By KACE KIESCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
With LSU star tight end Trey’Dez Green sidelined by a knee injury for multiple weeks, coach Lane Kiffin and his staff are getting creative in their search for production from the tight end spot.
Troy transfer wide receiver Roman Mothershed, who has caught zero passes with no targets in two games this season for LSU, was officially moved to tight end on the online LSU football roster following the Tigers’ 35-6 win over Texas A&M.
Mothershed (6-foot-5, 212 pounds) is a redshirt junior who caught 25 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown as a wide receiver at Troy last season. Through two games on offense as a Tiger this season, he has only played 11 snaps, all of which came against Ole Miss on Sept. 19 when Green was injured early in the fourth quarter and against Texas A&M last Saturday. Mothershed played tight end briefly against Ole Miss and A&M and took snaps at fullback. He also saw brief work at tight end in August when Green missed practice.
Mothershed signed with LSU last January as the No. 1,673rd prospect in the portal and the No. 252nd wide receiver. When he signed with Troy in 2024, he was not ranked by recruiting websites out of Pike Road High in Pike Road, Alabama, near Montgomery. He red-shirted at Troy in 2024.
LSU’s tight end production in the passing game has suffered without Green.
“You kind of saw what it looks like there,” Kiffin said after the Ole Miss game. “It’s different obviously. We even used Roman Mothershed a little bit for more running ability, more pass-catching, stretch-the-field ability. So, it is what it is. And there’s a reason why we had Dae’Quan (Wright) on our roster – not on our roster, but practicing and ready to play, knowing that this potentially could be an issue.”
Kiffin planned to put Wright, an excellent tight end at Ole Miss in 2025 under Kiffin, on his roster this August, but Wright was briefly on the New Orleans Saints roster in August. And Kiffin ended up not rostering him to adhere to the wishes of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
Oregon transfer Zach Grace replaced Green at first at Ole Miss and started against A&M, but he is much more of a blocker than he is a receiving threat. While Green caught 14 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown in three games this season, Grace still has yet to record a catch this season. Pittsburgh transfer tight end Malachi Thomas has played 59 snaps on the year but has not been targeted once.
Mothershed offers more receiving experience than anyone else in the tight end room. He will have the most polished route-running, reliable hands and vertical ability in the position group until Green returns. At just 212 pounds though, his usage could be limited by his viability as a blocker. If nothing else, Mothershed is another big-framed red zone threat, and his official move to tight end shows that the coaching staff is looking for more from its tight ends, or at least have real concerns of their depth.
No. 11 LSU (3-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) hosts McNeese State (2-3, 1-2 Southland Conference) on Saturday (6:45 p.m., SEC Network). It will be the Tigers’ final trip out of SEC play before finishing with seven league games. So, this could be the last real chance for the offense to experiment with personnel and get a live look at some depth pieces who could help the team manage major early-season injuries.
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