Ragin' Cajuns land two JUCO standouts

[NewsCopy]

  When Hurricane Katrina hammered New Orleans in 2005, the storm and its aftermath forced Tyrell Gaddies to leave Kennedy High and play his final two seasons of prep football at Eisenhower High in Houston.

Now, after spending two years at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, Gaddies is coming home to close out his college career at UL. And the big defensive tackle is bringing one of his junior college teammates with him.

On Monday, Gaddies and Coffeyville Community College wide receiver Andrew "Rico" Joseph publicly committed to sign national letters of intent with the Cajuns. Both players, who redshirted during the 2007 season, will have three years of eligibility remaining.

The rest of the story

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • December 16, 2008

[anhil8tor]

Whoot!

[DestinCajun]

Another Tyrell. Outstanding!!!!

[jllanclos]

Joshua, you really do your homework on these guys and I appreciate my hometown paper giving such great coverage to the Cajuns. It occursd to me, also, that this can only help recruiting as well, to know that your hometown paper will cover your games more than most communities with Universities on this level. Thanks for contributing to the success of Louisiana athletics!

[DestinCajun]

_ Joshua, you really do your homework on these guys and I appreciate my hometown paper giving such great coverage to the Cajuns. It occursd to me, also, that this can only help recruiting as well, to know that your hometown paper will cover your games more than most communities with Universities on this level. Thanks for contributing to the success of Louisiana athletics! _

I have to remember to bring my sun glasses with me if JP is going to sit down below my section. The glare off his "dome" makes it hard to see the court.

[HoustonCajun]

_ Another Tyrell. Outstanding!!!! _

I gotta question both. Joseph was recruited by Hofstra and Charleston Southern as well as UL. Gaddies had a look by Central Florida and UL offered. No one else is recruiting them. Are these guys any good? Do our coaches see something in them that no other coaches are seeing? I certainly hope so. We can't afford to recruit marginal players any longer.

[Parrott]

_ I have to remember to bring my sun glasses with me if JP is going to sit down below my section. The glare off his "dome" makes it hard to see the court.
_

I'm sure it doesn't help having me and Jay sitting so close to one another on media row ...

[Parrott]

_ I gotta question both. Joseph was recruited by Hofstra and Charleston Southern as well as UL. Gaddies had a look by Central Florida and UL offered. No one else is recruiting them. Are these guys any good? Do our coaches see something in them that no other coaches are seeing? I certainly hope so. We can't afford to recruit marginal players any longer. _

Recruiting is definitely an inexact science. These two recruits were likely overlooked by other schools right now because they were redshirt freshmen. Most four-year schools are focused on junior college sophomores, knowing they will be eligible the following season. Other schools probably thought they had another year to recruit them.

That can make it easy for a recruit to fall off the radar, so to speak. I think it's a sign that the Cajun coaches are working hard to find talent. Remember, they found CB Dwight Bentley and RB Undrea Sails in similar fashions in junior college.

[DestinCajun]

Do our coaches see something in them that no other coaches are seeing? I certainly hope so. _

I found myself saying the exact same thing after reading the comments about Ryan McCoy the day after the blow out loss to Lamar. Yes, I'm guessing they are seeing something we can't but that's fairly typical. They were hot to sign receiver Ladarius Green last year and I had never heard of him. Derreck Dean looked way too small to pay NT to me but guess what.

[Cajunsmike]

_ I gotta question both. Joseph was recruited by Hofstra and Charleston Southern as well as UL. Gaddies had a look by Central Florida and UL offered. No one else is recruiting them. Are these guys any good? Do our coaches see something in them that no other coaches are seeing? I certainly hope so. We can't afford to recruit marginal players any longer. _

I also saw the note about who else was after these guys and wondered about that. However I have learned that Joseph is a fast guy but does not have much size. We will look at using him as a kick returner. Note he was on the Florida 1A All State team as a senior in high school. CajunT can perhaps tell you more about both committments. Last year we took Dwight Bentley as CB from the JC ranks and he was one of our top corners as a freshman-he did not play in JC.