How Logan Diggs ended up as the RB1 for LSU

Three years ago, Logan Diggs was a three star recruit from Metairie, Louisiana. He was in the midst of his senior season at Archbishop Rummel High School and had just signed his letter of intent to join Brian Kelly's Notre Dame squad the following year.

His freshman season, Diggs was given the opportunity to showcase his skills in a limited role. He averaged 6.4 attempts in the nine games he appeared in and averaged 4.49 yards per carry his freshman year.

Diggs would see his workload increase as a sophomore in the Irish's first season without Brian Kelly. He would finish the 2022 season with 820 yards and four TDs behind a 4.8 average.

After Notre Dame finished the season with four losses, Diggs decided to enter his name into the transfer portal in an attempt to make an impact at a SEC school. Once Kelly saw his name in the portal, he picked up the phone and dialed his former running back.

On May 16th, Diggs committed to LSU to play his final couple of seasons at home in front of his family and friends and reunite with Coach Kelly.

"What brought me back is, at the end of the day it's home. I wanted something new. I felt like I kind of hit a plateau and I wasn't excelling or getting any better. I felt like I wanted a new challenge. I was aware of the SEC and I wanted that new challenge. There was nowhere else to go but the SEC. I get to play the best of the best every single week and I kind of wanted to come home as well to be able to be closer to my family. As my college career is sort of dying down, having all my family member and friends come see me play, I felt like that was really big for me."

Logan Diggs

Fast forward five months, and Logan Diggs is LSU's bonafide RB1 and is second in the SEC in rushing yards.

It sort of came as a surprise, as all offseason we heard Brian Kelly talk about a running back by committee approach. We know LSU has eight running backs on scholarship this year, so the committee approach made sense, but Diggs' play has earned him the right to be the workhorse back.

"I don't think we had an exact formula in terms of how [the RB situation] was going to look. Logan [Diggs] has just been really physical, really reliable in all areas; catching the football, picking up protections and getting us the tough yardage when we need it. As you know, we've kept ourselves in some really good third down situations, extremely manageable third down situations. I think we even lead the country in third down conversions at 56%. A lot of that is tough yardage running, and Logan has just been really good at that."

Brian Kelly

Kelly said it complicates things because you can't keep all eight guys in that backfield happy, but they all have their own roles and want to play for LSU, so they'll just have to see what happens down the road with the rest of their backs.

"No, you can't keep all of them happy, but they have roles, they want to be part of our football team and we'll just have to see how it goes as the season progresses."

Brian Kelly

Ideally, I'm sure Kelly would want to get more use out of his other backs, but they just haven't shown what Diggs has shown so far this year. Like Coach Kelly said, it's not all about running for big gains, it's about the little things, and that's what Diggs does exceptionally well.

Diggs has been able to fight for tough yards and pick up some key first downs because of it. On top of that, Diggs is easily LSU's best back in terms of pass protection. If you go back and watch any LSU game, there are multiple plays where Diggs makes the correct read and buys Jayden Daniels extra time because of his blitz pick ups.

Although it wasn't in the plans for Diggs to be the workhorse, he has been a blessing in disguise. His ability to run for tough yardage, pick up blitzes and catch balls out of the backfield have earned him the RB1 spot on this team, and the offense is better because he's on the field almost every play.