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Breaking news on an early Friday evening, as Acadiana TE Bry'Kiethon Mouton pulled the trigger and committed to the Tigers. Mouton was set to announce his decision on Monday, but apparently the news leaked and is circulating across Twitter, confirmed by his head coach. Mouton called John Chavis at 5p.m. to make his declaration.
Mouton is rated as a 3-star prospect with a .8591 rating on the 247 composite. He chose LSU specifically over Alabama but features a healthy offer list from the likes of Ole Miss, Miami, and Arizona. At 6'1", 230 pounds he's below average size for the TE position, but it appears he will play as an H-Back at LSU. I imagine his role would be similar to that of Travis Dickson's currently. Mouton looks to be more of a blocking specialist at the TE position, a key role in the LSU offense.
Mouton will join a core of TEs that figures to feature Colin Jeter, Dillon Gordon, Jacory Washington, Desean Smith and 2015 early enrollee Hanner Shipley in 2015. The H-back is a role that Cameron's utilized in the past, even as recently as his time in Baltimore with Dennis Pitta. One prominent feature I anticipate Cameron will continue to bring to the offense is highly specified roles based on skill sets.
What does Mouton bring to the table?
His catching ability stands out immediately. Around the :35 mark he makes a clean one-handed snag. He catches the ball cleanly with his hands, away from his body. It's something you see him doing repeatedly throughout his reel.
But he's also a high-effort blocker. At :46, you see the type of push he can generate in the run game. He keeps an excellent pad level, gets underneath the defender and drives him completely out of the play. Again at 2:07, he explodes out of his stance and defeats the defender with ease. Generating that much power on a downblock at 230 pounds is not an easy thing to do.
Mouton is not the biggest, nor the most athletic guy. He's not overly polished as a route runner, though he looks fluid enough to become competent in that area. Overall, he's a solid addition to the class. The h-back role is an underrated spot that Cameron can get creative with, especially if he proves competent on the edges. The ability to move Mouton into the backfield, flank him out wide, or play him on the end of the line makes him a versatile and intriguing prospect.
This makes the 15th commitment to the 2014 signing class, raising LSU to 11th nationally in the 247 Composite Team Rankings. Currently they rank only 6th out of all SEC schools, but the number of big fish in the pond that LSU remains in contention for should see their ranking jump as recruiting season wears on.