6-1, 165, could generously be described as wiry.
“He’s a big dude, and I’m lighter than him,” Robinson said, then relayed Mills’ teachings: “Don’t get caught trying to be too aggressive because he can throw me off him.”
Robinson passed the test on a chilly day when the Aggies were held below 300 yards of offense for the first time in four years.
“Rashard Robinson likes the competition,” Miles said. “He wants to compete, and if you put him in position, I like our chances.”
Sure, Manziel picked on Robinson on the second snap of the day — a smoke screen that went for 8 yards — but Manziel and Evans didn’t link up again until midway through the third quarter an 38-yard throw, with Craig Loston on the coverage.
Lining up across from Evans, Robinson’s education in physicality came quickly.
“The first play of the game, they called nickel,” Robinson said. “I knew it was my time.”
Mills understood Robinson would get exactly this kind of challenge. Last season, Mills was thrust into early action as a freshman. So he pulled aside Robinson and fellow freshman Tre’Davious White, both of whom saw their first serious baptism at Mississippi State.
The message: Bow up. Be physical. Hold ground.
The “be physical part” echoes and underlines a facet Miles wanted to be clear he coveted on a wind-whipped and chilly day that might have reminded him of his formative years as a coach at Michigan.
“There was contact made routinely,” Miles said. “It was important that they felt us.”
Quickly, Robinson figured out the logic for Mills putting that in the syllabus.
“He tried to bull-rush me off the line, and I had to hold my ground,” said Robinson, who also had his first interception Saturday.
“After that, I was like, I’m in it. I just had to grow up and play big-boy football.”
A full 60 minutes of game time later, Robinson stated what his play had made glaringly obvious.
“My progression has increased,” he said. “A lot.”
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