By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
After just a few months in Baton Rouge, Laurel, Maryland, native and former Wisconsin Badger Dilin Jones has already proven to be a versatile foodie and running back for the LSU football team this spring.
“At first, I was a big fast food guy, and I don’t really see a lot of McDonald’s out here,” Jones said after practice on Thursday, which may mean LSU’s training staff is not letting him get out much.
“But y’all got everything else,” he said. “The food out here’s amazing.”
Jones, who is a combination tailback-fullback-blocker as a running back who is powerfully built at 5-foot-11 and 211 pounds, has been combining two delicacies on Saturdays after practices and scrimmages.
“Now, I’m eating crawfish every Saturday,” he said. “Every Saturday, I do crawfish and wings.”
Complete video interview with LSU running back Dilin Jones below:
The wings offset the small bites of crawfish after all that peeling, particularly for a mudbug rookie like Jones. At least, he didn’t call them crawdads as they do in Maryland.
“I think the crawfish are pretty good, but I feel like it’s too much work for just that little piece,” he said. “But I like it.”
So far, new LSU coach Lane Kiffin particularly likes Jones’ double punch and size, which is larger than returning breakaway backs Caden Durham (5-9, 200) and Harlem Berry (5-10, 187). And Jones has been taking more and more snaps with the first team, which was the case again Tuesday as Kiffin likes to update depth charts often.
“We just don’t make a depth chart and you stay there. If you get outplayed, we move the depth chart daily.” – Lane Kiffin https://t.co/eg3M9hP3uZ
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) April 15, 2026
“He looks really good,” Kiffin said of Jones, who has been running and blocking a lot in recent scrimmages and will be a redshirt sophomore in 2026. “He has come in and been good in protection, been good in his vision, his feet, running the ball, and has been really a bright spot offensively, where we’ve struggled to find those.”
And Dilin was sort of an off-menu guy as he was ranked at a lowly 936 as an overall prospect in the 2026 portal and as the No. 74 running back by 247sports. Those numbers may because Jones missed all but the first seven games of his redshirt freshman season in 2025 at Wisconsin because of a turf toe injury. He finished with just 300 yards and two touchdowns on 76 carries last season with nine catches for 21 yards. In 2024, he carried only 16 times for 88 yards.
Coming out of Our Lady of Good Counsel High in Laurel in 2024, He was the No. 139 prospect in the nation by 247sports.com and the No. 10 running back. He gained 2,100 yards in his last two high school seasons.
“For a guy who wasn’t a headliner, he’s played like it,” Kiffin said. “And that’s really critical, because that spot is extremely critical to have somebody, or a number of people, who makes the significant plays when everybody’s not blocked up. And he’s done that in the situations we’ve been in.”
Dilin sees himself as an every-down, combo back, which is what Kiffin sounds like in his descriptions of him.
“I think, really, I feel like I can do it all,” Jones said when asked about his skill set. “So, a do-it-all back. It’s a tempo offense, so having to do a lot of substitutions will slow it down. And I feel like I can stay in all four downs. I can pick up blocks. I can run the ball. I can catch out of the backfield. My speed is also there, too.”
To keep his speed, though, Jones may have to stay away from the crawfish-wing po-boys, so to speak.
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