As a member of LSU’s 2018 recruiting class, Jarell Cherry was listed as a 6-foot-3, 224-pound outside linebacker by 247Sports. But after redshirting last season and switching to defensive end, Cherry looks significantly different now, thanks, in part, to a peculiar strength training routine.
Cherry is now listed on LSU’s website at 264 pounds, but The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge reported that his teammates estimate he’s actually up to 280 pounds now and can bench 485 pounds. They also apparently call him “Whole Cherry” because of that too.
In addition to whatever LSU’s coaches have Cherry doing, defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko told reporters this week that Cherry has been walking around with literal bricks in his backpack to bulk up, making him “strong as a rock”.
During this offseason, the team learned of Cherry’s regimen when assistant strength and conditioning coordinator Jake Riedel struggled to lift the defensive end’s bag and ended up dragging it across the floor to move it out of the way.
Riedel asked Cherry: Hey, why is your bag so heavy? What classes are you taking?
Cherry was confused: What’s up coach?
Riedel: What classes are you taking? I tried to lift your bag and it was heavy. What kind of textbooks you got in there?
Cherry laughed: No, Coach. I got bricks in there.
“Jarell’s carrying bricks every day to school in his backpack,” Fehoko said. “He’s crazy, man.”
LSU opens the 2019 season on August 31 with a home game against Georgia Southern.
