The team stayed overnight in Milton, Fla., and then waited out a traffic jam on Interstate 10 en route to LSU. Once in Baton Rouge, the players received another abbreviated tour, ending at Tiger Stadium. After visiting the stadium, the players scattered. Some watched LSU's live mascot, Mike, lounge in his on-campus habitat. Others followed Johnson to the football complex, where he had gone to visit his brother.
Express players didn't meet any coaches at LSU, but just as they did at FSU, they watched players take part in voluntary workouts. Then they boarded the bus and got comfortable for the long drive to Oxford, Miss. About 45 minutes into the drive, Goetz received a disturbing call from Peterson, the LSU cornerback, and another from LSU assistant coach Billy Gonzales. Someone from the Express had stolen Peterson's watch from the LSU locker room. A security camera had captured the theft. LSU coaches didn't know the culprit's identity, but they would soon enough by matching Express players' photos with the surveillance video.
Goetz and his fellow coaches fumed. Goetz grabbed a microphone and blasted the players. He told the culprit to send him a text. He wouldn't reveal the player's identity to his teammates, but he would get the watch back. For the next few hours, coaches priced flights and bus tickets and debated whether to ship the offending player home. On the road to Oxford, Goetz received a text from the thief. That night, he collected the watch to send back to Peterson.
After a mostly sleepless night, Goetz decided not to send the player home. Had an SI.com reporter not been in the traveling party, Goetz admitted, he probably would have jettisoned the player. But since doing so would have made the thief so easy to identify, Goetz held back. He wanted the player to learn his lesson, but he didn't want to see him blackballed entirely. That, Goetz admitted, might happen anyway. In the insular college football coaching community, coaches talk.
The next morning, Express coaches sat eating breakfast at a Holiday Inn Express in Oxford. Goetz looked at his phone and sighed. An LSU coach had forwarded him an image of a different player caught on video stealing cleats from the Tigers' locker room. Express coaches and players also declined to name this player, but Goetz said he planned to cut ties with the watch thief and the shoe thief after the trip. Goetz collected the stolen items to send back to Baton Rouge, and it seems unlikely anyone at LSU will press charges, but the incident could have long-term consequences for the players. If the thefts come up in conversation between two gossiping coaches -- and they will, because coaches love to gossip -- those players' scholarship offers will evaporate.
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