re: Nate Sheppard vs. Harlem Berry

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In 6 years had 1 five star run

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He’s a bust but he definitly showed more signs of being a good player than 1 run.

He showed so many flashes but it was always 1 step forward 1 step back.

Missed a year for academics

Fumble issues.

Injury issues

but he had some major plays against Alabama in 2020 and 2022

he has has had a few great games against Auburn.

He has like 1 good season of production spread out across a 5 year career.

But he has plenty of highlight moments.

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The point stands. LSU has missed on in state RBs recently

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What staff? We are only in the 3rd year of the current one and most of the RBs people are talking about missing on came before or during the coaching change

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Not sure why this upsets you so much. I’m sure Sheppard is solid, but if he’s better than/just as good as Berry, don’t you think LSU would’ve offered him by now?

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No, not necessarily. LSU didn’t offer Matt Forte from Slidell, and we all know how great he ended up being at Tulane and the Chicago Bears. He was better than any LSU running back from that entire decade (2000s). The only one close would probably be Joseph Addai.

Who cares? He was still better than any LSU running back that season. He would have started over Jacob Hester for sure.

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it’s just a ton of hindsight to say it was a recruiting error. the dude was 1 season away from being a HS OC.

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I definitely don’t agree with this logic at all, so I guess we’ll just have to agree on this one.

there are guys who are just obvious from the jump we missed something.

and then there are guys who do a serious amount of development after they go play elsewhere.

If a guy went to ULL and had a 9 inch growth spurt I wouldnt be mad at McMahon for not seeing that coming.


obvious it would be better to have Matt Forte, we couldn’t have known that up until his last year of college.

Again 7 on 7 is a good way to get extra practices in for skill position players and to go against great competition day in and day out. But it doesn't translate to the field all of the time. When your getting hit in the mouth that changes alot.

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he consistently showed why he was a 5 star.

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Emery has 1 career game with 90yds rushing.


From Emery's cycle through the 2023 cycle, there were 14 other 5* RBs. Only 2 of those 14--including the guys currently in their second year--have fewer 90yd rushing games in their career.

Excluding (a) those 2 guys (trey sanders and demarkcus bowman - who are clear busts) and (b) the 3 guys whose only completed college season is their true freshman season, the remaining 9 guys have an average of 9 career games of at least 100yds rushing and 12 career games of at least 90. Only 1 of those 9 guys (camar wheaton) has fewer than 6 100yd games. Again - emery has one career game of 90 yards rushing.


In other words, Emery did not "consistently show why he was a 5 star".

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For the most part availability was his issue not ability.

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Emery played in 38 games. That's more than 3 of the 4 RBs LSU has had drafted in that stretch (Fournette, Guice, TDP) - and the one who played more than 38 (CEH) only played 41.


Emery's 38 games is the 4th most of any LSU RB in the past 10 years (behind only brosette, CEH, and josh williams).



Despite there being only 3 RBs to play more games for LSU in the past 10 years, there are 12 RBs with as many or more 90+ yard games than Emery.

Kid looks great, Berry looks better. We don't have room for everyone.

Hopefully he doesn't go to an SEC school and haunt us.

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Kid looks great, Berry looks better.

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But in what way does he look better to you?

Like i said a few times in this thread, right now if I was given the option between Sheppard or Berry, Im picking Berry, hands down.

HOWEVER (and this has been known to ruffle some feathers lately)...

Given the competition levels (5A vs. really bad 1A), Sheppard is out performing Berry. He's currently tops in the state at that position from a production standpoint.

What if he keeps outperforming Berry against better competition?

Sheppard plays against their toughest opponent (Covington 5-0) to date Friday to open district play. I think we will find out more about Sheppard after the game.