Doc Inside

First, the idea that college football players receive a "free" education is simply incorrect. Each scholarship player enters into a contract with the university, whereby the university agrees to pay for the student athlete's tuition, fees, housing, meal ticket, and some other itemized expenses, such as the cost of student athlete's books, all in exchange for a service that the student athlete agrees to provide the university, which is his participation in intercollegiate athletics in the sport of football. This contract is for one year only, but can be renewed annually for up to five years (essentially, the football player gets 5 years to play 4, if the scholarship is renewed each year, but his 5th year on scholarship doesn't count against the 85 if he's already exhausted his 4 years of eligibility). Make no mistake about it, the university, at the direction of its head football coach, does not have to show any cause in deciding not to renew a player's scholarship. They can even choose not to renew it if the student athlete simply does not live up to be the player he was expected to when they originally signed him. And this does happen on occasion.

And this service that the scholarship player agrees to provide the university in exchange for his scholarship involves a vast amount of time doing a job that any would categorize as hard labor. Anybody that's been around a college football programs knows that the 20 hour rule is a joke. A players typical work week during the season is around 50-60 hours a week, and this obviously does not include class, study hall, etc. And this doesn't include fall camp before school and the season start, where the players are kept isolated from everyone outside the program for 2 1/2-3 weeks, and spend virtually every minute from 6 am to 11:00 pm either at practice, in the training room before and/or after practice, in meetings, or in the weight room. I may be off base, but I doubt the workload that many other students are subject to in order to help "pay" for their eduction is similar to the workload described above.

That being said, do I believe college football players are being taken advantage? Yeah, to an extent, especially considering that some staffs, including our own, is scheduled to make a combined salary in the neighborhood of $8M next season. But do I think that the players should be paid large sums of money? No, there's already a league that does that, and it's called the NFL. However, I wouldn't mind seeing the NCAA allow the schools to pay the players a small monthly stipend. But there's a ton of issues that would have to be sorted out before this ever happens, such as Title IX, further separation between the big boys and the smaller programs who can't afford it, etc. Also, I don't necessarily think it would be a bad thing for the schools to put some of the money aside and set up a trust that former players would eventually have access to down the road, since they helped generate millions upon millions of dollars for the university during their time at LSU. I think this would be reasonable, especially for players who suffer some sort of serious injury playing football in college from which they will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives. Again, a bunch of issues would have to be sorted out before this ever happens either.

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Keiland Williams

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Tyson Andrus

he made the pro bowl last year and was also 2nd-team all-pro. :bow:

Don't worry tiger91, I can assure you, anyone who doesn't really want to be there, will never play for Trev Faulk. This guy is the real deal....he doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. In addition to having a fantastic footbal mind, he's a perfect role model and is man of very strong faith. Earlier I posted a few of his accomplishments, the knowledge of which is easily obtainable for the public. Here's a few tidbits about Trev Faulk that aren't widely known to the public, but reveal what type of person is Trev: He was an honor student in high school and the student body vice-president; he came from very humble beginnings, and the primary reason he left LSU early, after graduating in 3 years, was so that he could help out his family; once he made it in the NFL, he remained living in an apartment so that he could buy his mother, instead of himself, a home; among many of the contributions he makes to his local community, every summer he and his first cousin, former Tiger great Kevin Faulk, put on football camp, free of charge to all of its participants, which is one of the only free youth sports camps in the Acadiana area. And, that's just a short list, among many other things, which make easily apparent how truly remarkable a person is Trev Faulk. VC is very fortunate to get Trev Faulk, although, being so humble, he'll tell you that being embraced by the VC community makes him the luckiest guy in the world. :geauxtigers:

Overall - Josh Reed

QB - J. Russell
RB - L. Toefield
RB - J. Hester
WR - J. Reed
WR - D. Bowe
TE - R. Royal
C - B. Wilkerson
OG - S. Peterman
OG - H. Johnson
OT - C. Black
OT - A. Whitworth

DE - M. Spears
DE - T. Jackson
DT - G. Dorsey
DT - C. Lavalais
LB - B. James
LB - T. Faulk
LB - K. Sheppard
SS - C. Steltz
FS - L. Landry
CB - C. Webster
CB - P. Peterson

KR/PR - P. Peterson
P - D. Jones
K - J. Jasper

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James was the only dominant LB we have had in quite some time. Trev could have been but he left early because he couldn't stand Saban, then didn't even get drafted. Cameran Vaughn was good too but not great. Nobody in the past 4 years has stood out to me at all.

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Umm, I think Trev Faulk was still pretty dominant in his 3 years at LSU. He was a 2-time All-SEC LB and 2nd Team All-American in '01. The guy had over 300 tackles in just 3 years...that's pretty sick! That being said, leaving early certainly did hurt his legacy. If he had stayed, he would've probably left LSU as our all-time leading tackler.

Bradie was the last dominant LB at LSU.

I don't give a frick whether Miles sticks by his word. I also don't give a frick whether he's a good father, good husband, and a good man. For a $3.8 million/year salary and for my $4k/year in Tradition Fund donations, I want a frickin badass head coach! What I don't want is a frickin coach that publicly comments about how close we were to a national championship when we just went frickin 9-4! :devil: :geauxtigers:

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Shep, baker, minter, francois, and possibly loston is not a bad group of linebackers.

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I like that group of LBs! Although, I sure wouldn't mind seeing Loston fill the void at safety caused by Jones' departure.

Back 7:
LBs - Shep, Baker, Francois (w/ the possibility of Minter rotating w/ Francois or Baker)
DBs - B. Taylor, Loston, PP, Jai (3 5-stars in our secondary, including the best CB in the country)

Not bad at all! :dude:

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I understand it is humor, and it is indeed funny. But humor only works if there is a kernal of truth at its core. And the truth here is not that LSU might actually lose, but that its fans think it might.

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Sorry, but did you not read the entire piece because you missed the best part? The "kernal of truth at its core" is that we run the risk of finally giving up a touchdown against ULL, not that we might actually lose the game!

Nice piece Dubois!

:geauxtigers:

We had the No. 1 signing class last year and are off to a terrific start for the 2010 signing class (many publication currently have us with the No. 2 class). Well, the crop of Louisiana blue chippers might even get richer over the next 2 years, at least as to the crème de la crème. By now, everyone has heard of Patterson High's junior RB Kenny Hilliard, who has done nothing but exceed the expectations created by his last name. As a sophomore in 2008, he rushed for 2,377 yards and 34 TDs. He's already 6' and weighs over 200 lbs, and received offers from LSU, bammer, and the vols before even taking the field as a junior.

The good news is that it apparently doesn't stop with him. For those of us that follow Louisiana high school football rather closely, rumors have been circulating about the next possible Kevin Faulk at Carencro High. Rantards, I introduce you to 6' 180 lb. sophomore RB (or more appropriately all-purpose back) Alex Johnson. In his much anticipated varsity debut for Carencro last night at the Lafayette area jamboree, it didn't take long to realize that Johnson has the potential to be one of the next BIG TIME national recruits from Louisiana. After all, he ran the opening kick-off back against Catholic High of New Iberia for an 87 yard touchdown. Then, on his third carry from scrimmage, he scampered for a 48 yard touchdown. Jamboree games are shrunk to nearly half the time of a regular season game so Johnson's number of carries was limited. Thus, he ended up with only 5 carries, but rushed for 92 yards on those 5 carries. For you rantards that are inept when it comes to math, he had a total of 179 yards on just 6 touches, which is an average of 29.8 yards per touch. In short, this kid might be someone you want to keep an eye on. I'm pretty sure LSU already is…


:geauxtigers: