(photo credit: Nate Bell)
By Matt Moscona
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU wide receiver Jelani Watkins is taking a break from giving defensive backs fits to burn up the track.
The 5-foot-9, 163-pound freshman from Texas made his 100-meter debut Saturday in the Battle on the Bayou meet at Bernie Moore Track Stadium and clocked a personal record 10.01 seconds. That is tied for the best time in the nation this season and is tops in the SEC.
In his collegiate 100m opener… JELANI WATKINS IS THAT DUDE. 🙂↕️
⏱️ 10.01 seconds (+2.1 m/s)
🐯 t-No. 1 in the nation
🐯 No. 1 in the SEC pic.twitter.com/m15ke28HZe— LSU Track & Field (@LSUTrackField) March 29, 2025
Watkins was born in Louisiana but grew up in Texas. His top time in high school was 10.27 seconds.
During the indoor track season at LSU, Watkins ran the 60 and 200-meters for the Tigers. He earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors in his second meet and clocked a 6.63 in the 60-meter at the New Mexico Collegiate. The was the seventh-best time in school history.
On the gridiron, Watkins suffered an injury that limited him in fall camp. He appeared in two games as a freshman in 2024 without recoding a statistic.
The On3 Composite ranked Watkins as a four-star and the No. 207 player nationally.
