Versatile Dickson doing it all for Tigers

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 29, 2009 - Page: 1C

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If you look at some NFL draft scouting services, Richard Dickson is often listed as a draft prospect at fullback.

Look on LSU’s depth chart and you’ll find him somewhere else, as a second-year starting tight end. You’ll also find him on last year’s All-Southeastern Conference second team as a tight end after he latched onto 31 passes for 324 yards and five touchdowns, his second straight 30-plus catch season.

This year, you might find him quite often split out into the slot in the hybrid role that has become a trend for pass-catching tight ends.

And when he came to LSU from high school in Ocean Springs, Miss., he was also considered a prospect as a defensive end.

For the 6-foot-3, 246-pound senior, the key word is “versatile.”

“I think it’s great,” offensive coordinator Gary Crowton said. “You’re looking for those kind of guys that can do everything. He’s an excellent player and one of the best in the league at his position.”

A year ago, the position weighed more heavily toward a traditional tight end. With young quarterbacks in Jarrett Lee, Andrew Hatch and Jordan Jefferson, LSU played more traditional I-formation football, which kept Dickson in as a blocker often.

“We didn’t want to put them under a lot of pressure,” said Dickson of the young quarterbacks. “We wanted them to be confident and not worry about scrambling, just focusing on one thing.”

That meant a less productive role statistically for Dickson, who actually had more catches (32) for more yards (375) as a backup in 2007. That total included two touchdown catches in the BCS national championship game win over Ohio State.

This year could be a rebirth of sorts for Dickson, the pass catcher. Not blessed with the height of a prototype tight end — which explains why some project him as a next-level fullback — nor the bulk of a blocking specialist, Dickson’s strength is his athleticism in the passing game. An experienced, confident Jefferson can allow for it.

“He’s so much more confident than he was last year,” Dickson said of Jefferson. “He’s reading the defense instead of guessing. Last year, he was picking up on it. This year, it’s another level.”

With Jefferson’s mastery of the offense, Dickson said LSU is tinkering with more of the plays that will utilize him more as a pass-receiving threat and less as simply a blocker.

“It’s not that much different from what we’ve been doing — I’ve always played tight end and they’ve moved me out to some wide receiver stuff — but we are getting into doing it a lot,” Dickson said. “It’s the same thing, nothing new, but maybe with Mitch (Joseph) getting experience, I’m able to play more of the slot-type guy.”