BATON ROUGE — Kaleb Jackson displayed his talent.

As his freshman year at LSU football last season progressed, the Baton Rouge native began to carve out more and more of a role at the running back position, gaining more playing time later in the season.

Jackson, the Liberty Magnet High School star and No. 1 tailback in Louisiana in the 2023 recruiting class, was a summer enrollee and played catchup with everything he needed to learn. Once the light started to come on, it was a matter of time before the running back would find himself on the field in big games against Florida and others.

"Everybody saw last year, Kaleb would get the football, when he would break the first level and even the second level, he's a punishing back," LSU co-offensive coordinator Joe Sloan said after the team's sixth preseason practice Wednesday. "He's hard to tackle. He gets his pads down on contact, he's able to drive his feet. He's a powerful human.

"The big thing was the growth from a freshman, being a freshman playing running back. There's so many different things to being a running back than just get the ball and run."

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Over the offseason, Sloan said Jackson attacked the details of his game that weren't ironed out yet. Jackson looked more at the nuances of playing tailback and from what he's shown LSU coaches thus far in preseason practice, he's picked up pass protection, fitting the right run holes.

Another major aspect he worked on was his body. Jackson reported to camp up 35 pounds from where he was when he reported for his freshman season.

"He wasn't an early enrollee. Everything happens so fast for those guys. When you start getting in that box and having to start pass protect and having to understand where different runs might fit, it's a lot," Sloan said of Jackson's growth. "He's worked good and hard from spring ball to now on his body and being prepared for what the season is going to be."

There's plenty of snaps up for grabs at running back at LSU this season. Competing for them will be Jackson; senior Josh Williams, who Sloan called a "professional" and said provides the team stability; John Emery, who is coming off an ACL injury and even tested the transfer portal waters over the offseason; and freshman Cade Durham, who is in the same boat that Jackson was this time last year.

With his skill set and how he's approached the offseason and opportunity, Jackson will be a main player for the Tigers in the backfield this season. And Sloan is looking forward to how much more Jackson grows.

"What you're seeing is how he is a complete running back. And he's going to start coming into this own," Sloan said. "It's been fun to watch."

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz atbdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Why Kaleb Jackson will be major factor at RB for LSU football