We are now just eight days away from LSU's season opener against USC in Las Vegas, so to celebrate, we're honoring the 8th best LSU football player of the 21st century: Ja'Marr Chase.

If Ja'Marr Chase didn't opt out of his junior season, there's a very good chance he's top-5 on this list, and there is still a good argument that he could/should be higher, but since he only had one very impressive year, I had to drop him behind some of the other guys who are still yet to come.

The Rummel, Louisiana native came to LSU as a four-star recruit. He ranked as the 67th overall player and 12th best wide receiver in the 2018 class.

Chase's talents were on display very early in his career. As a true freshman, Chase appeared in 13 games, starting seven, where he caught 23 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Going into his sophomore season, he and junior wide receiver Justin Jefferson were in line to be the two starting receivers, but I don't think anybody could've predicted what would happen next.

LSU entered the 2019 season ranked 6th in the country. They were expected to compete for a spot in the college football playoffs, and they did that an more. The Tigers absolutely steam rolled their way to a 15-0 season and the program's fourth national championship.

Part of the reason that 2019 squad was so good was because of Ja'Marr Chase and the LSU offense. They were one of the most proficient offenses in CFB history, and Chase put up one of the greatest wide receiver seasons we've ever seen.

His season started slow. He caught just two passes for 21 yards and a touchdown in the season opener against Georgia Southern, but in the Tigers week two matchup against Texas, Chase exploded, catching eight passes for 147 yards.

In week four, Chase had his best single-game performance of the season against Vanderbilt. He caught 10 passes for 229 yards and four touchdowns as the Tigers torched the Commodores, 66-38. He would only eclipse 60 yards one time in his next three contests, but went on to have a five-game stretch where he averaged 166.2 yards and 1.6 scores per game.

Chase was surprisingly quiet in the SEC Championship and in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, totaling five catches for 102 yards and one touchdown in those two games (though, Jefferson did have four touchdowns against Oklahoma in round one), but he followed it up with a massive outing in the National Championship game in the Superdome.

In the natty, Chase had his second most catches (9) and yards (221) in a game that season while adding on two touchdowns. He had nearly half of LSU's 463 receiving yards as he capped off an incredible sophomore season.

Chase's 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns earned him a spot on the All-SEC First-Team, the All-American First-Team as well as the 2019 Biletnikoff Award. He became the second LSU receiver in history to win the award, joining Josh Reed.

Chase's 2019 season will forever live in LSU Football history, but it's a shame we didn't see him suit up for one more year in 2020. In the end, it paid off as the Bengals selected him with the fifth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He and Burrow would team up and make it to the Super Bowl in 2022, but fell just short to the Rams.

He's waiting on what will likely be a record-breaking contract extension. Once it gets done, there's a good chance he and Jefferson are the two highest-paid WRs in the NFL.