By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
The first thing new LSU transfer wide receiver Tyree Holloway of West Florida noticed on his visit to LSU on Jan. 8 was love. And then some oysters.
New LSU wide receivers coach George McDonald shared that at the LSU football facility to a redshirt sophomore from a Division II school in Pensacola.
“Coach McDonald was showing me love, and he told me there’s a reason why he’s bringing me up here,” Holloway told Tiger Rag on Monday. “That he sees I have the talent to be on this level.”
LSU coach Lane Kiffin was not available, but his staff took Holloway to dinner with a twist. They brought him to the infamous back room at Phil’s Oyster Bar on Perkins Road, reserved for Division I VIPs, you might say.
“I got some catfish on top of rice and all that, but really what got me was the oysters, because I never really liked oysters like that. And they were talking them up, so it was just kind of the way they made it,” Holloway said. “They were chargrilled oysters, and they definitely sold me on that one. That’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
Holloway (6-0, 180 pounds, give or take a few oysters) caught 34 passes for 661 yards and eight touchdowns at West Florida, which went 10-2 in 2025 and 2-1 in the four-team Gulf South Conference. But he wanted more.
“There were a lot of people telling me to just go somewhere small and get some cheese and start there,” he said. “But I decided to try and transfer to a bigger school like LSU. In my head, it was like, ‘Why would I do that (at a smaller school) when I got this opportunity to come to LSU? I got two years. So, why not just try to better yourself, come in, and learn the system and just ball out?’ I’m trying to get into that rotation and earn my job on special teams – playing my role wherever I’m playing it.”
Holloway sees LSU as his ticket to potentially the NFL.
“I got more than enough time to build my name up,” he said. “I have no doubt that going to LSU is going to be the best decision I make.”
Holloway will be in a crowded room of receivers trying to make a name for themselves. He is one of nine receivers LSU has nabbed out of the portal as of Friday, which is the last day most players can enter the portal.
“They said it’s a brand new receiver room, so everyone’s going to have equal opportunity to make something happen and learn the system,” he said. “So, that’s why I had to jump on it.”
But he’s not scared.
“I’m just going to be the guy that makes the defense be all over the place, because once I’m on the field, they’re going to have to adjust to my deep threat ability,” he said. “And that’s going to open up another receiver on the back end. I can make something happen out of nothing.”
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