Great article on Mo Claiborne

quote:

---

......Claiborne felt his best position in high school was receiver, but when coaches asked him to play quarterback his senior year, he said he didn't hesitate, even though he might have been more highly recruited had he continued catching passes instead of throwing them. "I just figure the coaches, they're going to do what's best," Claiborne recalled. "If you're all for the team, you're going to make that move, no problem. I don't believe it's all about yourself. People will come in and be like, 'Well, I don't want to move because this is what I've been doing my whole life.' I'm not like that. I'm mean, you're here to help the team win." He wound up being recruited only regionally. If LSU had not offered him a scholarship, he said he likely could have gone to Texas A&M, Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State or Tulane. Once he had a chance to play for the Tigers, he did not hesitate. He had long been an LSU fan, and looked up to former LSU football Ronnie Prude and former LSU basketball player Stromile Swift, who both had played at his high school. LSU recruited him as a receiver, and Claiborne said the thought of playing defense, "never crossed my mind. I always thought I'd be on the offensive side of the ball." But just as he readily accepted his one-season move to quarterback and high school, he immediately acquiesced when LSU coaches wanted to put him on defense. "Once I got here, the second day in camp or whatnot, when they moved me, I started getting comfortable at the spot and figured, this is where I'm going to be," he said. Apparently, it was where he belonged.

---