re: The Caribbean Islands...

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Ndamukong Suh

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Is from Portland, Oregon. His mother is Jamaican and his father is from Cameroon, but he never lived in either place. Suh is as American as they get, and played football in HS.

Just because your parents are from the Caribbean doesn't mean you are.

LINK

Your list is actually full of Americans. Cruz is from New Jersey. Hernandez is from Connecticut. Paul-Pierre, Cromartie, Garcon, Delmas, and Vilma were born in Florida.

The only two on the list who were actually not born in the U.S. are Patrick Chung and Atari Bigby. Both attended high school in the U.S., however, and played football.

I am sure Bolt is financially stable. Plus winning a Gold medal will give you 2nd coming status. Carribean islands worship their medal winners. In the US you are almost forgotten by majority in 4 years unless you repeat.
I would take god status over $$$ !!

Going to the Caribbean to try to evaluate athletes who are completely unexposed to football is obviously not the best use of LSU's resources right now.

However, given the number of great athletes produced out of such small populations, a concerted effort by the NFL, NCAA, etc., to expose the islands to the sport could definitely lead to the development of some great players in the future. And a school like LSU who already has some exposure there because of our track and field program would seem to be ahead of the curve, if that ever happens.

Basically no one outside the USA played basketball at any worthwhile level till Don Nelson and others went abroad to hold camps and demonstrations and coach national teams, now look at how many Euros have been drafted in the NBA in recent years (though the trend seems to have waned a bit now).

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I got the list of names from a website that named their top 10 NFL players from the Caribbean islands. My point is that there is plenty of talent in that area of the world. And seeing how dominate Jamaica is in track & field, I could see LSU holding a one-day camp in jamaica to find more talent.

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The point is that with that they are not FROM the Carribean. Two were born there but raised in the US. The rest werre all born and raised in this country. I don't care how fast a guy can run straight on a rubber track with metal spikes. I want players that I know can run, juke and cut on natural grass who have grown up playing the football that we play in THIS country where you can actually use your hands and develop ball skills, know how to take a hit an oh, by the way know the rules of the game.

We should be recruiting Africa

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If they have great track guys, don't you think they would have a few great football players if the game was introduced to them.

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Most track guys have only staight line speed and are easily redirected with footballs physicality.
You see football players that run track but seldom and I mean VERY seldom do you see track guys that actually benefit a football team.

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I don't understand your argument against LSU having a 1 or 2 day camp at some of the Carribean island countries.

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The argument against it is that it would cost us tens of thousands of dollars to go there and just teach these kids the most basics of football (not even do real evaluations like we do with high school prospects in the USA) on the 1/1,000 chance that one of them becomes a prospect in several years and chooses LSU.

As I said above, given the per capita numbers of great athletes there, it's a really intriguing idea to expose the islands to the sport. Just not the best use of LSU's own resources right now.

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As I said above, given the per capita numbers of great athletes there, it's a really intriguing idea to expose the islands to the sport

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Exposing them to a sport is pretty useless unless there are organized leagues in these countries. A big problem is that most Caribbean countries are relatively poor and because of the cost of equipment football isn't practical. That's why they usually run or play soccer and the same reason why the American inner cities produce basketball players.

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Track speed is not always football speed. I already no that but there are exceptional athletes that can do more than run track. They can play football if they are evaluated properly. Football camps provide colleges opportunities to evaluate kids.

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My post is about track guys that try to play football. Rarely is it a benefit to the football team. LSU has one of the top track programs in the nation. Tell me how many of these athletes have helped our football team--and since they are already at LSU I'm sure the coaches know about them. Almost all track guys have difficulty changing directions with speed especially with physicality involved.