2022 LSU Football Recruit Carson Hinzman Talks Playing Offensive Line for the First Time Last Year

Hinzman made the switch from defensive line, turned himself into a top prospect o-line prospect in one year at the position

A couple of days after receiving a scholarship offer from LSU, 2022 offensive tackle Carson Hinzman was out on the boat bass fishing with a buddy when he received a text from his high school coach.

"He told me to call coach [Derek] Shay quick. He has a pretty cool opportunity for you," Hinzman said. 

Hinzman did as his coach instructed and when the call went through, coach Ed Orgeron's voice was on the other end.

"He's a great guy, pretty intense but it was a fun moment for me," Hinzman said. "It was a very brief conversation because he was in between meetings but he did say he wanted me to come down there and eat some gumbo with him."

The goal now for Hinzman is to find a way down to Baton Rouge sometime this fall and take Orgeron up on his offer. The Hammond, Wisconsin native has made quite an impression on programs across the country.

Including LSU, Power 5 programs like Alabama, Oregon, Michigan and Miami have all made Hinzman offers since the beginning of April.

"It's a really insane experience, especially coming from them [LSU] because of the season they're coming off of," Hinzman said. "It's a really great honor to be even mentioned by those guys. They're an amazing school and have had really great linemen going to the league. It just sounds like a really great opportunity just to see what kind of culture and what kind of things they got going on."

The LSU staff didn't go into too much detail with Hinzman about what specifically they liked about his tape outside of explaining how flexible they thought he was moving around. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound lineman spent all of last season at guard but LSU sees him as a tackle in the future and the early returns on his potential are impressive. 

Not only was last season at Saint Croix Central a breakout sophomore season for Hinzman, it was the first year he'd played offensive line full time. 

In that one season alone, Hinzman established himself as the No. 2 ranked offensive guard in the country according to 247Sports. Not bad considering he grew up primarily a defensive lineman and didn't make the switch to offense until the 2019 campaign.

"I was playing center at the beginning of the year but got moved to guard because on my team, we pass maybe like 12 times a year," Hinzman said. "We're a midline, veer and triple kind of offense so guards get to pull a lot. Freshman year I only played defensive line."

Hinzman said the adjustment from offensive to defensive line was pretty seamless based off the kind of season he had last year. In fact, the only time he'd ever played on offense before this last year at any position was during recruiting camps.

"I didn't really expect much going into it because the coach just basically taught me to go out there and hit the guy in front of you," Hinzman said. "The only other time I've ever played on offense in anything is at a camp so I've never played it in a real game too much. So it was really going to the camps and learning from those."

Because his high school team is so run heavy, Hinzman believes that aspect of his game has come a long way in just a short amount of time. With that being said, there is still plenty he wants to work on, including developing a more consistent pass block, which is what he's spent this offseason working on.

"It's not the only thing I've been working on because I want to do the best I can to fit the team I'm on right now and help them succeed," Hinzman said. "I'm going to continue to work on my pass block because no matter where you go, you're going to have to be able to do that, especially if they're seeing me as a tackle."

Over the coming weeks, Hinzman said he wants to keep that open conversation with the LSU coaching staff to learn as much about the program as possible. 

Now that he's on the precipice of becoming the first player from Saint Croix Central to earn a Division I scholarship, Hinzman just wants to take every opportunity given to him and make the most of it.

"I've seen and been around a lot of great guys that have worked as hard as anybody and not get anything in terms of recognition," Hinzman said. "I know a lot of people like to say they're the best in the country and stuff like that but I'm just happy to be able to compete at a high level with these guys. I'm having the time of my life going through this and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings."