Jackson Harris picked the right night to break out.
With No. 10 LSU down a tight end and looking for answers in the passing game, the Hawaii transfer delivered the kind of performance that can change a receiver room’s pecking order.
In LSU’s 35-6 win over No. 23 Texas A&M, Harris piled up a career-best 163 receiving yards on six catches and scored twice, topping the 153-yard game he posted against Wyoming last season.
The Tigers needed someone to seize the moment after Trey’Dez Green went down with a knee injury against Ole Miss, and Harris did more than fill space. Alongside sophomore Winston Watkins Jr., he helped carry the load for quarterback Sam Leavitt, with the two receivers combining for 270 of Leavitt’s 312 air yards.
After the game, Harris pointed to a message from former LSU receiver Jarvis Landry as the spark that helped set the tone for the room.
“He was just like, ‘The season, this offense and this team all come down to us making plays. There’s a standard here, and it’s on the wall in the receiver room - Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, all of them.’
And I think we took that to heart, and I think we gotta keep working. The work never stops, but I mean that’s that’s the standard,” Harris said after the game.
That standard at LSU is a heavy one. Chase dominated the 2019 national championship season with 1,780 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns, while Jefferson followed with 1,580 yards and 18 scores. Harris didn’t mention every name on that wall - Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Odell Beckham Jr. and Landry himself are part of that line of LSU receiver royalty too - but he sounded like a player who understands exactly where he’s standing.
Coach Lane Kiffin said he had already had a similar conversation with Harris after warm-ups, and the payoff was easy to see once the ball started flying.
“He really hadn’t got many opportunities, but when he had he looked good, ran well with the ball, and the things we had seen on tape of why we brought him here - big, sleek outside receiver. It was awesome to see, and a lot of those plays were kind of similar type of play action to Trey’Dez type of plays. He was really good,” Kiffin said.
That kind of production wasn’t new to Harris, either. He arrived from Hawaii after a huge 2024 season with the Rainbow Warriors, when he caught 49 passes for 963 yards and 12 touchdowns as a redshirt sophomore.
He had been more of a slow burn through his first three games at LSU, though. He caught three passes for 80 yards in the 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech, then managed only two catches for 37 yards across his other two outings.
Patience, Harris said, wasn’t the hard part.
“It wasn’t hard,” Harris said about being patient for his opportunity to shine. “The work is the work regardless.
You don’t know when it’s gonna pay off. It could have showed up in week six, and that is what it is.
But I’m glad I finally showed up for the team, and that’s the most important thing.”
Once the chances came, Harris looked every bit like the explosive threat LSU has been searching for. He entered the game having averaged 19.7 yards per catch last season, good for ninth in the nation, and that burst showed up again in Tiger Stadium. Six of his eight catches went for at least 15 yards, and three went for more than 25.
His biggest play came on a 57-yard touchdown in the third quarter. LSU hurried to the line on fourth-and-one from its own 43, with running back Dilin Jones initially lined up to take the direct snap. The backfield shifted, Leavitt took the snap and faked the handoff to Jones, while Harris sold the block and slipped down the seam untouched for the score that pushed LSU ahead 21-3.
“That’s credit to coach (Charlie) Weis and coach Kiffin,” Harris said. “Just aggressive play calling, I love it. My heart got caught beating a little bit when they called it because I knew it was gonna work, and we’ve been repping it all week.”
Harris also came down with a second-quarter touchdown on a second-and-seven from the Texas A&M 16, winning a one-on-one ball to the corner of the end zone. Leavitt gave him a go-ball, and Harris used his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame to reach around the defender and make the contested catch.
He even had a third touchdown grab in the third quarter that would have matched another career high, but it was wiped out by a penalty.
Watkins has been the more prominent name in LSU’s receiver room early this season, but Harris made a loud case that the Tigers may have found the outside playmaker they’ve been missing. LSU has been searching for a true No. 1 receiver and a reliable deep threat to keep Kiffin’s offense stretching the field. On this night, Harris looked like the answer.
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