{"id":22663,"date":"2025-10-27T18:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/22663\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:58:11","slug":"who-is-alex-atkins-what-to-know-about-lsus-new-playcaller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/22663\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Alex Atkins? What to know about LSU’s new playcaller"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Monday morning\u2019s dismissal of LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan, tight ends coach Alex Atkins takes over as the playcaller under interim head coach Frank Wilson. Atkins is in his first year in Baton Rouge, but what should you know about the Tigers\u2019 interim play-caller?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Coach<\/p>\n

Atkins was the offensive coordinator at Florida State from 2022 through 2024, after serving on the Seminoles\u2019 staff in 2020 and 2021 as the offensive line coach. He was also the offensive coordinator at Charlotte in 2019 and the offensive line coach at Tulane for three years from 2016 through 2018.<\/p>\n

Atkins had success at Florida State prior to 2024, with the offense averaging over 30 points per game during both the 2022 and 2023 seasons. The Seminoles averaged 36.1 points per game during a 2022 season that saw them reach ten wins. In 2023, Atkins\u2019 offense averaged 34.6 points in a 13-win season. During his time with the Seminoles, Atkins produced three first-team All-ACC selections on the offensive line, along with the 2023 ACC Player of the Year in quarterback Jordan Travis. Florida State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his lone season at Charlotte, Atkins helped the 49ers reach their first bowl game in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Atkins\u2019 ability to develop has also been touted bythe media and fans as well. The 2023 unit for Florida State ranked second overall in PFF\u2019s run-blocking grade. Could LSU see an uptick in its run game?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Recruiter<\/p>\n

Atkins played a role in five-star Solomon Thomas flipping from Florida State to LSU in the 2025 class. <\/a>After Atkins was fired, Thomas and he remained close, and he took his advice as he made his college decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to a practice, and I asked my ex-coach at Florida State about the offensive line coach at LSU, and he was like, \u2018He\u2019s a great dude on and off the field,\u201d Thomas said. \u201c\u2018He will take care of you beyond the football aspect of it,\u2019 and that\u2019s always been a guy that I wanted to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins is a players\u2019 coach. There\u2019s no doubt about it. His ability to connect with recruits and their families has long been a standout quality about him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His ties to Louisiana are important as well, as the longtime coach spent several seasons at Tulane. If he were to stick through to the next regime, he could be an asset within the state, especially for offensive linemen. He has built quite a relationship with current tight end Trey\u2019Dez Green and elite recruit Ahmad Hudson. There is a sense of respect from players about the way Atkins recruits and coaches them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trey\u2019Dez Green told reporters last week that Atkins had been a major help in his learning to play the tight end position, complimenting him on his ability to teach the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Monday morning\u2019s dismissal of LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan, tight ends coach Alex Atkins takes over as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[9276,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-22663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-regwall","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}