LSU wide receiver Kayshon Boutte concedes that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is a personal decision, but he leaves no gray area in what he reccomends.
He wants to play in front of a full Tiger Stadium, but in order for that to happen people throughout Louisiana and elsewhere need to get vaccinated.
"I feel like if everybody want a full Tiger Stadium, they’ve got to get vaccinated," Boutte said this week, adding that he's fully vaccinated.
The team itself is in well above the threshold set forth by the SEC for reduced COVID precautions, with the team sharing last week that 97% of the roster and 100% of the coaching staff had received the vaccine. Multiple outdoor events, including the upcoming New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival as a recent surge in the Delta variant has led to high case numbers and hospitalization rates in recent weeks.
Boutte says his take on vaccination rates is something he preaches regularly.
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"I make it known all the time," said Boutte. "A couple times throughout the week, too, because it’s the right think to do. But I feel like everybody’s got their own opinion at the end of the day.”
LSU opens up its 2021 schedule on Sept. 4 against UCLA at the Rose Bowl, which is expected to have full capacity. The team returns home the following week for its home opener against McNeese State. Games at Tiger Stadium in 2020 were played in front of just 25% percent capacity and without tailgating, both of which have been expected to return to normal in the upcoming season.
Boutte, and his connection with sophomore quarterback Max Johnson, represent one of the more exciting elements heading into the Tigers' 2021 season. The last time the pair saw the field they connected 14 times for 308 yards and three touchdowns in a thrilling 53-48 win. The yardage broke the program's single-game record of 293 yards held by Josh Reed that had stood for nearly two decades.
That said, the sophomore wide receiver isn't letting him affect him even as it's a common topic of conversation when he ventures out in the community, something he doesn't do all too regularly.
“I never did think I was gonna do what I [did], and to this day I still don’t really talk about it because there’s still much to improve on," he said. "It was just a freshman, I learned more, experience, I’ve just gotta come back harder.”
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MORE FROM BOUTTE
ON ADJUSTING TO A LEFT-HANDED QUARTERBACK
“All my life I never really had a left-hand quarterback. So I guess playing with him made me realize that this is my first left-hand quarterback and the balls just come different. They come weird to me though, faster, but after a while you just get used to it."
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“Yea, it’s just, like I said, it was weird adjusting to it. And he’s scrambling and throwing off the run a lot, so the ball is coming at like 40 MPH. So it’s just all a reaction thing, you’ve gotta focus fast.”
ON WRS KNOWING WHO THE STARTING QB WILL BE
“As a wide receiver corps, I feel like we know who the quarterback is now and that’s Max, so after practice we’re throwing balls, we gotta make sure the timing’s right. Because at the end of the day that’s who’s throwing balls game-wise, practice-wise, so we’ve gotta be perfect.”