10/20/2023 football Edit

Shelby Lee Jr: From US Army veteran to LSU football walk-on

Luke Hubbard • Death Valley Insider

Analyst

As we all know, LSU is hosting the Army Black Knights this Saturday, and Brian Kelly and LSU are going to do some special things to honor the student athletes at Army, but did you know someone on LSU's roster served in the US army?

His name is Shelby Lee Jr, and before he became a walk-on linebacker at LSU, he spent nearly four years in active duty for the US army in Infantry 11B before he was honorably discharged.

Brian Kelly has hinted this week at some of the special things LSU is going to pull out for this weekends game against Army. We've already seen the end zones painted camouflage, but he says they have other things up their sleeve, and he expects Shelby Lee Jr. will be apart of those celebrations.

We're going to do some special things, as you know, the governor is a West Point graduate, he'll be a part of what's going on. We're going to do some neat things in pregame, we're going to spring a couple of things that we think are representative of what that day should look like, and we think Shelby [Lee Jr.] is going to be a part of that as well."

— Brian Kelly

Malik Nabers spoke to us about Shelby and his role on the team. He's a redshirt junior and walked-on LSU's football team last fall. He spends most of his time on scout team, but Nabers says Lee plays his heart out everyday at practice and is loved by all his teammates.

"He's been out there on the scout team playing his heart out. We love him on the team. He gets a lot of great looks throughout practice and we just love him."

— Malik Nabers

It's awesome for Shelby and the rest of the team to get the experience playing against a service academy. It's been nearly 100 years since LSU last played Army, but with Brian Kelly at the helm, I don't think it'll be that long until the two teams next matchup. He has the upmost respect for Army and their student athletes, so I wouldn't be surprised if they come back in the future.