Acadiana High Athletes

[MetryCajun]

_ For the most part, 5* blue chippers will take LSU over UL every day. I'd be willing to say that 9 times out of 10 this would be the case. However, it's worth it to go after all 10 on the off chance you get that one.

The bigger issue to me is what many of you are also saying. You HAVE to go after and try. You never know which kid may not have the grades, so a bigger school backs off. Or they may get hurt before their senior year, and spots get filled and they're left out. There are many different scenarios where the Cajuns could have improved on talent except they never tried to get in the game in the first place.

I think that Hud will do a great job of competing against the other schools in Louisiana and hopefully Texas, and will also continue to build relationships with the local schools. Because you never know when that one special kid will come along and change a program. _

Make that 999 out of 1000. We are still looking for that 1.
I do agree we need to be more aggressive. Taking more chances on grades will probably be our best bet.

[moorecajun]

_ Hopefully the new staff pops in the local schools and meets the coaches in high school. One downfall under Bustle was that he did not do that. There was a kid from Acadiana not offered by the Cajuns until Auburn made him an offer. He never got a look before then. He plays against West Monroe at Cajun Field and got an offer from Auburn the same week. Then the kids pops up on the Cajun site as being a recruit and offered. This should never happen with local talent. Evaluation of talent has hurt the program in the past as well. Just like the kid from Erath QB who was told he would only play DB for the Cajuns then he goes to McNeese and plays against the Cajuns as the starting QB for McNeese and wins in a lop sided games a few years ago. No problem recruiting out of state to recruit if the kids are better than the local ones, but I know what they have been bringing in is no better than the ones within 30 miles of Lafayette. _

You have a valid point here but the two examples are not good. The Acadiana High player was not elgible. Auburn did recruit him but he was not elgible there either - he went to a JC.

The Erath QB was a good player, but he was not better than our QB Michael Desormeax. Sometimes there are limits to the number of players available at a position. UL wanted him as an athlete and he wanted a fair shake at QB. That's all.

Our new head coach has already begun visiting local high schools and hopefully we will receive good news from this.

[Boomer]

What we want to do is build a huge love affair between UL and it's coaches with all recruits---We might loose to LSU on 90%-95% but you get the other and have a much better shot at the kid coming to UL in lieu of going anywhere out of state---Don't forget the later transfer for whatever reasons!!!! This guy excites me!!!!!

[cajunfan32]

_ So you respectfully disagree but kinda agree. Has it ever occurred to anyone that a recruit may want to stay home, may want to make certain that they will have playing time, may have grown up with a dislike of LSU or Alabama, may be a little intimidated by the SEC, may be more interested in the coach or a particular program than the athletic conference, etc.? Probably not. That's why we never asked them. All I know is that Coach Hud is talking to them and that is a good thing. He's not making assumptions about what they want. He's asking them. _

And I'm all for that. Of course we should see if there are any of those talented recruits that are really interested. But what I got from HoustonCajun's post is that we will regularly compete with LSU for top prospects and that is just not going to happen any time soon imo.

_ I'm not worried about loosing out to LSU on a regular basis and maybe stealing a player from them now and then. I would just like Coach Hud to start winning most of the other recruiting battles against the other D-1A schools in Louisiana and nearby states! That should be something he can do. _

I couldn't agree more.

[bigearl]

did you guys see this yet? I don't ever remembr reading anything about Bustle visiting any local highschool and offerring players like Micha Eugene. I'm a big beleiver in the thought "if you don't ask, the answer is always no." I've been so disappointed in the previous regime for not trying to convince top rated local talent to stay home... Even if they end up committing elsewhere, I love what our new coach is doing...

http://louisiana.scout.com/

I'm glad to see he's a man who's actions back up his words... he said he'd hit the ground running, hit the local high schools and he is doing it!!!

GEAUX CAJUNS!!!!

[CajunFan64]

Wow, any body have a day and a dollar; this guy seems both late and short.


We are all equally excited but, the news is a bit old. Love the enthusiasm though.

[AstroCajun]

_ For the most part, 5* blue chippers will take LSU over UL every day. I'd be willing to say that 9 times out of 10 this would be the case. However, it's worth it to go after all 10 on the off chance you get that one.

The bigger issue to me is what many of you are also saying. You HAVE to go after and try. You never know which kid may not have the grades, so a bigger school backs off. Or they may get hurt before their senior year, and spots get filled and they're left out. There are many different scenarios where the Cajuns could have improved on talent except they never tried to get in the game in the first place.

I think that Hud will do a great job of competing against the other schools in Louisiana and hopefully Texas, and will also continue to build relationships with the local schools. Because you never know when that one special kid will come along and change a program. _

I'm less concerned about trying to win 1/100 of the battles with LSU.

I'm much more interested in winning 99/100 of the battles against Tech, Tulane and Monroe.

[IHateLaState]

Probably just saying the same as everyone else but here is my 2 cents.

You have to go after SOME of the same recruits as lsua&m@br.... You have NO CHANCE at the top of their list but you might and can every now and again grab one or two of their second 20 and 3 or 4 of their 3rd 20....

Then you have a kid like Brian Mitchell... lsua&m@br wants him to be a WR or a cornerback... he wants to play QB... Hud tells him he will have a real shot at QB and budda boom budda bang we might get him....

Then there are the grey shirts... some grew up brainwashed by disallusioned parents to believe all of the hogwash about lsua&m@br and go there regardless... but maybe 2 or 3 or 4 might want/need a scholarship...

My point is that for every kid there is a story. You dont know until you ask and Hud is asking... thats a change and a good one

[BrockMeaux]

_ I'm less concerned about trying to win 1/100 of the battles with LSU.

I'm much more interested in winning 99/100 of the battles against Tech, Tulane and Monroe. _

I think that's kind of the same thing. I completely understand what you're saying, though. But like my 1st grade teacher always said, if you shoot for the stars and miss, you'll at least land on the moon. If we raise the level of athlete we go after, we won't get all of them, but we go from getting mostly 1 and 2 star recruits with the occasional 3 star thrown in to getting most 2 and 3 star recruits with the occasional 4 (or hopefully 5) star recruits thrown in. If we don't change our approach, we're never going to get up off the mat. I'm glad Coach Husdpeth is going after these guys.

[BayouTeche]

_ I think Hudspeth will get out and visit high schools as he is doing so this week. You will also see more of an effort to get local athletes to Junior Day and Camps.

Now let me help you with Wilfred Journet from Acadiana. First, he didn't graduate with his class on time in high school and Auburn knew that from day one. He had to take summer school to get his diploma and they placed him in JC. He never made it out of JC, left after getting into an altercation with a coach. He tried to transfer in, but UL couldn't take him because his transcripts were incomplete. In fact, no one took him as a transfer in Louisiana. Unfortunately he was arrested the same week he approached UL about transfering in. _

My whole point, Auburn was the first one to offer him when he is only 10 miles down the road. Auburn beat Cajuns to the punch, that was the purpose of my post not his downfall after graduation.