Rabalais: On recruits, Louisiana QBs and Pebble Beach
Notes on a golf scorecard while wearing my Pebble Beach hat and Pebble Beach shirt and wishing I was at, well, you know ...
- The 2013 recruiting season has come and gone, with the focus now shifting to the Class of 2014, which has the potential to be the best and deepest recruiting year in Louisiana history.
Stars like Leonard Fournette, Cameron Robinson, Speedy Noil and Laurence Jones are among the bumper crop of players any school would love to have — players many schools will be invading Louisiana to try to land.
After losing players rated No. 1 in Louisiana the last two years to Alabama — Dutchtown’s Landon Collins in 2012 and University High’s Tim Williams in 2013 — LSU coach Les Miles has already made it his (under)stated goal to land Fournette. Not only does he need the positive P.R. (though he and LSU really didn’t pursue Williams) but Fournette is a game changing-type talent.
LSU is right in the mix and/or leading for virtually all of Louisiana’s top prospects with the possible exception of U-High offensive guard Garrett Brumfield. Like Williams, Brumfield is looking far and wide at schools like Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida and Florida State. Heck, any BCS-level school would love to land the prospect ranked No. 64 on 24/7 Sports’ very early Top 247.
It’s very early in the recruiting game, too, and don’t expect LSU to let Brumfield slip away without a fight like it did Williams.
- If LSU lands its usual nine or 10 players off what will be The Advocate’s 2014 Super Dozen — the Tigers already have two commitments from players who could be on that list in William Clapp and Jacory Washington — and does well out of state, the Tigers could have the nation’s No. 1 class. LSU is reportedly already in great shape with prospects like Edward Paris, a safety from Arlington, Texas (see why LSU wants to play at Cowboys Stadium?), considered the No. 1 prospect in the Lone Star State, and one of the nation’s top cornerbacks in Tony Brown from Beaumont, Texas.
Surprisingly, LSU went outside Louisiana for 15 prospects from nine other states this year but didn’t get any from Texas or Mississippi.
- For all its projected bounty next year, Louisiana once again isn’t expected to produce a great quarterback. It hasn’t really since Ryan Perrilloux in 2005, a strange reality for a state that churns out great players at so many other positions.
- Sunday will be the biggest day of Patrick Reed’s young golfing life.
The former Baton Rouge resident and U-High grad goes into the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am two strokes off the lead in fourth place.
Reed, who made a name for himself last year by getting into several PGA Tour events as a Monday qualifier, would earn a two-year exemption and a Masters invitation if he wins. He’s got a chance: He has 17 birdies through the first three rounds, one more than either of the co-leaders, Brandt Snedeker and James Hahn.