6-22-2020
By: Terrill J. Weil
Da Boot Sports!


      It seemed to have started after the 2007 season. The future looked bright for LSU football while senior quarterback Matt Flynn held up the BCS Crystal Ball National Championship Trophy while purple and gold confetti rained down in the Louisiana Super Dome.  
    Since that night the LSU football program had been plagued with the inability to develop a quarterback with talent or recruit the best in the nation at that position, combined with a head coach who refused to change his offensive mentality. Over the next several seasons media outlets would write, "LSU is as talented as anyone in the Country, but won't win the big one without a quarterback."
       It looks like things may be changing in Baton Rouge. Three and a half seasons after a
​much needed coaching change, the LSU Tigers are sitting on the top of the college football mountain.             
     Gone are the run first and often days. Those days have been replaced with the greatest high powered offense in NCAA history. A Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and a 15-0 dream season that shattered the record books has attracted some very talented high school quarterbacks. 
      Miles Brennan has the talent to be a great quarterback. Most, including myself, feel that he is ready to step in and pick up where Joe Burrow left off.  Behind Brennan sits two incoming true freshmen with "skies the limit" talent. Lets take a quick peek at them both... 
        J.T. Finley is a local from Ponchatoula, La. At 6'7"-250 lbs, Finley is an enormous pro-style pocket passer with an arm that matches his size. He has no fear in the pocket and can make every throw with ease. He also can throw well on the run. If LSU can help him develop his raw, young abilities, mainly his release and foot work, he has the potential to bust out as a star for the Tigers in the future. As a senior at Ponchatoula High School, Finley passed for 2,623 yards on 159 completions, 54% completion percentage, 20 passing TDs while rushing for 7 more scores.
     Max Johnson is the son of former NFL quarterback Brad Johnson and the nephew of former Georgia & Miami Hurricanes head coach Mark Richt.  He signed with LSU out of Watkinsville, Ga., and was rated as a four-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class. The No. 5 pro-style passer in the nation picked LSU over scholarship offers from Auburn, Georgia and Florida State, among others. Johnson's throw sets him apart from the others on the roster due to him being a lefty. He is coming off of a monster high school senior year. In 14 games he had 157 completions, 2046 yards passing, 66% completion percentage, 28 passing TDs and 7 rushing TDs. He was the 2019 Region 8-AAAA Player of the Year!
        If Brennan can have a healthy, sold Junior campaign in 2020, Coach O may choose at some
point to red shirt one of these young men at some point during the season. 
       The future looks even brighter at the quarterback position as the Tigers have just inked two more major commitments. 
    Garrett Nussmeier, son of former NFL (New Orleans Saints) Quarterback and current Dallas Cowboys quarterback coach Doug Nussmeier has committed last month to LSU for their 2021 class. He is a 4-star pro style quarterback out of Flower Mound Texas, and is rated as the seventh best player nationally at his position by 247Sports.  "I think I've always really loved LSU," Nussmeier said during a radio interview with 104.5 ESPN's Off the Bench. "Growing up I saw purple and gold. I refer to Louisiana as my home." Nussmeier was born in Lake Charles, then was moved all around the Country due to his father's coaching career. 
      Walker Howard, son of former LSU quarterback Jamie Howard, just committed to LSU last week for the 2022 class. Howard is a 4-star recruit out of St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette, La. He is the No. 3-ranked pro-style passer in the country for 2022.  Howard outperformed many of the nation's best quarterbacks in the San Antonio combine. 247Sports named him first-team all-combine quarterback. Many scouts have raved about his accurate passing and consistency. 
       So the quarterback position looks to be much improved for the purple and gold at least for the near future and hopefully beyond. Joe Burrow has staked the flag at the top of the college football quarterback mountain and has left a trail for all future LSU signal callers to follow. If Ed Orgeron has built the Tigers into an elite level program, I see Tigers not having to settle for just a "Average-okay" starting quarterback any longer. Could LSU become QBU soon?  Time will tell.  "If you build it, They will come."

Article Courtesy of: LSUsports.net

Football 
6/17/2020 
By: Michael Bonnette 

​

      BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – LSU's Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow has been named the 2019-2020 Roy F. Kramer SEC Male Athlete of the Year by a vote of the league's athletic directors, Commissioner Greg Sankey announced on Wednesday.
 
    With Burrow claiming the SEC Male Athlete of the Year honors, LSU has now swept the two biggest awards handed out by the league this year. Last month, LSU's Skylar Mays was named the winner of the McWhorter Award, which is presented to the top scholar-athlete in the league.
 
      It's the second time LSU has swept the SEC's two biggest awards in the same season. LSU did it in 2006 when Rudy Niswanger (football) claimed the McWhorter Award and both Xavier Carter (track and field) and Seimone Augustus (women's basketball) were named SEC Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
 
     South Carolina basketball player Tyasha Harris was named the 2019-2020 SEC Female Athletes of the Year.
 
     "The SEC is proud to honor Joe and Tyasha as the recipients of this year's Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year," said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. "They have competed at the highest level of collegiate athletics and through their hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence have been successful in their endeavors. They are great examples of what it means to be a student-athlete in the Southeastern Conference and are outstanding representatives of their universities as both students and athletes."
 
    Athens, Ohio, native, Joe Burrow, set the NCAA FBS record with 60 touchdown passes while leading the nation with an LSU and SEC record 5,671 passing yards. He also set the NCAA FBS record for touchdowns accounted for in a season with 65 (60 passing, 5 rushing).
 
      He led the Tigers to a perfect 15-0 season, including a 42-25 College Football Playoff (CFP)
National Championship victory over defending champion Clemson. Burrow was named the Most Outstanding Player of the championship game after throwing for 463 yards and five touchdowns.
 
    For the season, Burrow earned nearly every national honor possible – he won the Heisman  Trophy, the AP National Player of the Year award, the Manning Award, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Davey O'Brien Award and the Johnny Unitas Award as well as being a unanimous First-Team All-American and the SEC Offensive Player of the Year.
 
    He owns school career records for total yards (9,332), touchdown passes (76), completion percentage (.685), passing yards per game (305.9), 300-yard passing games (15), 400-yard passing games (4) and touchdowns responsible for (88: 12 rush, 76 pass). He finished his career having thrown for 300 yards in nine consecutive games and having completed 20 or more passes in 18 straight games, two more LSU records.
 
      Burrow was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft in April.
 
     In her four seasons as the Gamecocks' point guard, Tyasha Harris set program records for career assists (702) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.55) and tied the record for games played (139).
 
     The Noblesville, Indiana, native earned All-SEC honors three times, including first-team selection this past season. She also added All-America recognition and the Dawn Staley Award to her trophy case. Harris was a finalist for every national player of the year award as well.
 
     Harris' senior leadership and command of a young team guided South Carolina to another sweep of the SEC – 16-0 for the regular-season championship and another tournament title – and the first No. 1 ranking in both final national polls in program history.
 
   The other male nominees were: Zane Waddell, Swimming & Diving, Alabama; Mason Jones, Basketball, Arkansas; Derrick Brown, Football, Auburn; Kieran Smith, Swimming & Diving, Florida; Rodrigo Blankenship, Football, Georgia; Immanuel Quickley, Basketball, Kentucky; Waleed Suliman, Cross Country, Ole Miss; Reggie Perry, Basketball, Mississippi State; Danny Kovac, Swimming & Diving, Missouri; Itay Goldfaden, Swimming & Diving, South Carolina; Carey McLeod, Track & Field, Tennessee; Shaine Casas, Swimming & Diving, Texas A&M; John Augenstein, Golf, Vanderbilt.
 
    The other female nominees were: Bailey Hemphill, Softball, Alabama; Katie Izzo, Cross Country, Arkansas; Alison Maillard, Swimming & Diving, Auburn; Trinity Thomas, Gymnastics, Florida; Sabrina Vega, Gymnastics, Georgia; Leah Edmond, Volleyball, Kentucky; Tonea Marshall, Track & Field, LSU; Julia Johnson, Golf, Ole Miss; Rickea Jackson, Basketball, Mississippi State; Kylie Deberg, Volleyball, Missouri; Erika Brown, Swimming & Diving, Tennessee; Ally Watt, Soccer, Texas A&M; Maria Bulanova, Bowling, Vanderbilt.
 
     The SEC Athletes of the Year Awards were first presented in 1976 for men and 1984 for women. The award was renamed the Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year in 2004 to honor the former Commissioner who served the conference from 1990-2002.
 

​Article Courtesy of: LSUsports.net

6/16/2020
By: Terrill J. Weil
Da Boot Sports!


       Exciting news was announced this Tuesday morning, as former LSU running back and current
Tigers' running back coach Kevin Faulk, has been nominated for the College Football Hall of Fame. Faulk is the leading rusher in LSU history and the SEC's all-time leader in all-purpose yards. He is one of 78 players and seven coaches who have qualified for the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame ballot.  Only 1,027 players have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame. The 2021 class will be announced in early 2021 and officially inducted on December 7, 2021. 
    Faulk started his LSU career in 1995 as he became the team's starting running back as a true freshman. He finished his LSU career with 4,557 yards rushing in 41 games, which was second best in SEC history behind Georgia's Hershal Walker (5,259 yards in 34 games).  Faulk also finished his career with 6,833 career all-purpose yards and 53 total touchdowns, which tied him for fifth in NCAA history and first in SEC history.  His SEC record was topped by Tim Tebow in 2009. 
     The New England Patriots drafted Faulk in the second round (46th overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft. He would play 13 seasons for the Patriots, helping the franchise win three Super Bowls. Faulk would announce his retirement from the NFL on October 9th 2012. In 2016, he was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.
      LSU would hire Faulk as the football team's Director of Player Development in 2018, which
​he held for two years before being named the LSU running back coach in 2020. 
         


                         Below is how the CFB Hall of Fame's selection process works....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

​

Members of the National Football Foundation, as well as athletics directors, coaches and members of CoSIDA are responsible for the final vote induction into the Hall of Fame:

1. First and foremost, a player must have received First Team All-America recognition by a selector organization that is recognized by the NCAA and utilized to comprise their consensus All-America teams.
2. A player becomes eligible for consideration by the Foundation’s honors courts 10 years after his final year of intercollegiate football played.
3. While each nominee’s football achievements in college are of prime consideration, his post football record as a citizen is also weighed.  He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and fellow man.  Consideration may also be given for academic honors and whether or not the candidate earned a college degree.
4. Players must have played their last year of intercollegiate football within the last 50 years*.  For example, to be eligible for the 2014 ballot, the player must have played his last year in 1964 or thereafter. In addition, players who are playing professionally and coaches who are coaching on the professional level are not eligible until after they retire.
5. A coach becomes eligible three years after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years of age. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age. He must have been a head coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage*.

* Players that do not comply with the 50-year rule may still be eligible for consideration by the Football Bowl Subdivision and Divisional Honors Review Committees, which examine unique cases.

6/12/2020
By: Terrill J. Weil
Da Boot Sports!


             St. Thomas More quarterback Walker Howard officially committed to LSU on Friday.  Howard, the son of former LSU quarterback Jamie Howard, made his announcement via Twitter, declaring “legacy continues.”  
    The 6'-1", 185-lbs pro-style prospect chose LSU over Alabama, TCU, Baylor and Arizona State. He is rated as the fifth best pro-style signal caller in the country and a top five overall prospect in Louisiana for 2022.