*The quotes in this story come from Whit Week’s SEC Media Days interview with Matt Moscona on 104.5 ESPN Baton Rouge
Whit Weeks couldn’t stand up to shower.
At the time, he wasn’t aware his talus bone was broken. He just knew the pain wasn’t subsiding as his junior season played out. LSU had dropped the Ole Miss game in week four and had a trip to play Vanderbilt on the horizon.
“I couldn’t stand up for longer than like two or three minutes, and I was like something’s not right,” Weeks said. “So, I went and told (defensive coordinator Blake Baker), and I was like, ‘Coach Baker, I’m probably down this week.'”
Baker figured that was coming, Weeks had barely practiced for a month and was limited on the field. The all-American linebacker is tough as nails, but he couldn’t fight anymore.
“I was like, I’ve tried to do everything I can do, and I physically can’t even hardly get out of bed, and I got an MRI on it. Sure enough, had broken talus head in my ankle.”
The injury was a result of a Rebel offensive lineman crashing down on his exposed foot and ankle with four snaps left in the game. The Tiger defense was asked to play 84 in the game which took more than 32 minutes of game time.
Weeks, the captain, finished the game with a significant help from his adrenaline. When that wore off in the postgame locker room after he’d addressed the team, everything changed. Still, it felt familiar.
“I’m taking my pads off, and I’m on the training room table, and I hopped down when my ankle hit the ground,” Weeks said. “It felt like a knife was going into my ankle, and I was like, ‘holy smokes.’ I still just thought something’s acting up with my previous surgery.”
Weeks sat for a month and targeted a return against Arkansas on November 15. He did, and Arkansas jumped in front 14-0. LSU, specifically the Tiger defense, controlled the middle of the game. However, the pain in Weeks’s ankle intensified.
“I remember trying to come out for halftime, and I couldn’t warm up because I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t run,” Weeks said. “So, I told Coach Baker I can’t go the second half. He’s like, ‘yeah I figured,’ because we knew something was wrong.”
As the Hogs mounted a potentially game-winning drive, the competitiveness in the Tiger captain took over. No questions. No updates. Just a substitution.
“They started driving the ball a little bit, and I was like, ‘you know what? If I go out there, my adrenaline’s going to be flying.'” Weeks said. “I’m not going to feel it if I’m out there, but sitting on the sideline, I could feel it. So, I was like, screw it. And I didn’t even tell Coach Baker. I just ran on the field.”
LSU got the necessary stops, but Weeks knew that any chance of a full recovery by season’s end was gone. Seven weeks had passed since the injury, and offseason surgery was likely.
The team’s championship hopes were dashed. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier’s season was over. Pride was all that was left for the Tigers. That wasn’t true for Weeks, though. His younger brother Zach had reclassified to enroll in college a year earlier. He joined Whit and older brother West on the roster for the 2025 season, West’s last in college.
With Western Kentucky coming to Tiger Stadium, a dream none of the Weeks family ever truly considered was now a potential reality.
“This is the only time me, West and Zach can all play together, right?” Weeks said. “So, I practiced. I did a walk through on Thursday just to be ready to go play. I’m not going to remember the pain. I’m going to remember playing with my brothers.”
He did.
For seven snaps, he joined his older and younger brother on the field in an LSU uniform. The Tigers limped, figuratively, to a 13-10 win that won’t be remembered for any other reason than those seven snaps.
“It was worth it,” Weeks said. “Yeah, it was worth it for sure.”
Fast forward eight months, Weeks bounced around the Marriott Water Street hotel in Tampa on Thursday, shaking hands and chatting with reporters. After a January surgery and a spring on the sidelines, he’s cleared to return to the field for his fourth season of football.
Once again, expectations in Baton Rouge are sky high, and Weeks and the defense are a part of the reason for that.
“I tell people, it’s like I got a new ankle right now,” Weeks said. ” Truly, not even playing football, but just in life, like it’s good to not like just have a random step be like, ‘Oh, wow, that that doesn’t feel good.’ So, it’s nice just to not have that lingering.
