Talks of recasting the film "The Program" w/ a slight LSU flavor

quote:

---

It’s a tragedy that about half of college kids today weren’t even alive when one of the greatest sports movies of all time was released in 1993: The Program.
In what has become a cult classic over the last two decades, the film about the fictional ESU Timberwolves football program set a new bar for hyperbole in campy sports movies that has yet to be matched despite attempts by the likes of Blue Chips (1994), Varsity Blues (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999) and the short-lived ESPN series “Playmakers” (2003).
The movie had endless memorable quotes that are still cherished by people with a quirky sense of humor (like myself) and was ridiculously and hilariously melodramatic in the way it wrapped every negative stereotype about college football into 112 masterful minutes of cinema: Drug and alcohol abuse, academic fraud, NCAA violations, sexual assault, dirty boosters and corruption that went all the way to the top of a university.
If you’ve never seen it, this brief clip sums up everything I love about the movie:

---

Autumn Haley: Sydni Paige Russell

How in the world do you cast someone to fill the coed tutor role originally played by one of the most beautiful women in the world, Halle Berry? You find someone as stunning as LSU student Sydni Paige Russell, the girlfriend of ex-Tigers CB Tyrann Mathieu and a cheerleader for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans.
If Russell was a tutor in Baton Rouge like Haley, you can bet Tigers football players would be lining up out her door to study.


Ray Griffen: Kenny Hilliard

Like Griffen, Hilliard was supposed to be the Big Man on Campus before a freshman came in and supplanted him. Darnell Jefferson not only stole Griffen’s starting job, he also stole the upperclassman’s girlfriend.
As for Hilliard, he had to watch last fall as freshman Jeremy Hill turned into the Tigers’ stud running back. I’m sure Hilliard is a much better teammate than Griffen but wouldn’t be surprised if he secretly views Hill as “just another gang-banger with speed” after Hill’s recent arrest for battery.



other notable characters
Camille Shafer: Katherine Webb


Steve Lattimer: Morgan Breslin


Joe Kane: Casey Pachall


Sam Winters: Gene Chizik


More here.