An LSU receiver duo will be playing Monday in a game that many people around them likely advised against.

As the college football season winds down and national attention is on major bowl weekend and the playoffs starting Monday, the LSU Tiger football team prepares to play a New Year’s Day bowl game in the ReliaQuest (formerly Outback) in Tampa. It was not the pinnacle of goals when the team started the season coming off an SEC West championship under Brian Kelly in his first year, but it is pretty incredible nonetheless considering how long it is taking Kelly to replenish the cupboard on the defensive side of the ball.

Certainly the offense did its part, namely Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas, Jr, who are both projected to be first round NFL draft picks this spring. The best receiver tandem in the country, 8 and 11 did things on the football field this year that few fans thought would ever happen again, or at least as quickly, after the incredible run Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson had in the 2019-20 championship season.

Chase won the Biletnikoff Award in 2019, but Jefferson in my mind always deserved to share it. It would have been a great story–for two teammates to win the coveted award.

Nabers didn’t win the Biletnikoff this year as many thought he should. And Thomas was right there with him, producing video game numbers all season.

Both tandems are in the conversation as the greatest Tiger receiving duo of all time, but as is and was the case with Jefferson and Thomas, Jr, perhaps neither tandem needs to be the sidekick. Yes, the 2019 duo should get special attention because they won a championship, but is it that out of the realm of possibility to think that LSU would be in either Los Angeles or New Orleans Monday night had the defense done its part? The 9-3 record certainly was not on the offense or Nabers and Thomas, Jr. Maybe it’s a situation of 1A and 1B, or even 1A and 1Aa, because the bottom line is that all four receivers are absolute studs on the football field that make, dare I even say it, the tandem of Odell Beckham, Jr and Jarvis Landry in 2012 look somewhat pedestrian.

Considering the talent and production of those two with Zach Mettenburger that year, that’s saying something.

One bonus for Tiger fans is that they will get to witness Nabers and Thomas, Jr one more time on Monday, which came as a bit of a surprise to many.

In a time in college football history where NIL rules the day and big money paydays outweigh finishing the season in a perceived meaningless bowl, Nabers and Thomas, Jr made the quick decision weeks ago to play one more game in the purple and gold.

I want to make clear that I am not necessarily praising that decision in the strictest sense, as if this choice is perfect and the other choice is the opposite. I am simply making some observations here, just as I did in “Farewell, Five,” a commentary on future first round pick Jayden Daniels’ decision to forgo the bowl game and prepare for his professional career.

Ultimately, if Nabers and Thomas, Jr had made the same decision, that would have been okay too. It’s sports, it’s entertainment, and at the end of the day this is all supposed to be for fun anyway, not necessarily some indication of a young man’s moral compass.

I’ve done much worse in terms of my moral compass and so have all of us, just as an aside.

Coach Kelly was put in the compromising position of being asked why two top NFL prospects decided to risk injury for a bowl game that has no national championship implications. Compromising perhaps, because these questions are always laced with a hint of suggestion–this time the suggestion being that the quarterback who was throwing to 8 and 11 all year had made the opposite decision. Kelly called Nabers and Thomas, Jr “old-fashioned,” among other things:

#LSU WRs Malik Nabers + Brian Thomas Jr. are being projected as 1st Round picks, but neither opted out of the bowl.

Brian Kelly said it didn't take any convincing for them to do it. He said both are "old fashioned".

"They love their teammates, they love LSU and love football."

— Shea Dixon (@Sheadixon) December 29, 2023

Again, I don’t think it’s good to praise these kids too much because they already receive more than enough adulation. As a high school teacher, I am cognizant of that. Nabers is chasing a school record as well after all, a record he can only break if he plays. So on Monday I will enjoy Nabers and Thomas, Jr’s incredible skills one final time while a new gunslinger tosses the ball to them, but also realize that ultimately this is just a fun bowl game, hope they don’t get injured, and wish them well as they end one chapter and start a new one Tuesday morning. Chase and Jefferson have done as much, and LSU football still keeps on keepin’ on bringing the state a little Saturday fun and distraction from all the turmoil in the world.

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Jeff LeJeune is the author of several books, writer for RVIVR, editor, master of English and avid historian, teacher and tutor, aspiring ghostwriter and podcaster, and creator of LeJeune Said. Visit his website at jefflejeune.com, where you can find a conglomerate of content.