I got to thinking, know there are a number of high schools that feed us a lot of players, but which ones (Louisiana only, please) send the best, most well prepared players to the Tigers? Curtis? Evangel? Newman? (Sorry - couldn't resist the Manning joke)
Curtis and Evangel rarely send players our way and they are usually have not lived up to the hype. I would have to say West Monroe is at the top of the list with players like Brady James, Clemmons, Luke Sanders, Rodney Reed, Tommy Banks, Whitworth, etc... Carencro with Damien James, Kevin Faulk, Cameron Vaughn. Acadiana is up there as well and East St. John and Ruston are on the list somewhere IMO. However this is from recent memory off the top of my head. I want to see what our older Tigers have to say about the past Tiger greats.
How bout down of da bayou, Terrebonne and S. Lafouche, I don't know about numbers but they have sent some quality.
The only talent Newman puts into colleges is on the academic level. Other than that, it was just a bunch of athletic white kids who excelled in Class 2A athletics (put us anywhere else and we'd get killed, except maybe in soccer, at the time). I believe there was only one other football player from Newman to make it to the NFL and that was Omar Douglas (NY Giants) in the mid 90's I think.
Maybe you should remind me, seriously, I can't think of any recent players from my area. The only one is Jerald Watson (albeit a little farther west,) who was recruited by LSU for football and Baseball, chose Auburn and pretty much f'd up his collegiate athletic chances. He couldn't cut it at Auburn (too small to play the position he wanted to--rb,) ended up at SLU (didn't do much there either) and is now attending Nicholls and not playing anything. It's a damn shame really. This is a kid who broke high school track records while in EIGHTH grade. Then Central Catholic (mc) screwed up his future in track to take advantage of his speed in football. They bulked him up BIG time (not properly either) and it really hurt his speed and he became more interested in football and baseball than track. Look where it got him. Saban and co. were honest with him and told him that he wasn't big enough to be a viable option at running back, and told him he would get a lot of PT on special teams and some on defense (despite his stature, this kid was quick and athletic and really would have been utlized by Saban's sophisticated blitz packages.) Instead he followed some false promises that AU threw his way during recruitment when they told him he would get PT at rb--at a time when they had Cadillac and Brown!!! Can't really blame Tubby for lying to the kid if he wasn't smart enough to see where he would have been a better fit. He could have played special teams and he'd have a national championship ring. Now he's at Nicholls doing nothing athletically. It's a damn shame. It's another kid ruined by CCHS in mc. I don't know if the administration there talks trash about LSU, but despite being a 1A school, they have produced some good athletes. Although some are recruited by LSU, very few choose LSU. Notable is Andy Gros. Remember the pitcher from UL's 2000 CWS team? Guess how he ended up?
