It’s an ongoing joke inside Southern Miss’ locker room that defensive back Dylan Lawrence can’t catch the ball.
But that has since changed, as Lawrence already came down with an interception in back-to-back games to start the 2024 season.
“The funny thing about Dylan is that we pick on him a lot,” Southern Miss coach Will Hall said. “In his past, he has not had great hands. But two weeks in a row, he has made two great catches. He has improved and worked hard to improve on that.”
His first pick was in the first quarter against Kentucky last week, and then most recently, he came up with a pick-six that sealed Southern Miss’ 35-10 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday night.
“That is a true fact,” said Lawrence, who laughed when asked if the statement about his hands was true. “But every day at practice, I have been putting in that extra work, getting on the JUGS machine, and just doing a lot of ball drills. That’s been my biggest thing this offseason, and coming into this season, I'm just working on my hands. It paid off.”
But for Lawrence the recent success is also a tribute to Southern Miss teammate and cousin MJ Daniels, who was killed in a carjacking over the summer. In the first game of the season last week, Lawrence carried Daniels’ jersey out on the field.
“It’s been nothing short of amazing,” said Lawrence. “I’m glad that I had the opportunity to do that for MJ. MJ meant a lot to me, and knowing that if he was here that he would be making them plays. I’m just glad that I can recreate that for him.”
In his interception against Southeastern, which came in the third quarter, Lawrence broke away for a 60-yard touchdown with ease.
“You’ve got to think old MJ is smiling down on him too on those,” said Southern Miss coach Will Hall of Lawrence’s pick-six. “I love him, man. I couldn’t be happier than anybody in the world than for him to make that play.”
For Hall, the newly acquired ballhawk skills by Lawrence, who had a team-high of seven tackles against SLU, is a testament to his leadership on the team.
“He’s become a great leader,” Hall said. “He has always been a phenomenal person. He’s mature and is a graduate. He does an unbelievable job of pulling people to the standard and not stomping on them when they are not meeting the standard. He was great tonight.
“I know MJ is smiling again right now with that.”
Follow @AndrewAbadie on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for Southern Miss coverage.
