Brian Kelly Updates WR Chris Hilton’s Status

Chris Hilton has battled injuries throughout his four years at LSU.

After a strong start to fall practices that positioned Hilton as a top-three option in the LSU passing game, he suffered a bone bruise that held him out of the final week of camp.

On Monday, Brian Kelly called Hilton “questionable” to play in the season opener on Sunday against USC.

During the Southeastern Conference teleconference on Wednesday, he updated Hilton’s progress.

“He was moving around (Tuesday). We had a short, about an hour practice. He was running with our trainers. Working on getting in and out of routes. We’ll accelerate that today to the next phase which is putting the pads on and we’ll see where he is. He’s in that progression where you take somebody that is questionable, and you continue to work him through the week to see if he can move from questionable to probable. That’s going to happen through the work he does with our training staff. They’ll let me know at practice how he feels, and I know he wants to play. I know he’s working towards playing on Sunday, and well just see how the week goes.”

If Hilton is unavailable, Kelly said Monday that redshirt freshman Kyle Parker would like be the next man up.

“(He’s) a guy you can trust now,” Kelly said. “I don’t think we have to live with mistakes with a guy like Kyle Parker. He can go in now and operate at a high level for us.”

Kelly’s final pregame meeting with the media will come Thursday with a press conference and his first radio show of the season.