By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Before LSU fired basketball coach Will Wade on March 12, 2022, for major NCAA recruiting violations, he had his eye on an outstanding, 6-foot-7 junior forward at East Feliciana High in Jackson near Baton Rouge and offered him a scholarship in 2022. But the player also was a star tight end on the football team.
He averaged 27 points and 11 rebounds for East Feliciana in the 2021-22 basketball season before catching 45 passes for 864 yards and 11 touchdowns that fall as a junior. He eventually decided to focus on football and signed with LSU for the 2024 season.
“I had a great relationship with coach Will Wade,” LSU junior tight end Trey’Dez Green (6-7, 240 pounds) said at the Southeastern Conference Media Days on Thursday in Tampa, Florida. “He was one of the first people to offer me a basketball scholarship.”
Green played briefly for LSU basketball coach Matt McMahon in the 2024-25 season as a freshman, scoring 11 points with 10 rebounds and a blocked shot in 40 total minutes over six Southeastern Conference games. In his first game, he blocked a shot and raced down court for a dunk at No. 4 Alabama on Jan. 25, 2025, in an 80-73 loss.
He did not play basketball this past season as he concentrated on football in the off-season after catching 33 passes for 433 yards and seven touchdowns as as sophomore in 2025. Green caught 13 passes for 101 yards and four touchdowns in 2024 as a true freshman. He will enter the 2026 season as one of the top tight ends in the SEC, if not the nation.
Meanwhile, Wade has returned to LSU as its basketball coach as of last March following a year off in 2022-23, two seasons at McNeese State and the 2025-26 season as North Carolina State’s coach.
And Wade could surely use a player like Green as he has struggled to complete his roster for the 2026-27 season.
“I’m looking forward to having a conversation with him,” Green said. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet. But I haven’t decided. I haven’t thought about playing basketball.”
Wade would likely take him as he has already visited with perhaps LSU’s next great tight end – Ruston High’s Ahmad Hudson (6-6, 239), who committed to new football coach Lane Kiffin last spring for the 2027 signing class. Hudson is considering playing basketball as well at LSU.
Green, for the moment, favors football for the mismatch problems he poses for defenders that he realized while at East Feliciana. He transferred to Zachary High near Baton Rouge for his senior season in 2023 and caught 53 passes for 960 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“I felt like I would be a unicorn in football,” he said of his high school decision to focus on football. “There’s a lot of 6-7 guys in the NBA or in college basketball. There’s not that many in the NFL or college football. So, just being real with myself and having an understanding and making a grown-man decision.”
It didn’t hurt that Green found instant success in football, which he didn’t start playing at East Feliciana until his sophomore season and became the starting tight end. In his first game, he caught two touchdowns. And the scholarship offers started coming.
“My high school football career was just a bunch of me lining up at the outside receiver position and going to get the ball,” he said. “Running one route, really, and that was just the go ball. There’s a lot of stuff that I still need to learn about the game of football. I’ve grown in the aspect of just learning the game. I didn’t even know how to get in a three-point stance when I made it to the LSU. But I’ve learned to grow and to learn this game, and I love it so much. The love that I have for this game and the way that this game creates so many relationships and outlets, it has opened so many doors for me.”
And there was little thought of a transfer as LSU matched or came close to matching whatever money he could have drawn via the portal.
“It means everything to play at LSU,” Green said. “Me growing up in Jackson, Louisiana, probably a population of about 2,500 or 3,000 people, it’s everybody’s dream. It’s every kid’s dream in Louisiana to go play for those three letters and two colors. It means so much to me that that’s my university. It’s a blessing that I’ve been able to represent those people. And you just feel it when you’re there. It’s unexplainable. I really can’t tell you in words about how amazing the place is and how it just feels like home. From the time that I stepped on Victory Hill, and I walked down the hill, chills just going through my body. I just wanted to, and I just can’t wait to bring a winning environment back to Baton Rouge.”
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