Recruiting Base

[theTestament]

It is very curious as to why McNeese can having a winning program with talent from within a 250 mile radius of Lake Charles and some people believe we should go get players from all over the world. It makes sense on so many different levels to recruit locally (250 miles). Just take a look at the Cowboys roster. Only two kids are from more than 250 miles away. McNeese wins with local talent and steals a ton of players from our area. Barry Switzer was quoted saying that if he could have the greater Houston area, primarily Harris County, as a recruiting zone all to himself that he could contend for a national title every year. Lamar could do just as well or better with kids from within 150 miles.


# Full Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Academic Year Hometown/Previous School

1 Ford Smesny S 5-9 191 Jr. Dayton, TX/Dayton HS
2 Josh Lewis PK 6-0 180 Jr. Denham Springs, LA/Denham Springs HS
3 Marcus Wiltz TB 5-9 200 So. Cecilia, LA/Cecilia HS
4 Diontae Spencer WR 5-9 160 So. New Iberia, LA/Westgate HS
5 Chris Raggett CB 5-11 200 Jr. Beaumont, TX/Ozen HS
6 Guy Morgan CB 6-0 190 So. Baton Rouge, LA/St. John HS
7 Brandon Robinson FS 6-0 200 Sr. Texas City, TX/Texas City HS
8 Seth Thomas CB 5-9 190 Jr. Orange, TX/West Orange-Stark HS
9 Darrell Jenkins WS 5-10 205 Sr. Bon Weir, TX/Newton HS
10 London Durham CB 6-2 185 Sr. Beaumont, TX/Ozen HS
11 Riley Dodge QB 6-0 195 Jr. Southlake, TX/North Texas
12 Will Briscoe QB 6-2 185 Fr. Baton Rouge, LA/Central HS
13 Kentrell Butler LB 6-1 230 Sr. Patterson, LA./Patterson HS
14 Damion Dixon WR 6-3 185 Jr. Port Allen, LA/Louisville
15 Zack O'Quinn TE 6-3 235 Jr. Moss Bluff, LA/Sam Houston HS
16 Darius Carey S 6-0 185 Jr. New Orleans, LA/North Texas
17 Ernest Celestie WR 5-11 185 So. Lake Charles, LA/Texas Tech
18 Cody Stroud QB 6-3 190 So. Montgomery, LA/Montgomery HS
19 Tyler Bolfing QB 6-3 200 Fr. Montgomery,TX/MontgomeryHS
20 Shelby Hemenway WR 6-0 193 So. Plaquemine, LA/St. John HS
21 Aaron Sam CB 5-11 180 Fr. Lake Charles, LA/LaGrange HS
22 Andre Anderson TB 5-9 195 Sr. Barrinton, IL/Michigan State
23 Ben Bourgeois P 5-10 200 Gr. Sulphur, LA./Sulphur HS
24 Reynaldo Young WR 5-10 170 So. Garyville, LA/East St. John HS
25 Javaris Murray TB 5-7 185 So. Kingston, LA/DeSoto HS
26 Champlain Babin TB 5-9 190 Jr. Donaldsonville, La./Donaldsonville HS
27 Zoe Bruce CB 5-9 183 Jr. Baton Rouge, LA/UL-Monroe
28 Terrell Alfred TB 5-10 188 Fr. Lafayette, LA/Northside HS
29 Kelvin Bennett TB 5-10 180 Fr. Bleakwood, TX/Newton HS
30 Malcolm Glaze WR 5-10 182 Fr. Lafayette, LA/Northside HS
31 Kyle Peterson S 6-0 180 So. Moss Bluff, LA/Hamilton Christian
32 Terence Cahee WR 5-9 175 So. Westlake, LA/Westlake HS
33 Gabe Hamner CB 6-1 180 Fr. Sealy, TX/Sealy HS
34 Malcolm Bronson FS 5-11 192 Jr. Jasper, TX/Jasper HS
35 Kenny Brown WR 5-11 180 Fr. Lake Charles, LA/St. Louis HS
36 Eric Papion LB 5-9 225 So. Lake Charles, LA/Barbe HS
37 Ernest Williams CB 6-0 190 Fr. Orange, TX/Little Cypress-Mauriceville HS
38 Ryan Bronson S 6-1 185 So. Jasper, TX/Jasper HS
39 Tyler Reed FB 5-10 230 So. Westlake, LA/Westlake HS
40 James Bice PK/P 6-0 170 Fr. Lake Charles, LA/St. Louis HS
41 Hayden Dobbs LB 6-0 220 So. Houston, TX/Cypress Woods HS
42 Wallace Scott S 6-1 190 Fr. Weyanoke, LA/West Feliciana HS
43 Dillon Berlin FB 6-0 205 Fr. Lake Charles, LA/St. Louis HS
44 Kenrick Cormier LB 6-0 215 Jr. Dry Creek, LA/East Beauregard HS
45 Joe Narcisse LB 5-11 212 Jr. Vacherie, LA/St. James HS
46 Manny Busch TE 6-3 225 So. Sulphur, LA/Sulphur HS
47 Kyle Crouch LB 5-11 205 Fr. Covington, LA/Covington HS
48 Joe Jackson FB 6-2 225 So. Lafayette, LA/UL-Lafayette
49 Kegan Myers FB 6-1 232 Jr. Jennings, LA/Jennings HS
50 Mitchell Amy C 5-10 240 Jr. Lake Charles, LA/Barbe HS
51 Deonte Thompson LB 6-2 220 R-Fr. Shreveport, LA/Evangel HS
52 Correy Middleton LB 6-0 207 R-Fr. Monroe, LA/Richwood HS
53 Judd Meadows DE 6-3 235 R-Fr. Aledo, TX/Aledo HS
54 Brett Koonce OG 6-2 285 Jr. Sulphur, LA/Sulphur HS
55 Krishon Seastrunk DT 6-2 255 Fr. Newton, TX/Newton HS
56 Justin Breaux DT 6-0 270 Sr. Sulphur, LA./Sulphur HS
57 Desmund Lighten DE 6-0 255 Sr. Monroe, LA/Ouachita HS
58 Orrin Fontenot DE 6-2 240 R-Fr. Baton Rouge, LA/Parkview Baptist
60 Kenny Bourgeois C 6-3 275 R-Fr. Gretna, LA/Jesuit HS
61 Miguel Gauthreaux OG 6-1 291 Sr. Plaquemine, LA/Plaquemine HS
62 Quentin Marsh DT 6-2 282 Fr. Dickinson, TX/Dickinson HS
63 Carson Chaisson C 6-2 280 Jr. Jennings, LA/Jennings HS
64 Cade Courville TE 6-4 235 Fr. Lake Charles, LA/St. Louis HS
65 Tyler Harbourt OT 6-4 282 Jr. Lafayette, LA/Teurlings Catholic
67 Mitchell Kimberling OT 6-4 295 Sr. Bay City, TX/Tyler JC
68 Jake Eaves OG 6-2 270 Fr. Spring, TX/Klein Collins HS
70 Nick Smith OT 6-4 275 Fr. Lafayette, LA/Acadiana HS
71 Antione Everett OT 6-3 295 R-Fr. Richmond, TX/Lamar Consolidated
72 Jonathan Landry OT 6-4 295 Jr. Broussard, LA/St. Thomas More HS
73 Taylor Johnson OT 6-4 288 Jr. League City, TX/Clear Creek HS
74 Ben Jones OT 6-6 270 Fr. Nederland, TX/Nederland HS
75 Kevin Dorn DT 5-10 265 R-Fr. Pineville, LA/Pineville HS
77 Arinze Agada OG 6-1 285 So. Houston, TX/HIghtower HS
79 Alec Savoie OT 6-7 322 Jr. Lafayette, LA/Comeaux HS
80 Josh Jordan TE 6-4 225 Jr. St. Amant, LA/East Carolina
81 William Ryckman WR 6-0 175 So. Lafayette, LA/Lafayette HS
83 DeVionte' Edmonson WR 6-3 195 Jr. Lake Charles, LA/Barbe HS
84 Hunter Romero TE/DS 6-3 225 Fr. Lafayette, LA/Teurlings Catholic
85 Wes Briscoe WR 6-2 175 So. Baton Rouge, LA/Central HS
86 Harold Turnage TE 6-5 245 Sr. Houston, TX/Chavez HS
87 Deajon Mitchell WR 5-11 185 So. Beaumont, TX/Central HS
88 Jereon McGilvery WR 6-3 190 So. Lafayette, LA/Northside HS
89 Kendale Thomas TE 6-3 220 R-Fr. New Iberia, LA/New Iberia HS
90 Pat Williams DT 6-3 270 Jr. Plaquemine, LA/Plaquemine HS
91 Travis Manning DE 6-3 252 Fr. Friendswood, TX/Friendswood HS
92 Logan Gladney DE 6-3 220 Fr. Baton Rouge, LA/University HS
93 Eric LeBlanc DE 6-1 242 Jr. Erath, LA/Erath HS
94 Everett Ellefsen DE 6-3 230 R-Fr. Madisonville, LA/Mandeville HS
95 Nick Gorman DT 6-4 280 Fr. Broken Arrow, OK/Broken Arrow HS
96 Danyel Hunter DE 6-3 238 R-Fr. Dickinson, TX/Dickinson HS
97 Sean Brown DT 6-1 280 R-Fr. Baton Rouge, LA/Central HS
98 Michael Ware DT 6-1 275 So. Houston, TX/James Madison HS
99 Chris Loveless DE 6-4 235 So. Houston, TX/South Houston HS
Halston Flanigan S 5-11 195 R-Fr. Newton, TX/Newton HS
Justin Hallmark S 5-11 186 R-Fr. Winnie, TX/East Chambers HS

[CardAmbassador]

Do the same analysis on our roster and tell me what you find. Most of our kids are from a 250 mile radius, there are very few exceptions.

(Austin is 250 miles from Beaumont)

Just do the same thing for our roster and you will see we do the exact same thing, and Lamar has only been recruiting now for a couple of years against McNeese how do they steal a "ton" of local recruits?

If they do can we stop it? Probably not, they're established and plus many people want to go off to college.

[TBonesLU]

Good post...I think if we can tap into the local recruiting keg, we'd do great. The only thing is that McNeese has a history of being ranked. That's the one thing they have over us that would appeal to a local kid (and the simple fact that some kids want to go "away" for college).

Good point though...something to think about.

[theTestament]

As far as "stealing" goes, i realize they have not taken players yet. My point really was we can keep it local of 150 miles and still be good. This was purely food for thought. And yes I understand that kids want to go off to college. So do LA and Houston students.

[CardAmbassador]

As far as "stealing" goes, i realize they have not taken players yet. My point really was we can keep it local of 150 miles and still be good. This was purely food for thought. And yes I understand that kids want to go off to college. So do LA and Houston students.

Exactly, we haven't been good about recruiting LA students but we have recruited Houston pretty well, I think that is where the majority of our players come from in all sports followed by the Golden Triangle. For sports like golf and XC it just makes sense to recruit internationally. The BE did a good story about Lamar recruiting international students a few months ago. It's posted on the site somewhere.

[lu cards]

lamar has really put a stop to mcneese coming into setx and getting players.they still get a few but no where near where it used to be.once we stop that jasper and newton pipeline mcneese wont hardly have any setx kids.i think in the last 2 years 1 kid signed with mcneese that we wanted.sfa has been more of a nuisance than mcneese.we also need to get some kids from port arthur.

[theTestament]

Port Arthur has some great talent and with Kenny Harrison coaching them, they are really starting to become very good. We should definitely be looking in that direction.

[CardAmbassador]

I would like to see us recruit a little in the Lake Charles area, good football is play in louisiana and we can get some of their kids that might want to live away from home for college.

[boomer]

As far as expanding our recruiting base. I would like to see us move a little farther away from Navarro. That's just me though. I don't want to hear any crap about West Virginia or Arkansas those were flukes and knowing the kid from High School. I will argue again that we bring in way to many transfers from JUCO'S instead of building our own team with local talent. We are basically leasing players right now with very little investment. Am I the only one who feels this way?

[theTestament]

As far as expanding our recruiting base. I would like to see us move a little farther away from Navarro. That's just me though. I don't want to hear any crap about West Virginia or Arkansas those were flukes and knowing the kid from High School. I will argue again that we bring in way to many transfers from JUCO'S instead of building our own team with local talent. We are basically leasing players right now with very little investment. Am I the only one who feels this way?

No.

[CardAmbassador]

As far as expanding our recruiting base. I would like to see us move a little farther away from Navarro. That's just me though. I don't want to hear any crap about West Virginia or Arkansas those were flukes and knowing the kid from High School. I will argue again that we bring in way to many transfers from JUCO'S instead of building our own team with local talent. We are basically leasing players right now with very little investment. Am I the only one who feels this way?

No.

For the immediate time I don't see what the problem with the Navarro pipeline is, as the years move on I want to move away from it but some of our best players are from that school. Why does it bother you so much? Look at the roster and the depth chart and you will see what I mean.

I'm looking for this year to be the year where we really recruit everywhere in houston, GT and portions of central texas, look at our rivals profile and you will get a good sense of where the coaches are recruiting.

[boomer]

Keep in mind I'm very disgruntaled at this point. That being said I'm looking at going through the whole season with a QB ISSUE and TAKING A STEP BACK.

and on a side note,why aren't you in class CA? What kind os SEC school are they running up there?

[CardAmbassador]

Keep in mind I'm very disgruntaled at this point. that being said I'm looking at going through the whole season with a QB ISSUE and TAKING A STEP BACK.

and o a side note,why aren't you in class CA? What kind os SEC school are they running up there?

I have a 3 hour break and I've finished alot of my homework. Don't worry about my education, I've done around 40 hrs of homework in 4 days. Haven't you noticed how mysteriously absent I was for most of the weekend?

[boomer]

I remember those days "what just twelve hours I go eight every day now!" That was an exspensive lesson in time managment.

[bigred360]

As far as expanding our recruiting base. I would like to see us move a little farther away from Navarro. That's just me though. I don't want to hear any crap about West Virginia or Arkansas those were flukes and knowing the kid from High School. I will argue again that we bring in way to many transfers from JUCO'S instead of building our own team with local talent. We are basically leasing players right now with very little investment. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Let me get this right. You want Lamar to go to battle versus UCA, SHSU, SFA and McNeese with red-shirt sophomore's, sophomore's, freshman red-shirt and freshman? That is what you'd have if Lamar did not take in transfers.

You think last years scores were bad, stick a Lamar team with just underclassmen and see how bad the Cardinals would get spanked. ;)

Looking at the roster we have our fair share of locals on the team. Yes, I'd like to get those kids from Newton, Kirbyville and Jasper that are going to McNeese and SFA. However, you got to realize McNeese has got all the Bronson's for the last twenty plus years.

It will be tough to get one of those kids to turn their back on family tradition. LOL

[coachacola]

Lamar purposely signed a lot of JUCOs because they wanted to be in the SLC this fall. Woodard has already said he'll start signing more HS players and less JUCOs players now that he's started the program.

South Alabama took a different route. They will play 4 full years as an independent before joining the Sun Belt after next year. Their first year they only played prep schools and JUCOs. Lamar didn't want to do that.

I also heard Woodard say that Lamar will concentrate on east Tezas and Houston for recruiting. The big schools will scoop up the best local players and others just want to play somewhere else. SFA seems to have made a big effort to recruit SETX and it seems to be paying off.

[TBonesLU]

As far as expanding our recruiting base. I would like to see us move a little farther away from Navarro. That's just me though. I don't want to hear any crap about West Virginia or Arkansas those were flukes and knowing the kid from High School. I will argue again that we bring in way to many transfers from JUCO'S instead of building our own team with local talent. We are basically leasing players right now with very little investment. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Let me get this right. You want Lamar to go to battle versus UCA, SHSU, SFA and McNeese with red-shirt sophomore's, sophomore's, freshman red-shirt and freshman? That is what you'd have if Lamar did not take in transfers.

You think last years scores were bad, stick a Lamar team with just underclassmen and see how bad the Cardinals would get spanked. ;)

Looking at the roster we have our fair share of locals on the team. Yes, I'd like to get those kids from Newton, Kirbyville and Jasper that are going to McNeese and SFA. However, you got to realize McNeese has got all the Bronson's for the last twenty plus years.

It will be tough to get one of those kids to turn their back on family tradition. LOL

No offense to Kirbyville, but 2A players that do great at that level doesn't necessarily spell success at DI.

I am actually more happy with the recruits from West Brook.

[boomer]

L. Ford seems to be doing fine. Check out his stat line as a true freshman. Lamar botched the recruitment of him real good.

[bigred360]

L. Ford seems to be doing fine. Check out his stat line as a true freshman. Lamar botched the recruitment of him real good.

Take away SFA's DIII win and he is averaging less than 3.0 yards per attempt. IMO, Lamar didn't botch his recruitment as at the time we only had about 10 scholarships available so we couldn't offer his HS team-mate at that time who also is attending SFA.

Am I disappointed Ford did sign here? Yeck yea, you bet I was.

[lu cards]

no matter how well lamar does recruiting local kids we arent going to sign them all.there will be a few every year go to big time schools and a few will go to like schools for different reasons.we need to get our share locally and dont burn any bridges with the kids that go off.woodard has shown us if a local kid decides to go off and realizes he made a mistake,big ray will be waiting with open arms.

[05BigRed]

i think a really big part of it is some kids just want to go off for college...be in a different city than mom/dad, dont have them in your business all the time...a college kids dream...

and like was said before, we cant get all the local talent, its just not possible...there are gonna be good ones that just dont want to go to lamar...and the really really good ones are gonna do to d1 schools...

i think its great that the coaches have juco transfers these first handful of years...we need a mixture of experience and rookies...we would look like texas college if we had all rookies...heck, even the new lamar softball coach in her introduction speech to lamar stated how she needs to recruit a good balance of transfers and rookies...if you want to have any kind of success at first, its a necessity...

im sure there is more in the recruitment realm than we see...there isnt enough manpower to make connection with ALL the local talent...plus different players styles may not match up with the playing style of lamar...plus i bet they arent gonna recruit as hard at qb the next couple of years because of the depth we will have there...just like the guys on here were upset doty wasnt recruited...we have 3 good and capable qbs...why another?...just my humble opinions

[CardAmbassador]

I want to expand on the original post a bit.

Does anyone think we don't have enough local talent on this team? (local as in GT, Houston is not local)

If so how much do you want?

Legitimate question, I'm just curious to see what people think about this that prefer local talent.

(I've already said it really doesn't make a difference to me and I'm not arguing that, just wondering for those that care about those number what do you feel would be sufficient?)

[bigred360]

CA, I want Lamar to get the best player available regardless of location of where the young man lives.

[bigred360]

CA, I want Lamar to get the best player available regardless of location of where the young man lives. That said, I think the coaches should start looking a kids in the Golden Triangle, East Texas, Houston and the rest of the state of Texas.

[theTestament]

Here is my opinion. I think that we can find and recruit as good or better talent from within 150 miles rather than going out of state(exception: LA). Even expanding that range to 250 is ok. I just do not see the point in wasting our recruiting resources(time and money) on kids from far away when we could stay home and find the same thing. The benefits of local talent are simple, they bring more fans. If you had a kid from Florida vs a kid from Conroe that were the same caliber, which one would benefit the fanbase more? Most of the schools in our conference recruit from the same talent pool. If we can start winning with the same talent pool, then more kids will want to come here instead of our competition. This also helps us by potentially taking better kids away from our competition. Just some thoughts.

[CardAmbassador]

Here is my opinion. I think that we can find and recruit as good or better talent from within 150 miles rather than going out of state(exception: LA). Even expanding that range to 250 is ok. I just do not see the point in wasting our recruiting resources(time and money) on kids from far away when we could stay home and find the same thing. The benefits of local talent are simple, they bring more fans. If you had a kid from Florida vs a kid from Conroe that were the same caliber, which one would benefit the fanbase more? Most of the schools in our conference recruit from the same talent pool. If we can start winning with the same talent pool, then more kids will want to come here instead of our competition. This also helps us by potentially taking better kids away from our competition. Just some thoughts.

True, and I don't think anyone has advocated recruiting 250 miles are greater for football, were in Texas some of the best recruits in the country are right here. I'm just wondering if the current number is sufficient?

[coachacola]

Looking at the recruiting responsibilities of each coach, the coaches only recruit TX and LA high school kids. The main areas are SETX, East Texas, Houston, Dallas and Austin areas. They also recruit the TX, CA and MS JUCOs. For HS players, the coaches seem to be concentrating on the local area plus the other nearby metro areas.

[BigRedTrack]

I have no qualms about the recruiting, and not going after a kid that you think you have a shot at because he is outside your 150 mile radius is stupid. We recruit worldwide in every other sport, why should FB be different? Where would our championship cross country & golf teams be if we recruited locally, they would be so far down you couldn't see them.