Getting action in LSU's backfield isn't easy.
Routinely, the Tigers have an NFL pipeline lined up behind the quarterback, and sometimes a back just has to do something different to get noticed.
So Kenny Hilliard did.
The newphew of former LSU and New Orleans Saints running back Dalton Hilliard has slimmed down to 228 pounds, the lightest he's been since arriving at LSU, according to nola.com.
"If you want to lose weight you have to put your mind to it. Mainly it was doing extra work," Hilliard said. "I'd wake up early at 5 a.m. and run on the treadmill. I had to. They wanted me down. I had to listen to my head coach."
A trimmed-down Hilliard returns to a backfield crowded by Alfred Blue and sophomore star Jeremy Hill, who was just reinstated from a controversial suspension. That's without Spencer Ware and Michael Ford, who left LSU early last year and are now with the Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears, respectively.
Hilliard scored three touchdowns in the 2011 Southeastern Conference championship against Georgia as a freshman, showing flashes of a potential starter. Last year, he was stuck behind Ware, Ford, and Hill, who emerged as a starter, and finished the year with only 82 carries.
Blue has been the frontrunner in the Tigers' backfield in the preseason, but in a backfield that always uses multiple backs, Hilliard's weight loss will serve him in one role or another.
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread.
