Low road Obama, quote:
"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," he said sternly, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight."
------------------http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Cry Baby
------------------Tinker:
Obama just cried, and cried, and cried, I was wondering just what his foolish problem was. That his five democrats voted against his gun bill, or the majority of republicans who voted against the background check gun bill.
Obama was a very sore loser folks, standing and crying like a cry baby in the White House yard, please don't do that again as long as you are this country's President, Mr. Obama.
The Obama failure of the background check proposal authored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., now imperils the entire legislation.
The vote was 54-46, with supporters falling six votes short of the required 60-vote threshold.
Not very good company at all, with friends like Obama who need enemies?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?
During
a speech in the Rose Garden following a vote on the compromise measure
to expand gun background checks, President Obama said the gun lobby and
its allies "willfully lied" about the bill, claiming it would create a
"Big Brother" gun registry. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
By Carrie Dann, Kelly O'Donnell and Kasie Hunt, NBC News
Despite
an impassioned push by President Barack Obama and an emotional lobbying
effort by the families of mass shooting victims, proponents of a
compromise measure to expand gun background checks on Wednesday fell six
votes short of passage in the Senate. The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted.
The deal was the result of a deal struck between Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. It would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows.
Speaking in the Rose Garden after the vote, a visibly frustrated Obama decried the defeat of the measure as parents of victims of last year's Newtown school shootings and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords looked on.
"All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," he said sternly, urging backers of gun control to continue the fight."
--------------
Tinker:
I guess our guy Obama never saw a American cowboy and Indian picture show, or a cops and robber movie. Obama must not really be an American then, if he doesn't recognize the difference.
Who is this guy that thinks a poll asking the American people if they want a background check about hand guns, is how the American people feel about gun rights. I mean what kind of bull talk world does Obama live in?
I don't want him you can have him, he's not the man for me?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Sports
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http://www.tigerrag.com/?p=
By LUKE JOHNSON
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor
With spring practice coming to a close in Saturday’s National L Club Spring Game, LSU football players were revisiting spring camp as a whole on Tuesday evening.
According to their words, the team had an impressive spring.
ANTHONY JOHNSON
See Video...http://www.tigerrag.
and
http://www.tigerrag.com/?p=
http://www.tigerrag.com/?p=
VIDEO: LSU getting ready to wrap up the spring
April 17, 2013 - © 2013 Tiger Rag
Players prepare for spring game, talk expectations for the fall
By LUKE JOHNSON
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor
With spring practice coming to a close in Saturday’s National L Club Spring Game, LSU football players were revisiting spring camp as a whole on Tuesday evening.
According to their words, the team had an impressive spring.
ANTHONY JOHNSON
See Video...http://www.tigerrag.
and
http://www.tigerrag.com/?p=
VIDEO: Mettenberger, Loston talk spring football
April 18, 2013 - © 2013 Tiger Rag
Seniors like where the team is at with spring practice wrapping up on Saturday
By LUKE JOHNSONTiger Rag Assistant Editor
I got a chance to catch up with two seniors who are expected to take big leadership roles on the team this season at the end of practice on Tuesday. Both of them like what they’ve seen out of the team so far this spring.
You can’t hear it on the video, but the first question directed toward Mettenberger was about the freshmen at wide receiver. He goes on to talk a lot about the new offense under Cam Cameron’s direction.
Loston spoke about being the next in line of a talented group of safeties that have come through LSU.
Zach Mettenberger
See video...http://www.tigerrag.
--------------------------
http://lsufootball.net/
http://lsufootball.net/
LSU Football - Geaux Tigers!!!
| The Advocate | LSU Board approves three-year contract for Cam Cameron |
| Times Picayune | LSU BoS approves Cam Cameron's contract; faculty displeased w/ its stagnant pay |
| Shreveport Times *1 | Guilbeau: D.J. Welter remains at middle linebacker for LSU |
| Louisiana Daily | .mp3 Audio (9 min, 53 sec) Drew Alleman talks about his LSU career, & more |
| LSU Reveille | New LSU President accepts $600,000 annual salary |
| Times Picayune | Baseball Video (1 min, 44 sec): Mainieri talks about a win over Grambling |
http://www.dandydon.com/
Dandy Don's LSU Sports Report
The second-ranked LSU baseball team defeated Grambling last night, 4-0, to improve its historic record to 35-3.
The good news about last night's game is that the Tigers got to throw
10 pitchers and allowed a total of only three hits. The bad news is that
LSU's hot hitting was nowhere to be found and the Tigers only collected
three hits on the night, their fewest of the season. With the win, LSU
has now won 31 straight mid-week games. Kurt McCune (2-0) pitched two
hitless innings and was credited with the win.
The Tigers return to action tomorrow night at Alabama in Game 1 of a three-game weekend series starting at 6:30 p.m. The only game of this weekend's series that will be televised is Saturday's contest, which gets underway at 7 p.m. and will be shown on FSN. Sunday's game will start at 1:00. As of this time, I have not heard whether Cody Glenn will be ready to resume his Sunday starter role after taking a hit to the shin in last week's game.
In other baseball news, the LSU Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposal to name the baseball field at Alex Box Stadium after legendary baseball coach Skip Bertman. The field will be called “Skip Bertman Field” and the name of the stadium remains “Alex Box Stadium” in honor of the former LSU student, baseball player, Purple Heart and Distinguished Cross recipient who was killed in North Africa during World War II. I think this is a great move, and that Bertman is very deserving of the honor as he ushered in the Golden Age of LSU baseball by leading the Tigers to five National Championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and seven SEC Championships. Back when Bertman was hired at LSU, a good crowd for an LSU baseball game was about 500 attendees. Today LSU boasts the NCAA’s largest average attendance and often has more than 10,000 fans per game in the new stadium constructed under Bertman’s direction as athletic director. The Athletic Department plans to dedicate the field the final weekend of the 2013 regular season when the Tigers play Ole Miss in conjunction with a 20-year reunion of Bertman’s 1993 national championship team.
The LSU football team will return to practice today before concluding the spring session with the annual Spring Game in Tiger Stadium Saturday. I plan on heading out to the practice field this afternoon so that I can give you a report on what I see and share a bit of video. I expect a big crowd there as LSU students have been invited to attend the practice as part of what is being called, “Student Appreciation Day.” Last year a crowd of about 200 students were there and I expect even more today because of the excitement offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has brought to the program.
I've heard from a lot of you who've asked about parking, tickets, seating, etc. for Saturday's Spring Game, so I'll share with you the info I've received from LSU about the event. First of all, the game is free and it kicks off at 2:00. No tickets are needed. The game will not be televised, but can be heard in the Baton Rouge area on 104.5 FM.
Additional info can be found in the press release below sent out by LSU’s Sports Information Department:
Tiger Stadium
· Gates to Tiger Stadium open at 12:30 p.m. and admission to the game is free. All seating in Tiger Stadium will be on the west side and the south endzone. All seating will be general admission.
· Fans should enter the stadium on the west side using gates 1 thru 6.
· Gate 10 will be open and used for ADA access.
· Prohibited items include: coolers, ice chests, bottles, cans, cups, outside food and drinks (including alcohol), backpacks and bags larger than 8.5”x11, umbrellas, weapons of any kinds, and animals/pets (except service animals).
· Smoking is not permitted inside the gates of the stadium.
Parking
· All public parking for the game is free.
· Vehicle parking lots will open beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
· Motor Home parking will be available for free in parking the Touchdown Village Lot or the Vet School Lot beginning at 5p.m. on Friday.
· ADA parking spaces will be available in Lots H and I.
Fan Fest
· Fan Fest begins at 11 a.m. in Lot A on the west side of Tiger Stadium.
· Fan Fest will provide fun for the entire family, including live music, food and drinks, inflatables, etc.
Road Closures
· North Stadium Drive and South Stadium Drive will be closed to vehicular traffic starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
· The portion of South Stadium drive adjacent to Tiger Stadium will be blocked off to pedestrians due to ongoing construction on Tiger Stadium.
In basketball news, Coach Johnny Jones received some good news yesterday when Brian Bridgewater signed with LSU. According to reports, the 6-foot-6, 230-pound power forward from Scottlandville High committed to the Tigers a few weeks ago, but kept his commitment secret until yesterday. Bridgewater is a good looking prospect and a great addition to an LSU recruiting class that was already the best in many years and is now ranked No. 7 in 247Sports' national composite rankings. Bridgewater averaged 15 points per game as a senior and was the MVP of the Class 5A title game. With the six newcomers coming in from this year's recruiting class, plus the return of Johnny O’Bryant III and seven other Tigers, the future of LSU basketball is looking very bright.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Associated Press story filed on Sept. 20, 1975
with the CARBONDALE, Ill., dateline explained the who, what, when, why
and where. But it left out the truly magical moment. Dave Vandercook, a
freshman kicker at Indiana State, lined up for a 55-yard field goal with
a few seconds remaining and Southern Illinois leading by one.
Vandercook missed. But Southern Illinois got flagged for jumping
offsides. So Vandercook lined up again for a 50-yarder. He made it.
The 177 words of this dispatch the Chicago Tribune chose to run the next day explained the basics of the Sycamores' 23-21 win, including the fact that Vandercook's final kick cleared the crossbar by three feet. They did not, however, mention the Indiana State ball boy who caught Vandercook's game-winning field goal. That's where the story gets really interesting.
Beneath the goal posts that day in Carbondale was a high school freshman whose mother had recently married Indiana State coach Tom Harp. The kid was a pretty fair athlete himself, so good at quarterback that when he became a sophomore his coach at South Vigo High in Terre Haute, Ind., allowed him to call the plays himself. His name? Cam Cameron. Since that moment -- whether playing football for Lee Corso, playing hoops for Bobby Knight, coaching at Michigan and Indiana, becoming an uber-successful NFL offensive coordinator or getting fired in the midst of a Super Bowl run -- Cameron has spent nearly every moment chasing the high that surged through his body when he caught that ball and saw the Sycamores charge off their sideline to dogpile the freshman who had kicked it.
"I've never looked back," Cameron said this week. "And I've never worked a day in my life."
Cameron has gone to an office and drawn a paycheck, but he has never considered football work. To him, every game is one more opportunity to recreate what he felt that day in Carbondale. Cameron's newest opportunities will come at Tiger Stadium. After Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh fired Cameron in December in what he called "the hardest thing I've had to do as a coach," Cameron had a few options. Several NFL teams called. But so did old friend Les Miles, with whom Cameron shared an office when the men were assistants together under Bo Schembechler at Michigan. LSU offered a three-year, $3.4 million contract, which made the Tigers competitive with any NFL team. So Cameron, who hadn't coached in college since he was fired as alma mater Indiana's head coach in 2001, went back to campus with the goal of creating an LSU offense worthy of sharing the same sideline with the Tigers' vaunted defense.
To do this, Cameron will teach his players lessons collected from some unlikely sources. When he was a sophomore in high school, Cameron met a man who would help shape his play-calling philosophy. His name was Larry Bird.
Yes, that Larry Bird.
Bird had just enrolled at Indiana State following a 24-day stint at Indiana and a year off to collect himself. In the offseason, the Sycamores basketball team played pickup games in the gym. The football coach's kid would bring his high school teammates, and they would join the college players. Often, Cameron found himself on the same team as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. "If I was more open than him, he would pass it to me," Cameron said. "But he expected me to make the shot."
At first, Cameron didn't understand why the best player on the floor by a mile would pass to a high-schooler. Then he realized Bird did this to earn the trust of his teammates. When Cameron began calling plays for South Vigo's football team, he followed Bird's lead and tried to get the ball to as many of his teammates as possible. Cameron can still tick off the names of the backs and receivers who became his best friends. "All you had to do was keep them involved, and they'd run through a wall for you," Cameron said. "Football is hard. Guys don't selfishly want the ball. But they want some reward for all their hard work."
Harp watched Cameron call the plays with pride -- not that he let his son know that at the time. "He had the confidence of the team, and he called them," Harp said. "I was very impressed with how sharp he was. Now, we argued all the time. I never wanted to give him the satisfaction that he'd done a great job -- even though he did."
Cameron got most of the ink as the best quarterback in Indiana at the time, but he disagreed. He thought the quarterback at Reitz Memorial in Evansville was better. That guy's name was Don Mattingly.
Yes, that Don Mattingly.
A 1989 Sports Illustrated story by Peter Gammons explained that Mattingly is truly ambidextrous -- that as a youngster he would pitch a few innings left-handed and then a few innings right-handed to stay fresh. But Cameron said Mattingly could also throw a football equally well with either hand. "He would have been Steve Young playing football," Cameron said. "He was that good."
Watching Mattingly taught Cameron to look for unique attributes in a quarterback. That philosophy has helped him bring out the best in a diverse group of signal-callers. He trained Elvis Grbac at Michigan, Antwaan Randle El at Indiana, Drew Brees and Philip Rivers in San Diego and Joe Flacco in Baltimore. He found a way to maximize each one. Still, when Cameron thinks of Mattingly, he wonders what he could do with an ambidextrous quarterback. So any high school quarterbacks who can chuck it lefty and righty may want to send some film to Baton Rouge.
Of course, one of Cameron's most innovative lessons came from a quarterback who had no choice but to throw left-handed. His name was Jim Abbott.
Yes, that Jim Abbott.
At one point in Cameron's Michigan tenure, quarterbacks Grbac and Todd Collins had issues with the quarterback-center exchange at practice. At the time, Abbott -- who was born without a right hand -- had already pitched for Michigan and the U.S. Olympic team and was an established major league pitcher for the Angels. But Cameron remembered that Abbott had played quarterback for Flint (Mich.) Central High. So he contacted the coach and requested film of one of Abbott's football games. "Playing one-handed, they had no center-quarterback exchange issues," Cameron said. "So I showed it to those guys to make the point that you don't need two hands to take the snap from center."
Cameron said that at some point before LSU concludes spring practice on Saturday, he'll show the Tigers' quarterbacks a YouTube clip of Abbott fielding ground balls as a pitcher and then tell them the story of Abbott the football player. The point? Sometimes, because of the defense or because of conditions beyond their control, players don't have all their tools available to them. That doesn't mean they can't get more out of what they do have.
Cameron likes what he has at LSU. He said incumbent starting quarterback Zach Mettenberger is adjusting well to the offense, and the coach who devised a myriad of ways to get LaDainian Tomlinson the ball in San Diego relishes the prospect of finding open space for backs Jeremy Hill and Alfred Blue. "Good backs like this," Cameron said, "test your imagination."
Many of the stories from LSU's spring practice have suggested a drastic shift in offensive philosophy to a tempo more similar to the one preferred in the Big 12. LSU will play faster, Cameron said, but the Tigers probably won't be confused for Chip Kelly-era Oregon. The biggest difference to the naked eye likely will be the way Cameron deploys LSU's backs -- who will get moved around the field to create mismatches. "We want to have the winningest offense in college football," Cameron said. "Not the No. 1 offense in college football statistically."
Miles still will have heavy input into the offense. So will offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, who served as LSU's offensive coordinator the past two seasons. The original plan in 2011 was for Steve Kragthorpe to take over for Gary Crowton, but when Kragthorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease that August, Studrawa was pressed into coordinator duty. After two seasons of less-than-dynamic offense, Miles decided to make the change.
His old friend Cameron was available because the Ravens had fired him 13 games into a season in which they eventually won the Super Bowl. Cameron has never badmouthed Harbaugh's decision. Quite the contrary. In January, he told the New York Times the firing was a "brilliant" motivational ploy. Harbaugh, who had wrestled with the decision, ordered Cameron a Super Bowl ring. Hart once again marveled at his son's poise. He praised the way Cameron handled the adversity, noting that he probably wouldn't have handled the situation nearly as well. "I told him I'm not as compassionate as he is," Hart said. But, Hart said, Cameron has always been an eternal optimist. "When he was a kid, if he came across a pile of horse manure, he'd start digging looking for a pony," Hart cracked.
Cameron sees only sunshine in Baton Rouge, and with good reason. While early departures took a huge chunk out of LSU's defense, the offense didn't suffer as badly. As defensive coordinator John Chavis helps his young crop of swamp monsters adjust to the SEC, a more productive offense is exactly what the Tigers need. Cameron thinks his offense has the raw material to provide that production. All he and his assistants have to do is coach them properly. "If you do all the little things right, and then you get players that are talented," Cameron said, "they'll take care of the big things." The players are talented. And if they can take care of enough big things, maybe Cameron can replicate that rush he felt that day in Carbondale a few more times.
Photo gallery: LSU's Jeremy Hill among SEC players to watch in 2013
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Poxxxx says GFR
LSU Fan
Franklinton, LA
Member since Aug 2011
3100 posts
Online
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LINK
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http://espn.go.com/college-
Big Ten blog »
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http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/
Initial ESPN 150 list
A new class of superstars has arrived. The big names in the 2014 class will now try to catch New Orleans Saint Augustine RB and LSU target Leonard Fournette at the top.
Top 15 classes
Along with the new 150, RecruitingNation rolls out the 15 programs that have had the fastest starts. A list that contains seven SEC teams.
Give 'em five
With the release of the ESPN 150, Tom Luginbill and Craig Haubert look at what it takes to earn a rare and coveted fifth star, as well as evaluate those in the 2014 class who received theirs.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/
Interviews, insight and analysis from The Times on the competition and culture of college football.
Tyrann Mathieu's path was forged by the strict inner-city Catholic school that just two years ago banned corporal punishment with wooden paddles.
Leonard Fournette, above, a star tailback at St. Augustine, credits the L.S.U. star Tyrann Mathieu with helping to make the high school a perennial contender.
There are no lines, yard numbers or goal posts on the yellowed field. A
chain-link fence, with a pit bull tied to it, gives the St. Augustine
kicker a target to clear. The neighborhood backdrop is filled with
boarded-up houses, many of them marked by a black X, an artifact from
the search-and-rescue effort after Hurricane Katrina.
Improbably, this moribund piece of earth also doubles as one of the country’s most fertile football recruiting grounds. A field with no boundaries has become a parade route for recruiters from elite college football programs.
The Louisiana State star Tyrann Mathieu honed his trade here before graduating in 2010, his path forged by St. Augustine, a strict Catholic school that only two years ago banned corporal punishment with wooden paddles.
St. Augustine Coach David Johnson, who saw 14 of his players receive college football scholarships last season, smiles when recalling coaches from universities like Nebraska and Oklahoma pulling up in rental cars next to police cruisers and saying, “This is where you practice?”
Johnson laughed as his players ran drills in mismatched uniforms and errant field-goal attempts clanged into the chain-link fence: “They don’t even realize it. This is all they’ve known.”
When No. 1 L.S.U. plays No. 2 Alabama on Saturday night, Mathieu, a sophomore cornerback, will return from a one-game suspension, reportedly for failing a drug test. He has emerged this season as college football’s consummate pest and one of its most intriguing characters — a 5-foot-8, 175-pound dynamo with a blond dye job, a Twitter obsession and an uncanny knack for on-field thievery.
His Honey Badger nickname, stemming from a popular YouTube video about that ferocious animal, has become so widely known that Senator David Vitter of Louisiana referred to it on the floor of the United States Senate this week.
“He definitely has the attitude of a superstar,” L.S.U. safety Eric Reid said of Mathieu. “If there’s a ball to be got, he wants to get it. If there’s a receiver on the field, he wants to cover them.”
Mathieu, who was not made available for interviews this week, has forced four fumbles, scored two touchdowns and snared two interceptions, ball-hawking his way to the fringes of the Heisman Trophy conversation. Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen said he was most impressed that L.S.U. would line up Mathieu as a slot corner or even an outside linebacker, positions typically reserved for much bigger players.
There will be no way for the inexperienced Alabama quarterback A J McCarron to avoid Mathieu, either, because L.S.U.’s front seven is suffocating and the opposite corner position is manned by Mo Claiborne, considered a possible top-10 N.F.L. draft pick.
“You can’t really game-plan against any individual on that team,” Mullen said.
Mathieu has not forgotten his roots on his way to stardom. Reid said that Mathieu often wore a safari-style St. Augustine hat. “He’s proud of where he’s from,” Reid said.
Raised in East New Orleans by his adoptive parents in a working-class home, Mathieu was molded at St. Augustine, an all-boys school where the graduates take just as much pride in the wooden paddles once used for discipline as they do in the successful sports teams. Students abide by a strict uniform code, wear military-style shoes and must keep their hair cropped short.
Late for class? Uniform shirt untucked? Forgot your textbook? During Mathieu’s time, those offenses resulted in a paddle to the posterior, with the whacks aggressive enough to discourage repeat violators.
The paddling became such a part of the St. Augustine culture that the students held a rally to keep it. The New Orleans archbishop, Gregory M. Aymond, banned the paddling two years ago, but generations of graduates like Mathieu remain bonded by blistered bottoms.
“It offers a foundation, structure and discipline,” New England Patriots running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, a 2003 St. Augustine graduate, said of the school. “We’re not treated lightly; it’s kind of like around here,” he said, referring to playing for Bill Belichick.
St. Augustine, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, has long been a vital part of New Orleans. There are 15 sitting judges who graduated from the school, which counts among its alumni figures as diverse as mayors, ambassadors and the N.B.A. coach Avery Johnson. Eddie Compass, the police superintendent in New Orleans during Katrina, is a graduate and works daily with the team as its strength coach.
“They have a disciplined style of athlete,” said L.S.U. Coach Les Miles, who has coached at least five St. Augustine players. “They have guys who were brought up to do great things.”
St. Augustine’s band has played for presidents and popes. Academics are stressed so much that the principal, Don Boucree, said that the school required a minimum 2.5 grade point average for athletes to remain eligible to play, well above the city minimum of 1.5. He proudly shows off a cover of the school’s football game program that includes the G.P.A., not the height and weight, of the team’s star players. (About half the team’s players have a G.P.A. above 3.0.)
“It was a great steppingstone to what I’ve become,” said Hollis Price, who led Oklahoma to the 2002 Final Four. “It taught me discipline.”
Del Lee, the football team’s associate head coach, remains close to Mathieu, even visiting him in Baton Rouge this week. He recalls a raw player whose career took off only after he learned to channel his overflowing passion.
“It was a challenge to get him to harness a lot of that energy to the next play,” said Lee, who was Mathieu’s position coach at St. Augustine.
But the flashes were there. Johnson became the head coach in the spring before Mathieu’s senior year and quickly experienced an epiphany that Mathieu was the best player he had ever coached, a crop that included the N.F.L. first-round pick Buster Davis.
“Marc Edwards ran a post corner on him,” Johnson said of a receiver who now plays at Tulane. “It was a beautiful route; he did everything that he was supposed to do. Tyrann flipped his hips and caught the ball with one hand and he just looked at me.”
Johnson looked at Lee and said, “He’s special.” Lee responded flatly, “I told you.”
But proving that to everyone else was not easy. Going into the summer before his senior year, Mathieu’s college offers were few and came from places like Western Kentucky. His life changed when he attended a camp at Tennessee, where the St. Augustine graduate Frank Wilson was an assistant. Among a crowd of five-star quarterbacks, corners and receivers, Mathieu was named the camp’s most valuable player.
“It’s the best camp I have ever seen a kid have,” Johnson said. “I don’t remember anyone catching a ball on him.”
Wilson still could not persuade Lane Kiffin, then the Volunteers’ coach, to offer Mathieu a scholarship because some of Tennessee’s defensive coaches were skeptical of his size. Wilson said that Ed Orgeron, a fellow assistant at Tennessee and now an assistant at Southern California under Kiffin, called him this year and commended his evaluation of Mathieu.
“I wish I had a knife so you could cut him open and you could see what’s inside,” said Wilson, now an assistant at L.S.U. “His heart is beyond what you could see testing his 40. It allows him to go into a zone and take his mind, body and soul to another level.”
Larry Porter, a former L.S.U. assistant who is the coach at Memphis, felt the same way. Porter loved Mathieu’s quick feet, sticky hands and greasy hips. But Porter truly valued Mathieu’s competitiveness, which came through once he arrived at L.S.U.’s summer camp two weeks after his performance at Tennessee. While Mathieu needed some work to qualify academically, Miles was so impressed he offered him a scholarship while the camp was still going on.
“I don’t give a flip what his grades are,” Porter recalled Miles telling him. “I want him on my team.”
Lee and Johnson played a key role in managing Mathieu’s academics, putting together a plan that included having him meet with tutors during lunch periods and after school. When Lee would see Mathieu in the hall when he should have been attending a tutoring session, he would tweak his competitive side. “I guess you don’t want to go to L.S.U.,” he would say sternly.
Mathieu returns to his former school frequently; he gave a rousing halftime speech to the team when it played its rival Archbishop Rummel last year. With St. Augustine trailing, 14-13, Mathieu delivered such a passionate talk about what being a Purple Knight meant to the community that Johnson said coaches and players teared up.
“We couldn’t believe it was Tyrann speaking,” Johnson said.
Lee said that Mathieu was embarrassed by his suspension and ready to move on. But the incident has not dimmed the admiration that is still felt for him at St. Augustine. The school’s next superstar player, Leonard Fournette, who is regarded as the top sophomore tailback in the country, credits Mathieu with paving the way for St. Augustine to become a perennial playoff team.
“He’s amazing,” Fournette said. “He has determination and plays hard, things any player would like to have.”
Fournette and the St. Augustine tailbacks call themselves Cocoa Badgers, a nod to both Mathieu and a place where a tradition of success has passed from one generation to the next.
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The Tigers return to action tomorrow night at Alabama in Game 1 of a three-game weekend series starting at 6:30 p.m. The only game of this weekend's series that will be televised is Saturday's contest, which gets underway at 7 p.m. and will be shown on FSN. Sunday's game will start at 1:00. As of this time, I have not heard whether Cody Glenn will be ready to resume his Sunday starter role after taking a hit to the shin in last week's game.
In other baseball news, the LSU Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a proposal to name the baseball field at Alex Box Stadium after legendary baseball coach Skip Bertman. The field will be called “Skip Bertman Field” and the name of the stadium remains “Alex Box Stadium” in honor of the former LSU student, baseball player, Purple Heart and Distinguished Cross recipient who was killed in North Africa during World War II. I think this is a great move, and that Bertman is very deserving of the honor as he ushered in the Golden Age of LSU baseball by leading the Tigers to five National Championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) and seven SEC Championships. Back when Bertman was hired at LSU, a good crowd for an LSU baseball game was about 500 attendees. Today LSU boasts the NCAA’s largest average attendance and often has more than 10,000 fans per game in the new stadium constructed under Bertman’s direction as athletic director. The Athletic Department plans to dedicate the field the final weekend of the 2013 regular season when the Tigers play Ole Miss in conjunction with a 20-year reunion of Bertman’s 1993 national championship team.
The LSU football team will return to practice today before concluding the spring session with the annual Spring Game in Tiger Stadium Saturday. I plan on heading out to the practice field this afternoon so that I can give you a report on what I see and share a bit of video. I expect a big crowd there as LSU students have been invited to attend the practice as part of what is being called, “Student Appreciation Day.” Last year a crowd of about 200 students were there and I expect even more today because of the excitement offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has brought to the program.
I've heard from a lot of you who've asked about parking, tickets, seating, etc. for Saturday's Spring Game, so I'll share with you the info I've received from LSU about the event. First of all, the game is free and it kicks off at 2:00. No tickets are needed. The game will not be televised, but can be heard in the Baton Rouge area on 104.5 FM.
Additional info can be found in the press release below sent out by LSU’s Sports Information Department:
Tiger Stadium
· Gates to Tiger Stadium open at 12:30 p.m. and admission to the game is free. All seating in Tiger Stadium will be on the west side and the south endzone. All seating will be general admission.
· Fans should enter the stadium on the west side using gates 1 thru 6.
· Gate 10 will be open and used for ADA access.
· Prohibited items include: coolers, ice chests, bottles, cans, cups, outside food and drinks (including alcohol), backpacks and bags larger than 8.5”x11, umbrellas, weapons of any kinds, and animals/pets (except service animals).
· Smoking is not permitted inside the gates of the stadium.
Parking
· All public parking for the game is free.
· Vehicle parking lots will open beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
· Motor Home parking will be available for free in parking the Touchdown Village Lot or the Vet School Lot beginning at 5p.m. on Friday.
· ADA parking spaces will be available in Lots H and I.
Fan Fest
· Fan Fest begins at 11 a.m. in Lot A on the west side of Tiger Stadium.
· Fan Fest will provide fun for the entire family, including live music, food and drinks, inflatables, etc.
Road Closures
· North Stadium Drive and South Stadium Drive will be closed to vehicular traffic starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
· The portion of South Stadium drive adjacent to Tiger Stadium will be blocked off to pedestrians due to ongoing construction on Tiger Stadium.
In basketball news, Coach Johnny Jones received some good news yesterday when Brian Bridgewater signed with LSU. According to reports, the 6-foot-6, 230-pound power forward from Scottlandville High committed to the Tigers a few weeks ago, but kept his commitment secret until yesterday. Bridgewater is a good looking prospect and a great addition to an LSU recruiting class that was already the best in many years and is now ranked No. 7 in 247Sports' national composite rankings. Bridgewater averaged 15 points per game as a senior and was the MVP of the Class 5A title game. With the six newcomers coming in from this year's recruiting class, plus the return of Johnny O’Bryant III and seven other Tigers, the future of LSU basketball is looking very bright.
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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.
Posted: Thu April 18, 2013 11:48AM; Updated: Thu April 18, 2013 11:54AM
Cameron shaping LSU offense with lessons from unlikely sources |
0
After stints with the Chargers, Dolphins and Ravens, Cam Cameron is out to reinvent LSU's offense.
Courtesy of LSU Sports Information
The 177 words of this dispatch the Chicago Tribune chose to run the next day explained the basics of the Sycamores' 23-21 win, including the fact that Vandercook's final kick cleared the crossbar by three feet. They did not, however, mention the Indiana State ball boy who caught Vandercook's game-winning field goal. That's where the story gets really interesting.
Beneath the goal posts that day in Carbondale was a high school freshman whose mother had recently married Indiana State coach Tom Harp. The kid was a pretty fair athlete himself, so good at quarterback that when he became a sophomore his coach at South Vigo High in Terre Haute, Ind., allowed him to call the plays himself. His name? Cam Cameron. Since that moment -- whether playing football for Lee Corso, playing hoops for Bobby Knight, coaching at Michigan and Indiana, becoming an uber-successful NFL offensive coordinator or getting fired in the midst of a Super Bowl run -- Cameron has spent nearly every moment chasing the high that surged through his body when he caught that ball and saw the Sycamores charge off their sideline to dogpile the freshman who had kicked it.
"I've never looked back," Cameron said this week. "And I've never worked a day in my life."
Cameron has gone to an office and drawn a paycheck, but he has never considered football work. To him, every game is one more opportunity to recreate what he felt that day in Carbondale. Cameron's newest opportunities will come at Tiger Stadium. After Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh fired Cameron in December in what he called "the hardest thing I've had to do as a coach," Cameron had a few options. Several NFL teams called. But so did old friend Les Miles, with whom Cameron shared an office when the men were assistants together under Bo Schembechler at Michigan. LSU offered a three-year, $3.4 million contract, which made the Tigers competitive with any NFL team. So Cameron, who hadn't coached in college since he was fired as alma mater Indiana's head coach in 2001, went back to campus with the goal of creating an LSU offense worthy of sharing the same sideline with the Tigers' vaunted defense.
To do this, Cameron will teach his players lessons collected from some unlikely sources. When he was a sophomore in high school, Cameron met a man who would help shape his play-calling philosophy. His name was Larry Bird.
Yes, that Larry Bird.
Bird had just enrolled at Indiana State following a 24-day stint at Indiana and a year off to collect himself. In the offseason, the Sycamores basketball team played pickup games in the gym. The football coach's kid would bring his high school teammates, and they would join the college players. Often, Cameron found himself on the same team as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. "If I was more open than him, he would pass it to me," Cameron said. "But he expected me to make the shot."
At first, Cameron didn't understand why the best player on the floor by a mile would pass to a high-schooler. Then he realized Bird did this to earn the trust of his teammates. When Cameron began calling plays for South Vigo's football team, he followed Bird's lead and tried to get the ball to as many of his teammates as possible. Cameron can still tick off the names of the backs and receivers who became his best friends. "All you had to do was keep them involved, and they'd run through a wall for you," Cameron said. "Football is hard. Guys don't selfishly want the ball. But they want some reward for all their hard work."
Harp watched Cameron call the plays with pride -- not that he let his son know that at the time. "He had the confidence of the team, and he called them," Harp said. "I was very impressed with how sharp he was. Now, we argued all the time. I never wanted to give him the satisfaction that he'd done a great job -- even though he did."
Cameron got most of the ink as the best quarterback in Indiana at the time, but he disagreed. He thought the quarterback at Reitz Memorial in Evansville was better. That guy's name was Don Mattingly.
Cam Cameron will look to get the most out of LSU's Zach Mettenberger, who threw 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2012.
Courtesy of LSU Sports Information
A 1989 Sports Illustrated story by Peter Gammons explained that Mattingly is truly ambidextrous -- that as a youngster he would pitch a few innings left-handed and then a few innings right-handed to stay fresh. But Cameron said Mattingly could also throw a football equally well with either hand. "He would have been Steve Young playing football," Cameron said. "He was that good."
Watching Mattingly taught Cameron to look for unique attributes in a quarterback. That philosophy has helped him bring out the best in a diverse group of signal-callers. He trained Elvis Grbac at Michigan, Antwaan Randle El at Indiana, Drew Brees and Philip Rivers in San Diego and Joe Flacco in Baltimore. He found a way to maximize each one. Still, when Cameron thinks of Mattingly, he wonders what he could do with an ambidextrous quarterback. So any high school quarterbacks who can chuck it lefty and righty may want to send some film to Baton Rouge.
Of course, one of Cameron's most innovative lessons came from a quarterback who had no choice but to throw left-handed. His name was Jim Abbott.
Yes, that Jim Abbott.
At one point in Cameron's Michigan tenure, quarterbacks Grbac and Todd Collins had issues with the quarterback-center exchange at practice. At the time, Abbott -- who was born without a right hand -- had already pitched for Michigan and the U.S. Olympic team and was an established major league pitcher for the Angels. But Cameron remembered that Abbott had played quarterback for Flint (Mich.) Central High. So he contacted the coach and requested film of one of Abbott's football games. "Playing one-handed, they had no center-quarterback exchange issues," Cameron said. "So I showed it to those guys to make the point that you don't need two hands to take the snap from center."
Cameron said that at some point before LSU concludes spring practice on Saturday, he'll show the Tigers' quarterbacks a YouTube clip of Abbott fielding ground balls as a pitcher and then tell them the story of Abbott the football player. The point? Sometimes, because of the defense or because of conditions beyond their control, players don't have all their tools available to them. That doesn't mean they can't get more out of what they do have.
Cameron likes what he has at LSU. He said incumbent starting quarterback Zach Mettenberger is adjusting well to the offense, and the coach who devised a myriad of ways to get LaDainian Tomlinson the ball in San Diego relishes the prospect of finding open space for backs Jeremy Hill and Alfred Blue. "Good backs like this," Cameron said, "test your imagination."
Many of the stories from LSU's spring practice have suggested a drastic shift in offensive philosophy to a tempo more similar to the one preferred in the Big 12. LSU will play faster, Cameron said, but the Tigers probably won't be confused for Chip Kelly-era Oregon. The biggest difference to the naked eye likely will be the way Cameron deploys LSU's backs -- who will get moved around the field to create mismatches. "We want to have the winningest offense in college football," Cameron said. "Not the No. 1 offense in college football statistically."
Miles still will have heavy input into the offense. So will offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, who served as LSU's offensive coordinator the past two seasons. The original plan in 2011 was for Steve Kragthorpe to take over for Gary Crowton, but when Kragthorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease that August, Studrawa was pressed into coordinator duty. After two seasons of less-than-dynamic offense, Miles decided to make the change.
His old friend Cameron was available because the Ravens had fired him 13 games into a season in which they eventually won the Super Bowl. Cameron has never badmouthed Harbaugh's decision. Quite the contrary. In January, he told the New York Times the firing was a "brilliant" motivational ploy. Harbaugh, who had wrestled with the decision, ordered Cameron a Super Bowl ring. Hart once again marveled at his son's poise. He praised the way Cameron handled the adversity, noting that he probably wouldn't have handled the situation nearly as well. "I told him I'm not as compassionate as he is," Hart said. But, Hart said, Cameron has always been an eternal optimist. "When he was a kid, if he came across a pile of horse manure, he'd start digging looking for a pony," Hart cracked.
Cameron sees only sunshine in Baton Rouge, and with good reason. While early departures took a huge chunk out of LSU's defense, the offense didn't suffer as badly. As defensive coordinator John Chavis helps his young crop of swamp monsters adjust to the SEC, a more productive offense is exactly what the Tigers need. Cameron thinks his offense has the raw material to provide that production. All he and his assistants have to do is coach them properly. "If you do all the little things right, and then you get players that are talented," Cameron said, "they'll take care of the big things." The players are talented. And if they can take care of enough big things, maybe Cameron can replicate that rush he felt that day in Carbondale a few more times.
Photo gallery: LSU's Jeremy Hill among SEC players to watch in 2013
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.
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LSU Football Highlights- Hype Up HD
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Poxxxx says GFR
LSU Fan
Franklinton, LA
Member since Aug 2011
3100 posts
Online
Spring game rosters set (April 20th 2:00 PM) (Posted on 4/18/13 at 11:17 a.m.)
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quote:
BATON ROUGE - LSU will conclude its spring football practice on Saturday, April 20 in Tiger Stadium with the annual National L-Club Spring Game presented by Tony Chachere's. Kickoff for the contest is set for 2 p.m. and admission is free of charge. Prior to kickoff for the spring game, LSU will host a Fan Fest in Lot A of Tiger Stadium beginning at 11 a.m. with food and drinks, a live band, and inflatables and other activities for the kids. The gates to Tiger Stadium will open at noon with the kickoff to follow at 2 p.m. Other events on campus that day include the nationally-ranked softball team hosting Missouri at 6 p.m. at Tiger Park and the LSU track and field squad hosting the Alumni Gold Relays at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. More details about the LSU National L-Club Spring Game and the Fan Fest will be made as the date of the game approaches.
LINK
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http://espn.go.com/college-
ESPN: Tune into SportsCenter all day for the latest from Michigan State
Hounds Of Sparta
Michigan State's defense has defined the program in recent seasons. Now they have a nickname to reflect its goals: Spartan Dawgs. Adam Rittenberg » Michigan St. spring blog Big Ten blog »Eric Francis/Getty Images
- Seminoles QB Trickett to transfer
| Adelson - Reports: Ducks see major violations | Miller
- Alabama gives D-coordinator Smart big raise
- Bama RB Henry fractures leg
| Analysis 
- McQueary suit vs. Penn State to go forward
- Sources: Cal WR Allen flagged for drug test
- Reports: Ex-Pitt RB Shell to transfer to UCLA
- Obama honors Alabama for championship
- QB Robinson redeems self with better 1st pitch
- Clemson TE Cooper, QB Kelly have torn ACLs
- Luginbill: Top 10 QB recruits for 2014 class
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/
SEC Blog
RecruitingNation links: ESPN 150 edition
April, 18, 2013
By ESPN.com staff | ESPN.com
Initial ESPN 150 list
A new class of superstars has arrived. The big names in the 2014 class will now try to catch New Orleans Saint Augustine RB and LSU target Leonard Fournette at the top.
Top 15 classes
Along with the new 150, RecruitingNation rolls out the 15 programs that have had the fastest starts. A list that contains seven SEC teams.
Give 'em five
With the release of the ESPN 150, Tom Luginbill and Craig Haubert look at what it takes to earn a rare and coveted fifth star, as well as evaluate those in the 2014 class who received theirs.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/
College Football
L.S.U. Star Toughened at New Orleans School
William Widmer for The New York Times
The football team at St. Augustine High School, in
New Orleans's Seventh Ward, practices at a city park with no field
lines, yard numbers or goal posts. By PETE THAMEL
Published: November 4, 2011
NEW ORLEANS — The practice field used by the St. Augustine High School
football team is not a practice field at all. It is a park in this
city’s Seventh Ward, complete with a slide, a jungle gym and the smell
of marijuana wafting through the air courtesy of loitering locals.
Related
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The Quad: No. 1 vs. No. 2, Through the Years (November 5, 2011)
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The Quad: Postcard From L.S.U.: N.F.L. Bloodlines Infuse the Tigers With Talent (November 4, 2011)
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Alabama Quarterback Has the Arm to Win It (November 5, 2011)
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The Quad: Postcard From Alabama: Playing for the Stones, Rooting for the Tide (November 4, 2011)
Division I-A
- This Week's Games
- A.P. and Coaches' Polls
- Scores: Top 25 | All Div. I-A
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- All Div. I-A Teams
Division I-AA
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Tyrann Mathieu's path was forged by the strict inner-city Catholic school that just two years ago banned corporal punishment with wooden paddles.
William Widmer for The New York Times
Leonard Fournette, above, a star tailback at St. Augustine, credits the L.S.U. star Tyrann Mathieu with helping to make the high school a perennial contender.
Improbably, this moribund piece of earth also doubles as one of the country’s most fertile football recruiting grounds. A field with no boundaries has become a parade route for recruiters from elite college football programs.
The Louisiana State star Tyrann Mathieu honed his trade here before graduating in 2010, his path forged by St. Augustine, a strict Catholic school that only two years ago banned corporal punishment with wooden paddles.
St. Augustine Coach David Johnson, who saw 14 of his players receive college football scholarships last season, smiles when recalling coaches from universities like Nebraska and Oklahoma pulling up in rental cars next to police cruisers and saying, “This is where you practice?”
Johnson laughed as his players ran drills in mismatched uniforms and errant field-goal attempts clanged into the chain-link fence: “They don’t even realize it. This is all they’ve known.”
When No. 1 L.S.U. plays No. 2 Alabama on Saturday night, Mathieu, a sophomore cornerback, will return from a one-game suspension, reportedly for failing a drug test. He has emerged this season as college football’s consummate pest and one of its most intriguing characters — a 5-foot-8, 175-pound dynamo with a blond dye job, a Twitter obsession and an uncanny knack for on-field thievery.
His Honey Badger nickname, stemming from a popular YouTube video about that ferocious animal, has become so widely known that Senator David Vitter of Louisiana referred to it on the floor of the United States Senate this week.
“He definitely has the attitude of a superstar,” L.S.U. safety Eric Reid said of Mathieu. “If there’s a ball to be got, he wants to get it. If there’s a receiver on the field, he wants to cover them.”
Mathieu, who was not made available for interviews this week, has forced four fumbles, scored two touchdowns and snared two interceptions, ball-hawking his way to the fringes of the Heisman Trophy conversation. Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen said he was most impressed that L.S.U. would line up Mathieu as a slot corner or even an outside linebacker, positions typically reserved for much bigger players.
There will be no way for the inexperienced Alabama quarterback A J McCarron to avoid Mathieu, either, because L.S.U.’s front seven is suffocating and the opposite corner position is manned by Mo Claiborne, considered a possible top-10 N.F.L. draft pick.
“You can’t really game-plan against any individual on that team,” Mullen said.
Mathieu has not forgotten his roots on his way to stardom. Reid said that Mathieu often wore a safari-style St. Augustine hat. “He’s proud of where he’s from,” Reid said.
Raised in East New Orleans by his adoptive parents in a working-class home, Mathieu was molded at St. Augustine, an all-boys school where the graduates take just as much pride in the wooden paddles once used for discipline as they do in the successful sports teams. Students abide by a strict uniform code, wear military-style shoes and must keep their hair cropped short.
Late for class? Uniform shirt untucked? Forgot your textbook? During Mathieu’s time, those offenses resulted in a paddle to the posterior, with the whacks aggressive enough to discourage repeat violators.
The paddling became such a part of the St. Augustine culture that the students held a rally to keep it. The New Orleans archbishop, Gregory M. Aymond, banned the paddling two years ago, but generations of graduates like Mathieu remain bonded by blistered bottoms.
“It offers a foundation, structure and discipline,” New England Patriots running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, a 2003 St. Augustine graduate, said of the school. “We’re not treated lightly; it’s kind of like around here,” he said, referring to playing for Bill Belichick.
St. Augustine, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, has long been a vital part of New Orleans. There are 15 sitting judges who graduated from the school, which counts among its alumni figures as diverse as mayors, ambassadors and the N.B.A. coach Avery Johnson. Eddie Compass, the police superintendent in New Orleans during Katrina, is a graduate and works daily with the team as its strength coach.
“They have a disciplined style of athlete,” said L.S.U. Coach Les Miles, who has coached at least five St. Augustine players. “They have guys who were brought up to do great things.”
St. Augustine’s band has played for presidents and popes. Academics are stressed so much that the principal, Don Boucree, said that the school required a minimum 2.5 grade point average for athletes to remain eligible to play, well above the city minimum of 1.5. He proudly shows off a cover of the school’s football game program that includes the G.P.A., not the height and weight, of the team’s star players. (About half the team’s players have a G.P.A. above 3.0.)
“It was a great steppingstone to what I’ve become,” said Hollis Price, who led Oklahoma to the 2002 Final Four. “It taught me discipline.”
Del Lee, the football team’s associate head coach, remains close to Mathieu, even visiting him in Baton Rouge this week. He recalls a raw player whose career took off only after he learned to channel his overflowing passion.
“It was a challenge to get him to harness a lot of that energy to the next play,” said Lee, who was Mathieu’s position coach at St. Augustine.
But the flashes were there. Johnson became the head coach in the spring before Mathieu’s senior year and quickly experienced an epiphany that Mathieu was the best player he had ever coached, a crop that included the N.F.L. first-round pick Buster Davis.
“Marc Edwards ran a post corner on him,” Johnson said of a receiver who now plays at Tulane. “It was a beautiful route; he did everything that he was supposed to do. Tyrann flipped his hips and caught the ball with one hand and he just looked at me.”
Johnson looked at Lee and said, “He’s special.” Lee responded flatly, “I told you.”
But proving that to everyone else was not easy. Going into the summer before his senior year, Mathieu’s college offers were few and came from places like Western Kentucky. His life changed when he attended a camp at Tennessee, where the St. Augustine graduate Frank Wilson was an assistant. Among a crowd of five-star quarterbacks, corners and receivers, Mathieu was named the camp’s most valuable player.
“It’s the best camp I have ever seen a kid have,” Johnson said. “I don’t remember anyone catching a ball on him.”
Wilson still could not persuade Lane Kiffin, then the Volunteers’ coach, to offer Mathieu a scholarship because some of Tennessee’s defensive coaches were skeptical of his size. Wilson said that Ed Orgeron, a fellow assistant at Tennessee and now an assistant at Southern California under Kiffin, called him this year and commended his evaluation of Mathieu.
“I wish I had a knife so you could cut him open and you could see what’s inside,” said Wilson, now an assistant at L.S.U. “His heart is beyond what you could see testing his 40. It allows him to go into a zone and take his mind, body and soul to another level.”
Larry Porter, a former L.S.U. assistant who is the coach at Memphis, felt the same way. Porter loved Mathieu’s quick feet, sticky hands and greasy hips. But Porter truly valued Mathieu’s competitiveness, which came through once he arrived at L.S.U.’s summer camp two weeks after his performance at Tennessee. While Mathieu needed some work to qualify academically, Miles was so impressed he offered him a scholarship while the camp was still going on.
“I don’t give a flip what his grades are,” Porter recalled Miles telling him. “I want him on my team.”
Lee and Johnson played a key role in managing Mathieu’s academics, putting together a plan that included having him meet with tutors during lunch periods and after school. When Lee would see Mathieu in the hall when he should have been attending a tutoring session, he would tweak his competitive side. “I guess you don’t want to go to L.S.U.,” he would say sternly.
Mathieu returns to his former school frequently; he gave a rousing halftime speech to the team when it played its rival Archbishop Rummel last year. With St. Augustine trailing, 14-13, Mathieu delivered such a passionate talk about what being a Purple Knight meant to the community that Johnson said coaches and players teared up.
“We couldn’t believe it was Tyrann speaking,” Johnson said.
Lee said that Mathieu was embarrassed by his suspension and ready to move on. But the incident has not dimmed the admiration that is still felt for him at St. Augustine. The school’s next superstar player, Leonard Fournette, who is regarded as the top sophomore tailback in the country, credits Mathieu with paving the way for St. Augustine to become a perennial playoff team.
“He’s amazing,” Fournette said. “He has determination and plays hard, things any player would like to have.”
Fournette and the St. Augustine tailbacks call themselves Cocoa Badgers, a nod to both Mathieu and a place where a tradition of success has passed from one generation to the next.
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