Lavar Edwards Commits

The commitment of Lavar Edwards, a 3-star defensive lineman from Desire Street Academy in Baton Rouge actually happened on Saturday, but given the rest of the action on Saturday, I chose to save it until today.

Edwards has all the tools. He's big at 6'4" and 300 pounds. He's quick and athletic, and with his 27 inch vertical jump, I'm sure he can easily dunk a basketball, which is an impressive feat for so large a man. He played many positions for his small high school team, including defensive end, defensive tackle, offensive line, tight end, and running back. Yes, running back.

What he is not is accomplished. No one who has watched Desire Street games has returned singing Edwards' praises. People say he takes plays off a lot and leaves observers unimpressed.

So, he's really really athletic, but has some bad habits. That makes him a project. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If he gets to LSU and gets motivated, he could end up an All-SEC calibre player. Remember, Tyson Jackson was a 3-star too.

His high school coach was recently quoted as saying he'll make a better college player than high school player. The explanation was that in high school, he had to learn to play many different positions as disparate as defensive tackle and running back. In college, he'll get to focus on one position and excel at it.

But what position is that? Well, we can be sure he isn't a running back. However, his size at 6'4" and 300 pounds would suggest to me that he's an offensive guard. He's a little taller than you usually see at defensive tackle, and a little heavier than you usually see at defensive end. The Rivals database lists him as a defensive end. We shall see, but if he's a defensive end, I feel he'll have to drop 10-15 pounds while still getting stronger.

If I was laying money, I would say that Edwards, if he makes it into a starting lineup, will make it as a an offensive guard, but we shall see.

Recruiting is winding down. We have 25 commitments if you count DeAngelo Benton. Every year at this time, things start really coming into focus. Players who have been flirting with us for months end up either coming here or telling us they won't come here. We know we will sign a couple more players, perhaps as many as 4 more. It looks like Terrelle Pryor is a longshot, but if he wants to come, we will certainly make room.

Other players still on the radar include DeAndre Brown (5-star wide receiver, and the highest player left on the board, Mississippi), Corey Liuget (4-star defensive end, Florida), Jermaine Thomas (3-star running back, Florida), Antoine McClain (4-star offensive lineman, Alabama), Greg Shaw (star offensive lineman, Florida), TJ Bryant (4-star cornerback, Florida). Of all of those, I believe Brown, Liuget, Thomas, McClain, and Bryant are definite takes if they want to come. We'd find room for all of them, but it's unlikely they'll all want to commit to us. Shaw is a take if McClain tells us he's going elsewhere.

Lots of Interesting Stuff Happened on a Saturday

Senior Bowl

Yesterday's post was about my indecision about watching the Senior Bowl. I'm glad I watched it, because it was a whale of a game. Erik Ainge led the South squad to a last minute game-winning touchdown drive. LSU and the SEC showed well for the most part, especially Ainge at quarterback and Ali Highsmith and Wesley Woodyard at linebacker. Hester acquitted himself nicely as well. Chevis got burned for a sick touchdown pass from Chad Henne to former Tiger Lavell Hawkins, but otherwise played quite well. Doucet apparently left camp with an injury earlier in the week.

In addition to being an obsessive LSU football fan, I am also a casual New Orleans Saints fan, and I was watching this game not only out of LSU- and SEC-pride, but also to look at potential future Saints. It's no secret that the Saints have an explosive offense but a weak defense that lacks playmakers. If I was King of the Saints, I would be looking for the best defensive players available at either defensive tackle, linebacker, or corner. I'm reasonably satisfied with the defensive ends and safeties on the roster, but that's about it.

So, I was looking for defensive playmakers. The one I saw that I liked the most wasUSC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, who may or may not be available when the Saints make their first selection at #10. This guy looked like the real deal to me, a rare playmaker at defensive tackle. The only concern I have about him is that the announcers, who know a lot more than me about these things, said he was a "zero-technique" tackle, meaning he is at his best playing directly opposite the center, which may not be exactly what the Saints need.

Other than Ellis, I really liked Trevor Laws, the defensive tackle from Notre Dame, but I think he is more of a mid-round pick. He looked like he could be a quality mid-round pick though if we haven't picked up a DT before then.

I loved Dominique Rogers-Cromartie, the cornerback from Tennessee State University. He made play after play not only in the passing game, but also in the running game. He's a tall corner, which is always a good thing as well. This is a guy who could be the sort of workout warrior who moves himself into the first round, which would probably put him out of reach of the Saints who would have better corners available at pick #10, but they Saints could seriously use a playmaking corner. If they take a corner in the first round, it would probably be Michael Jenkins from South Florida, or possibly Aqib Talib from Kansas. Either would be good picks, as both are ball hawks and playmakers.

I didn't see a linebacker who I thought would be a worthwhile pick at #10, and the best linebackers will be long gone by the time we pick in the second round, but Wesley Woodyard of Kentucky looks like he can play and could be available in the middle rounds.

LSU Basketball

That was pretty awful last night. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to see this team play, especially since the injury to Chris Johnson, which apparently has made this team completely unviable against SEC competition. The problems I see with this team mainly center around a complete inability to get the ball into a good scoring position. Sometimes, they throw up a bad shot by choice, such as taking a quick 3-pointer with a hand in their faces. Sometimes, they spend 15 seconds passing the ball around 25 feet from the basket and realize the shot clock is down to 10 so they're forced to try to work too quickly from that point and end up taking a wild shot to beat the buzzer.

The result? Really poor field goal shooting. The cause(s)?

Well, earlier in the day, I watched Kentucky beat South Carolina. Despite the loss, the thing that struck me the most about South Carolina is that they have the kind of offensive playmakers that we desperately lack. We don't have a player like Devan Downey, who can can slash to the basket or pull up and hit a 3-pointer and can create turnovers leading to transition points. Heck, right now we don't even have a player like Zam Fredrick, who is a pure shooter. Chris Johnson was a similar sort of player, but now he's hurt and we haven't figured out how to play offense without him.

I see no end to this skid until Johnson comes back from injury, and even then we are an average team at best.

To Watch or Not to Watch

Every year at this time, I am faced with a dilemma. Senior Bowl? Should I watch it?

On the one hand, it's a meaningless game. Everything important that will happen at the Senior Bowl has already happened, and the game itself counts for basically nothing. This is one of those games where the practice sessions are a lot more important than the game itself.

On the other hand, it's the only college football to watch until the Fall, and it's the last chance to see certain favorites play college football.

There are 4 LSU players on the South roster: Chevis Jackson, Ali Highsmith, Jacob Hester, and Early Doucet. There have been reports that Chevis has really helped his stock with good performances in Mobile.

We aren't going to see a repeat of last year's 4-first-rounders performance, but I think this year's LSU draft will be deeper and better overall. Last year, after the first round, we didn't have a player drafted until the 7th round.

A lot of people criticized that LSU team for having the four 1st rounders without winning a championship, but if you look at it closely, other teams had more players drafted than we did. Florida had 9 players drafted overall, compared to our 5. Plus, they had very good college players who went undrafted, such as Chris Leak. We had great top-end talent, but the rest of the talent in the draft, but that was about it.

Anyway, I don't know if I'm going to watch it.

I'm still here

There just isn't anything inspiring me to write at this moment. Bear with me. There will be more content soon.

Meat Market

I'm finally doing my review of Meat Market: Inside the Smash Mouth World of College Football Recruiting by ESPN columnist Bruce Feldman.

If you are unfamiliar with the book, it follows one season in the Ole Miss Football program from the summer of 2006 until National Signing Day of 2007, focusing mostly on recruiting. It is also a profile of former Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron. It chronicles the problems in his personal life, without apparently sugar-coating anything about his drinking and domestic violence issues. While it certainly does not paint Ed O as a saint, it is a generally affectionate portrayal of a man who struggled to get past his demons, and is struggling to build a program at Ole Miss.

First and foremost, the book is indispensable for anyone seeking to understand the shadowy world of college football recruiting. If that is something you are interested in, there has never been another book that would help you more, and I doubt there will be another one in the future. You find out from this book what the coaches look for in a football player, what the pitfalls are, and how the process works.

The narrative of the story is mostly a repeating cycle of struggle, hope, and finally disappointment. Over and over again. Ole Miss struggles. Something happens to increase the optimism. Then, the optimism is shattered by some profound disappointment. A typical subplot will have Orgeron spotting a talent somewhere (he fancies himself to have a true eye for talent), getting in contact with that person and getting some interest, only to find disappointment because of one of several possibilities:

• The kid's academics turn out to be a shambles;
• Closer inspection reveals the kid to not be as athletic as originally believed;
• They find out that the kid was calling them from jail (true story); or
• After they develop a close relationship with the kid, a bigger program finally notices him and the kid ends up forgetting about Ole Miss in order to go to Florida State, LSU, USC, Miami, or some other more prestigious program.

In this respect, only the ending rings hollow. Feldman closes the book not on the down notes that dominated the bulk of the narrative, but rather with hope that the 2007 season would produce good results, and that Orgeron would ultimately succeed. Unfortunately for the book's longevity, by the time I read the book just before Christmas, Ole Miss had finished a winless SEC season and Orgeron had already been fired. In that respect, it's a lot like a book that might have been written in the second or third year of Gerry Dinardo's tenure at LSU (may God rest his soul).

Despite this flaw, the book remains a fascinating read, both for its insight into recruiting and its insight into a man who will certainly remain a character in the college football world for some time.

If your interest lies strictly in LSU football, this book is still an important read. Eventual LSU commits T-Bob Hebert, Drake Nevis, Demetrius Byrd, and Steven Ridley make appearances in the story. Former LSU recruiting target Joe McKnight plays a very large role, and yes, Orgeron hedged his bets on McKnight by trying to push USC to recruit him harder to keep him away from LSU. He did this despite being rather confident that Ole Miss would get his signature (and it may very well be true that he would have gone to Ole Miss if USC hadn't turned up the heat).

Other characters from the 2007 recruiting class who make appearances include Louisiana kid Rishaw Johnson, Rolando Melancon, Florida kid Robert Marve (who went to Miami), and many other kids. Interestingly, though Rishaw Johnson wasn't discussed all that much in LSU circles, Orgeron apparently thought the kid was one of the best offensive line recruits in the country, and worthy of 5-star status. The services had him as a 3-star. History will tell us who was right on that one.

I guarantee you that if you are a regular reader of this blog, you would find Meat Market to be a worthwhile read. And even though it's about the 2007 season, I can foresee this book still being essential reading to would-be recruiting buffs in ten years time.

The Recruitment of Terrelle Pryor

I feel a little more comfortable discussing the Pryor situation right now, mainly because I don't think we'll find out anything new in the next several days.

To recap for those of you not paying close attention to recruiting, Terrelle Pryor is the consensus #1 quarterback and #1 overall recruit in the country, according to Rivals. He is out of Pennsylvania and reminds everyone of Vince Young at the same age, though he may be a) smarter and b) less strong-armed, by a little bit. He was looking heavily at West Virginia, Ohio State, and Penn State, among others earlier this season.

Two important things happened that have dramatically changed the recruiting landscape for Terrelle Pryor. First, Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan. This eliminated West Virginia from consideration and opened up Michigan. It also, according to at least one poster at TigerDroppings, opened up other schools because Pryor feels a lot of loyalty towards both Rodriguez and Jim Tressel and may not be willing to be an intense rival of either, preferring instead to leave the Big 10.

The second thing that happened to change the recruiting landscape was that Pryor attended the Under Armour All-America Game and met Patrick Johnson. I had always heard this Johnson kid was a natural leader to whom other athletes gravitate. Apparently, Mr. Pryor has gravitated to Mr. Johnson so much that he regretted LSU's alleged failure to recruit him.* He made his thoughts public, and before you could say "Gary Crowton", the LSU coaches were on him.

He is not considering us. No one really knows how seriously he is considering us, but he's mentioning us in interviews. He's taking visits from our coaches. He's talking to us.

Obviously, we're getting in very very late. Possibly too late, and objectively we have to think it's unlikely that we get him. That's alright, because we have to try anyway.

This is a kid who, if we get him, could end up being the most important football recruit at LSU since Kevin Faulk (without whom LSU may still be an SEC also-ran on a level with Ole Miss). He's a guy who, if he's as good as advertised (which is considerably good), could be a guy who keeps us at the top not for the next 4 years, but for the next 10 years. He could solidify LSU as a permanent member of college football's elite until long after he's moved on to other things.

Or, you know, he could end up being a major disappointment who never really emerges as a good player and accelerates our descent into mediocrity. (See Lee, Xavier and Weatherford, Drew at FSU). But that's terribly unlikely.

Some say this whole thing is a bad idea because simply recruiting him could impact our current QB commitment, Jordan Jefferson. I would point at that when Jefferson originally committed to us he was the third quarterback on the commitment list. If Pryor was to sign with us, Jefferson would be one of only two. Even with Pryor, the situation is better for Jefferson than when he originally decided to come to LSU. It sounds like Mr. Jefferson is not scared of competition.

Others say that the star-gazers worried about Pryor are losing sight of LSU's other young QB, Jarrett Lee, who is allegedly developing well. I wouldn't know if he's developing well or not, but I know one thing. I know that we owe Jarrett Lee nothing other than a fair shot to compete for playing time. The addition of one highly heralded young quarterback does not and would not change Jarrett Lee's development, and would not change any discussion of whether Jarrett Lee was a starting calibre quarterback. All it would do is give LSU options. It's always better to have two good players rather than one.**

I'm not going to say we're getting this kid. I think it's still far more likely that we don't get him, but it's always fun to imagine and speculate.

*According to several posters, we didn't "fail" to recruit him. We made contact this past spring/summer and sent assistant coaches to Pennsylvania to look at him, which is a considerable expense of time and money for just one recruit. He just didn't show us the love in return. As I recall, when he narrowed his list down to ELEVEN this past summer, we weren't on the list. The LSU coaches decided that continuing to recruit him was a waste of time and money, which is a perfectly wise decision. They just didn't count on Patrick Johnson.

**Alright, it's not always good to have two good quarterbacks. But there's no guarantee about Lee at this point, and while it isn't ALWAYS good to have two good quarterbacks, it is NEVER good not to have any.

I Give You the Information A Week After You No Longer Need It

The two hot topics in LSU sports right now are a) the disaster of the basketball season, and b) the surprise interest that #1 national recruit Terelle Pryor is giving us. I will discuss neither of these today because (a) just annoys me and (b) isn't really ripe yet to discuss.

Instead, I'll discuss something I meant to discuss when I would have found out that one or more of our juniors had declared for the NFL Draft. The problem was that none of them ended up declaring.

A lot of people complain when a guy declares early. "We made a commitment to him for 4 years, etc. etc." There is no question that a surprise declaration for which a team is unprepared really screws up the preparation for the following season, but often that's a coach's fault for not recruiting quality depth at that position.

I don't really care about a guy's projected draft status. I don't have the opinion that many have of, "if he's a 1st round pick he should go." I go by the Two Year Rule. My opinion about guys declaring early is this: I cannot be upset about a guy leaving early for the NFL if he has given us two years of high level production. I don't mean a year of being great proceeded by two years of backing up the starters and covering punts. I mean two years of high level production.

Under this model, a player who was an understudy for a year and then took over as a starter and played well the following two years can go to the NFL with my blessing. A guy who putters around for a couple of years and then has an inconsistent 1st half of his 3rd year before blowing up in the 2nd half of his 3rd year cannot go pro without drawing my ire. I think that guy pretty much wasted our time and left us as soon as he was really useful.

Using the Two Year Rule, Darry Beckwith, Herman Johnson, Tyson Jackson, and even Ciron Black (who was eligible to turn pro) could have declared for the Draft with my blessing. Brandon Lafell could not have, because he has only given us one year of production at a high level. Of course, there was little if any public discussion of the possibility he would declare, but if he had, I would have been kind of upset.

As for next year, we'll face the same questions with Ciron Black (a redshirt junior and expected 3-year starter after next season), Brandon Lafell, Ricky Jean-Francois, and possibly others if certain players blow up next season (like Harry Coleman or Jai Eugene, for example). I think we need to anticipate that Black and Lafell will turn pro next year, even though they may not. Our coaches just need to be prepared and have a plan in place in case they do, especially for Black.