Highly Touted Receiver Brandon Inniss Taking Recruiting World by Storm, Talks LSU Football
Not many eighth graders walk into high school with nearly a dozen Division I scholarship offers on their resume. But Florida wide receiver Brandon Inniss isn't your ordinary high school prospect. Growing up, Inniss always played a few age groups ahead because he was so dominant on the football field.
He had heard stories of former Georgia and current New England Patriots running back Sony Michel playing varsity as an eighth grader and wanted that opportunity. So when the time came to pick a high school, there were two schools Inniss considered.
Eventually finding his way to University School, Inniss has spent the last two years establishing himself as one of the best the 2023 class has to offer, coming in at No. 7 overall in the initial 247Sports prospect rankings for his class and the No. 1 receiver. LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas are just a few of the schools to offer the Fort Lauderdale native to this point, all of which caught him off guard.
The Tigers offered Inniss as an eighth grader, his 11th offer at the time which tells you the kind of player many of these high level programs believe him to be. Inniss played varsity as an eighth grader for University School and thinks his 10 minute highlight reel had a lot to do with the early attention he's received.
As an eighth grader, he recorded 10 touchdowns with over 900 all purpose yards. Those stats only grew his freshman season, combining for 12 touchdowns and almost 1,000 yards overall. Inniss received the LSU offer while in school, where he met with Joe Brady, the Tigers passing game coordinator at the time and brainchild behind LSU's evolution to the spread offense.
"He was just saying he was impressed with how my highlights looked as an eighth grader and he came back an extra day just to see and meet me in person," Inniss said.
As of now, Inniss is just taking in the recruiting process, paying attention to it a little bit but focusing more on how he can become a better player heading into a crucial sophomore season. He envisions waiting until after the season before he really starts to look at everything and start cutting down his offer list, which currently sits around 30.
On the field, Inniss believes a big reason so many programs are showing him interest is because of his athletic ability. Though he plays both sides of the ball, Inniss is primarily being recruited as a wide receiver and says the best traits he possesses are attacking the deep ball, making tight catches in traffic and understanding what the defense is in while running the route.
That last part comes from his ability to play on both sides of the ball as his work as a defensive back has helped him learn how that side of the ball thinks when lining up as a receiver.
"It really came natural and through a lot of practice but you just start seeing it," Inniss said of reading the defenses. "The game moves so much slower for me now which has helped me just come more natural with reading the defenses."
At 6-foot-0, 186 pounds, this offseason has been about trying to improve his run after the catch ability as well as making those catches in traffic consistently. Though it was a combination, Inniss said he was routinely able to get with his quarterback and receivers to work on those parts of his game throughout the offseason.
Those are two areas that LSU receiver Ja'Marr Chase excelled at last season en route to his 20 touchdown, Biletnikoff winning season for the Tigers. Inniss enjoyed watching Chase last season and was actually in the middle of watching a replay of LSU's game vs Ole Miss during the interview, a game that saw Chase catch eight passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns.
"I would say tracking the deep ball is one thing we have in common," Inniss said. "That's the one thing about his game that is really good and that's one thing I feel like I can do pretty good also."
He still has a few years until he needs to make a decision but Inniss is incredibly impressed with the way Ed Orgeron and the coaching staff have instilled an elite level of unity within the program.
"I just think they're doing a good job of playing as a unit and that's what football is about," Inniss said. "You can't have 10 guys doing one thing and then the 11th guy is not on the same page. Then the whole chain, the whole crew won't work. That starts with the coaches doing a good job of putting that mindset in the player's heads."