Two days before he made his first career start, one of LSU offensive lineman Paul Mubenga’s tires blew out. Kyren Lacy saw what happened as he left the facility and asked if Mubenga needed help.
Mubenga pulled his car into a nearby parking garage. He had never dealt with a flat tire, so he didn’t know he had one in the trunk. Lacy waited with him until he figured out what to do. Eventually, they put on the spare and Mubenga drove to a tire shop.
“He stayed with me for over an hour, just to make sure I was OK,” Mubenga said. “That’s the person he was. He always had a good intent, and it didn’t matter what he had personally going on. That’s one thing we could have helped him a little bit better with.”
This week, Lacy has been on the minds of the LSU players and coaches who knew him and considered him a friend. Lacy died Saturday night in Houston from an apparent suicide, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said, four months after the end of his LSU career.
Lacy, 24, faced counts of negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run and reckless operation of a vehicle, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, after being accused of causing a December car crash that killed 78-year-old Herman Hall.
“I know, personally, a lot of wide receivers asked themselves the question what could they have done better to reach out to him, make him feel like he still has a family here,” Mubenga said. “Just because he’s done with the program, that doesn’t mean that he’s being excluded.”
After news broke of Lacy’s death, LSU called a team meeting at noon Sunday, and coach Brian Kelly told the players what happened.
“Obviously, we knew because of social media,” Mubenga said. “But to a lot of us, it was still a shock. We was hoping to hear other news.”
There was some silence, Mubenga said, then senior safety Jardin Gilbert stood up.
“He told us that if we ever need anything, just to reach out,” Mubenga said. “It doesn’t matter what position group it is, just to reach out to him.”
Sophomore defensive end Gabriel Reliford called the meeting “helpful” as his teammates began processing their emotions.
“We talked about how we could talk to each other, talk to the coaches whenever we needed,” Reliford said. “Obviously, it was a tragic situation. You never know what people are dealing with behind closed doors, so they gave us that option, let us know they’re always free to talk.”
Around LSU, some players and coaches who were close to Lacy have posted tributes to him on social media throughout the week. On Thursday morning, wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton wrote that he has woken up wishing Lacy could see the effect he had on people and know how many loved him.
Players who were made available by the team Thursday remembered Lacy for his energy. Mubenga said he “always had a smile on his face.” Reliford admired the passion he brought to the field.
“I’ll remember Kyren as a burst of energy,” junior running back Kaleb Jackson said. “With him around, it was always something funny, something to laugh at.
“When it was time to play, he was the guy in the locker room telling everybody to come on, screaming, getting everybody hyped.”
Others who knew Lacy remembered similar qualities. Former LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers posted an emotional message on his Instagram account earlier this week that said, in part, “you put a smile on everyone’s face. [I guess] we forgot to give you the same smile.” Nabers wished Lacy had called him.
Nabers and Lacy grew close during their two seasons together. In the 2023 regular season finale against Texas A&M, Nabers would have broken the LSU record for career yards receiving on a 75-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, but it was negated by a holding call on Lacy.
Later in the drive, Lacy caught a touchdown that sealed the 42-30 win. Though Nabers later set the record in LSU’s bowl game, Lacy had tears in his eyes when he reached the sideline. He thought the catch should have belonged to Nabers.
“After catching the game-sealing TD, all he could think about was his brother,” LSU assistant director of recruiting Bobby Barham wrote in a social media post. “That is who Kyren was.”
Lacy’s funeral services will take place April 26, his family announced Thursday. There will be a public visitation that morning in the David Stopher Gymnasium in Thibodaux. Before a celebration of life begins, LSU’s football team has its own visitation window, according to WAFB.
As those in the program who knew him grieve, Kelly said LSU will “lean heavily” on its professional counselors so players can have individual conversations if they need them.
“It has most definitely hit some of my teammates very hard,” Reliford said. “A lot of guys were very close to Kyren.”
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