6'6" 250 lbs, runs like a gazel, super smart, polished receiver. A natural basketball player, he'll body up the defenders rendering them useless in their attempts to stop him. He's gonna work harder than any LSU player on this team. He's the best of Jimmy Graham, Gronk and Shannon Sharpe all rolled into 1. He's going to make the transition for Myles Brennan a lot easier.
There’s one thing that I am really going to dislike about Gilbert. It’s that he’ll only be here for 3 years.
You gotta appreciate these kids who commit to football later in their youth. They put in 10 times the amount of work to get to the level they want to be. Work ethic and team character cannot be overcome by skill alone. This kid is legit and blessed we have him instead of having to defend him.
That might be his best attribute, his character. And that's saying something, because his physical skills are something we have rarely seen in a tight end at the collegiate level.
Like Fournette was. This is essentially the deserved hype of a Fournette but at tight end. Just to put it in perspective what we are looking at here.
247sports gives its list of the top 25 recruits for LSU since 2001. They list Gilbert at 14 (Elias Ricks is 15). The top 25 (with my opinion on how they turned out, based on all 25 being 5-stars with 247) 1. Leonard Fournette - about a year and a half out of 3 seasons where he met the grade, injuries were a factor 2. Russell Shepard - criminally underused 3. Derek Stingley - lived up to the grade as a freshman 4. Early Doucet - solid player, underutilized in the system 5. La'el Collins - lived up to the grade 6. Patrick Peterson - lived up to the grade 7. Anthony Johnson - wasted his opportunity 8. Ryan Perrilloux - wasted his opportunity 9. Reuben Randle - good player, underutilized in the system 10. Terrance Toliver - wasted by the system 11. Marcus Spears - late bloomer, eventually lived up to the grade 12. Marquise Hill - ditto 13. Craig Loston - never met the grade, not sure who to blame 14. Arik Gilbert 15. Elias Ricks 16. Kevin Tolliver II - contributed, but didn't live up to the grade 17. Ben Wilkerson - lived up to the grade 18. Al Woods - contributed, didn't live up to the grade 19. Terrace Marshall - contributing, but needs to do more 20. Xavier Carter - overgraded, was never a football player 21. John Emery, Jr. - hopefully, a late bloomer 22. Michael Clayton - solid, but not a 5-star contributor 23. Jarvis Landry - lived up to the grade 24. Malachi Dupre - late bloomer, contributed, but not to the level of the grade 25. Jacoby Stevens - wasted early, could still make the grade
From the look of it that looks like 247's list based only on their power rating. Good writeup. All the offensive stars wasted. I remember us being so excited about the X-Man. He was going to return 19 kicks for touchdowns. Yeah.
Didn't he end up in jail or in trouble with the law for something, some disturbance if I remember correctly