re: You can't take the Louisiana out of Etienne

I agree ?? with your assessment. However, I think many are sleeping on Etienne simply because he is not a "five star" like Akers.
Both are talented. I posted on here a few weeks ago about how Etienne is a 5 star RB if I have ever seen one.
If any site had given Etienne a fifth star, folks would be calling the staff crazy for even considering Akers over Etienne. I think the staff played this correctly by going after Akers first.

That said, Etienne is not a downgrade. It's like trying to reward the smartest kid in the class, when one has a 98 A, /land the other has a 96 A. People get too caught up with stars instead of trusting what they see.

TE is a straight up beast. And being that he is used to taking handoffs, and not running from the QB position in a spread offense makes me feel a lot more comfortable about the skills translating easily to the next level (LSU).

Of course we wanted Akers, and denying that he is a great talent is idiotic, but feeling that Etienne is somehow a downgrade, is simply based on star ratings. People need to get over this Star rating BS. It is cool for filtering talent, but I never can grasp much power the media had over swaying people's opinions. Instead of trusting what you see.