GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
One day next fall or winter, running back John Emery Jr. may utter one of the many great quotes from the 1978 “Animal House” classic film.
“Seven years of college down the drain,” John “Bluto” Blutarsky told fraternity brothers when his and their expulsion from Faber College seemed imminent.
But in the end, Blutarsky got the girl and became a United States senator. Emery, 24, still may win out, too.
Emery, who has been at LSU since signing as the No. 1 running back in the nation out of Destrehan High for the Class of 2019 but has never ran at the head of any class since, is returning to college football in 2025, according to an Instagram post on Thursday.
Maybe, the seventh year will be the charm at LSU or at another school.
Emery’s Young Play Makers agency posted that he has “One last ride! @johne4_ is returning to college football for his final season. Can’t wait to see him leave it all on the field. Let’s get it.”
The post does not say at what school Emery will be returning to college football. (Blutarsky also did not say if he was at the same Faber College for seven years, by the way.) And there were erroneous reports by several media outlets that did not notice that LSU was not in the post and reported he was coming back to LSU after assuming that. Young Play Makers later confirmed to the Baton Rouge Advocate that Emery is “early in the process” as to what school that may be.
In other words, Emery could enter the NCAA Transfer Portal and land at another school, or he could enter the portal, then exit it and stay at LSU. He entered the portal last year in April and committed to UCLA, but ended up decommitting and deciding to stay at LSU. He played in just the season opening loss to USC before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee in practice the next week and missing the rest of the season.
Emery played very well against the Trojans in Las Vegas, gaining 61 yards on 10 carries with a 39-yard power run up the middle and often delivering more punishment to his tacklers than he took. That was after he tore the ACL in his right knee in game 10 against Florida in 2023 and was lost for the season after gaining just 121 yards on 23 carries in seven games.
The next portal window for college football runs from April 16-25. Emery is currently not in spring practice with the rest of the LSU football team.
Emery committed to LSU as a five-star prospect on on Nov. 13, 2018, and signed with the Tigers the following Dec. 19. He originally committed to Georgia on July 29, 2018, and visited the Athens campus on Sept. 29. After he watched No. 13 LSU beat No. 2 Georgia, 36-16, on Oct. 13, 2018, in person in Tiger Stadium, Emery decommitted from Georgia less than two weeks later.
The flip to LSU remains Emery’s brightest moment in the eyes of LSU fans as Emery has never delivered on his five-star, No. 1-ranked back promise – yet. His best season so far was 2022 when he rushed 76 times for 375 yards and six touchdowns while catching 13 passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns in a career-high 11 games. He did not play at all in 2021 and in the first two games of 2022 as he was suspended for academic reasons.
In 2020, he rushed 75 times for 378 yards and three touchdowns while catching 14 passes for 73 yards in nine games and a career-high three starts. As a true freshman in 2019, he was part of the Tigers’ national championship team, rushing 39 times for 188 yards with four touchdowns and caught six passes for 60 yards.
In his six-year career through parts of five seasons, he has started five games and has 1,123 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns with 328 receiving yards on 37 catches.
So for those keeping score at home, Emery’s true freshman season was 2019. He was a sophomore in 2020. With 2021 as his redshirt year when he was hurt, he was a redshirt junior in 2022, a fifth-year senior in 2023 and a super COVID-credited senior season in 2024. But since he only played in one game last season, he gets another season in 2025 for a total of six seasons by the end of 2025 – if he stays healthy – and a seventh year.
Emery looked like he could’ve been the regular starter last season before the injury. He would have to beat out returning sophomore starter Caden Durham for the role at LSU in 2025.
Behind Durham are junior Kaleb Jackson and true freshman Harlem Berry, who was 247sports.com’s No. 1 running back in the nation for the class of 2025 out of St. Martin’s in Metairie. Berry is an early enrollee participating in spring practice.
After the injury last season, LSU coach Brian Kelly didn’t foresee Emery returning to football.
“John knows that he has a life outside of football,” Kelly said on the Paul Finebaum Show at the time. “Is he disappointed? Absolutely. We’re crushed for him. But he knows that he has a life outside of football, and now he’s going to be working towards that.”
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