North Louisiana + New Orleans = Success

I'm no recruiting expert like many here, but I've kept up with it since before the recruitment of Kevin Faulk. Many of you guys may be a bit younger than me, but for those that weren't around then, or aware of it now, the main reason the LSU football program faltered in the early 90's was because we lost the ability to pull the top recruits from North Louisiana and New Orleans. In fact, rare was the stud from NOLA or N. Louisiana stud that chose LSU, most went elsewhere.

Powerhouses like Colorado (Cordell Stewart aka Slash) rose up out of nowhere thanks to La. players, Miami (Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne), Florida State (Warrick Dunn, Travis Minor), Notre Dame (Anthony "A-Train" Thomas, Arnaz Battle, Jamie Spencer) and countless All-SEC players (Ivory Hilliard, Peyton, Eli, Brock Berlin, etc etc etc more than I can remember)... but you get the idea it's a long list of very accomplished players from Louisiana who never wore the P&G.

Dinardo started building the pipelines when he "brought back the magic" and Saban capitalized on and solidified it. Miles has since done a good job continuing those relationships. The reason LSU is "back" is because we regained our ability to recruit the boot effectively and rebuilt the fence around it.

But since returning to the SEC Saban has paid his dues by offering the lesser recruits in the early years of the process and has made the inroads. He's starting to reap those benefits of today. Collins, Devall, Robinson, Lacy... all gone. And now with new SEC powerhouse (with really big $$$) moving in next door (A&M) they're also making in-roads with local talent (Darian Claiborne - and others) ... aka "paying their dues". It will only be a matter of time until they eventually pick off a 5 star talent or two, they're already in the discussion for several. (I know for a fact, Les wasn't wild about A&M being part of the conference simply b/c of their ability to aggressively recruit La.)

The fence around Louisiana is in need of reinforcing. There are no gaping holes, aside from the tunnel that Alabama has started to dig and the obvious efforts that A&M is making. But make no mistake, the more top talent that is pulled to out of state schools the more our program is directly affected. The more Devalls we lose, the more Welters we play. The more Collins' we lose, the more Martin's we play. Who replaces Cam Rob?

The sky isn't falling, but we've got work to do and every stud we lose is one we have to steal from underneath another top talent.

Assuming that local kids are coming to LSU just because they're from Louisiana is no different than thinking you're going to show up in Oxford and win just because we're better than Johnny Reb.

LSU has got work to do and the job ain't getting any easier. Just wanted to throw a little perspective out there....

Good luck Les and