Da Boot Sports
6/29/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


    Today Da Boot Sports honors the great LSU career of outside linebacker Eric Hill. Hill was a beast. He teamed up with Ron Sancho to form the best outside linebacker duo in LSU history and one of the best ever in college football. His speed and strength was terrifying. He was relentless on a Saturday night with a motor that never slowed down or quit on a play.  His huge hits and physical tackles were a nightmare for opponents. Eric Hill without a doubt is one of the best to ever wear the purple & gold. 
   Hill went on to have a very solid career in the NFL with the Phoenix Cardinals. 

Da Boot Sports
6/28/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


    Today Da Boot Sports honors former LSU running back Sammy Martin. Martin played at LSU from 1984-1987 and was a tremendous part of the Tigers' success. Martin was blazing fast! The definition of speed. He also had great hands, making big plays out of the backfield and occasionally lining up at wide receiver. Martin was also a very dangerous kickoff return specialist.  His amazing style was exciting to watch. No doubt Sammy Martin was one of the best ever to wear the purple and gold. 
   We have a highlight video posted below.. Enjoy Sammy Martin in action..   GEAUX TIGERS!!!

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Da Boot Sports
6/24/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


   Today Da Boot Sports put together a highlight reel of the incredible Dalton Hilliard. Hilliard is currently second on LSU's All-Time Rushing List, only behind the great Kevin Faulk. 
   Hilliard rushed for 4,050 yards on 882 carries and 44 touchdowns while catching 120 passes for 1,133 yards with 6 touchdown grabs in his four year career at LSU. 
   His running style was very unique and a thing of beauty to watch. 

    Enjoy the Dalton Hilliard Highlights posted below...
​

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Da Boot Sports
6/22/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


   The 11th ranked LSU Fighting Tigers went into Birmingham with the nation's top ranked defense and proved it that afternoon by games end. The 7-1, 8th ranked Crimson Tide were looking to extend their 11 game winning streak against the men from the bayou, but it wasn't meant to be. LSU dominated the Paul "Bear' Bryant Alabama squad in a vicious, physical manner that shocked the football world.
   Both defenses controlled the contest early, until LSU drew first blood on a 90 yard touchdown drive early in the second quarter. The score came courtesy of a 16 yard run by Dalton Hilliard. 
   The ferocious LSU defense pounded Alabama into mistakes. A fumble by Paul Carruth gave LSU the ball on the Tide's 30 yard line. Several plays later, Alan Risher threw a 3 yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Scott.  Alabama then fumbled on the ensuing kickoff. The Tigers moved into field goal range as the first half slipped away. Juan Betanzos kicked a 23-yarder to make it 17-0. 
   In the first half the Crimson Tide failed to get a first down as the LSU defense swarmed Alabama quarterback Walter Lewis. The Tigers defense was as horrifying as a Stephen King novel, as Lewis scrambled desperately throughout the contest. LSU held the Tide to only 32 total yards in the first half of play. 
   Alabama responded in the 3rd quarter with ten quick unanswered points, cutting the LSU lead to 17-10. 
   ''We didn't lose our cool though,'' said LSU cornerback James Britt, ''We had shut them down in the first half, and we felt we could do it again. A lot of people found out we were for real.''
   LSU did survive the Bama run and scored again after a long drive when Betanzos made a 20-yard field goal with 10:41 left in the game for the final margin. 20-10.    ''You beat Alabama and you beat a great tradition,'' Stovall said. ''This is a big step for us.''
   Bear Bryant said it was the worst beating physically that Alabama had suffered since the 1960's.
   The LSU defense held Alabama to only 119 yards on the day and forced seven fumbles, recovering four of them. 

    

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Da Boot Sports
6/21/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


   It was the 2004 season opener for the defending national champions. The start of the game was delayed because of inclement weather in the Baton Rouge area.
   It would be an exciting ending that a lot of fans in attendance would not witness. That's because several fans left the stadium early, including my dad and I, as the struggling Tigers were trailing, 15-7 with only 1:38 left in the contest.
   The opening kickoff set the tone for the night as Skyler Green fumbled and the Beavers recovered. LSU played an ugly first half, trailing 9-0 at the break.
   JaMarcus Russell started the second half, replacing Marcus Randall to give the Tigers a slight heartbeat, but the Bayou Bengals still continued to struggle, blowing several scoring opportunities.
   LSU kicker Chris Jackson missed two field goals and the Tigers failed to score anything after reaching the Oregon State two yard line with 3:39 left on the clock. 
   The Tigers finally got on the scoreboard with 5:41 left in the 3rd quarter when Russell found Skyler Green on a 16 yard touchdown pass, cutting the Beavers lead to 15-7.
   LSU got the ball back for their final possession of regulation with 1:38 left. After JaMarcus Russell threw two incompletions, he hooked up with Dwayne Bowe for a 26-yarder then a 38-yard touchdown to cut Oregon State’s lead to 15-13 with 1:05 left.
   “I told the QB to trust me,” Bowe said. “I said I’m not even going to run the route you call, I’m just going to get open. I was able to do that and in two plays I scored.”
   On the two point conversion attempt, Russell, who fought off his bad leg cramps to return to the game, ran to the left, stretched out the football and leaped into the end zone for two points to tie it at 15 and force overtime.
   Oregon State won the overtime toss and elected to defer. LSU would score on their possession on a five yard run by Marcus Randall who replaced JaMarcus Russell who continued suffering from leg cramps. The 22-15 score was LSU's first lead of the night. 
   The Beavers continued to fight back, as Oregon State quarterback Derek Anderson found Joe Newton on a 19-yard scoring pass, pulling the Beavers to 22-21.
   Beavers kicker Alexis Serna, a redshirt freshman, pushed the extra point wide right, giving LSU the 22-21 victory.
   “It was a crazy finish,” LSU defensive end Marcus Spears said. “We fought as long as we could fight, and fortunately he missed that extra point. I’d like to think that we had something to do with that. We got a lot of pressure up the middle and I guess he took his eye off it.”
​   It was an ugly performance by the Nick Saban led Tigers, but a beautiful ending as the Fighting Tigers showed heart and never gave up, battling till the end to provide the LSU faithful with another Epic LSU Football Moment. 
   

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Da Boot Sports
6/19/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


   It was a humid, muggy night in Baton Rouge on October 8, 1988. A crowd of 79,431 witnessed an epic battle between two top SEC teams. 
   Auburn came into Tiger Stadium 4-0 and ranked 4th in the nation. LSU was sitting at 2-2, on a two game losing streak. 
   It was a physical, hard hitting defensive battle all night long. Both defenses were dominating. Auburn managed a field goal on the last drive of the first half to take a 3-0 lead into the locker room at the break.
   Auburn managed another field goal with 10:18 left in the contest. 
   LSU took over on their own 24 yard line with 6:07 left in the game. It was obvious that this could be the Tigers final opportunity to make something happen. LSU had only crossed mid-field once during the entire contest. A battered Tommy Hodson drove the Tigers slowly down the field.
   With 1:47 left on the clock and LSU was facing a 4th and ten at the Auburn 11 yard line. Hodson found Eddie Fuller in the back of the end zone for the score and Death Valley erupted. David Browndyke calmly drilled the extra point to put the Bayou Bengals up, 7-6 with 1:41 remaining in the game. 
   “Time stood still,” Fuller said. “I saw Tommy throw the ball and it looked like a defender might have tipped it. It took forever for the ball to get to me, and it seemed like I almost dropped it because I had waited so long.”
   The Tigers drove 74 yards in 15 plays for the winning score, converting on two 4th downs. One Auburn defender was quoted after the game saying, "You could see a different look in LSU's eyes on their final drive."
   The crowd's eruption was so massive that it actually registered as an earthquake on the seismograph at LSU's Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex.
   The game was still not over. Auburn returned the kickoff to their 35 yard line and needing only a field goal, but the LSU defense stood tall and held the visiting Tigers to lock up victory for LSU. 
   The game was named, "The Earthquake Game", and has gone down in history as one of the greatest wins in LSU Football History. 
   "Initially, I didn't believe it," Eddie Fuller said. "I think it took a couple of years for it to sink in. It never dawned on me how big that play was here until years later, when I came back to LSU."

Final Drive Highlights Below

John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

  Da Boot Sports
6/18/2024
Article Courtesy of: AP News
By: Stewart Mandel


      Former LSU national championship coach Les Miles filed a lawsuit Monday against the school, the NCAA and the National Football Foundation, alleging LSU and the NCAA improperly vacated 37 wins from his tenure, rendering him ineligible for the College Football Hall of Fame.
   The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. 
   Miles’ officially recognized win-loss record over his 18 seasons at Oklahoma State, LSU and Kansas is 108-73 (.597), which puts him just below the .600 mark required for Hall of Fame consideration. LSU offered to vacate 37 wins, which the NCAA accepted, as part of an investigation into the football and men’s basketball programs.    It included a Level I violation in which the father of former offensive lineman Vadal Alexander received $180,150 from a booster who embezzled funds from a Baton Rouge children’s hospital.
   Miles’ attorneys alleged in the suit that “the NCAA did not find that Miles, as Head Coach, bore any responsibility for the sole violation that occurred during his time with the LSU football program.”
   Miles, 70, who won the 2007 BCS championship and played for another in 2011, was fired by LSU four games into the 2016 season, his 12th at the school. He was hired three years later by Kansas, where he went 3-18 during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
   Coaches can become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration three years after retirement, or immediately after retirement starting at 70. One of the schools he worked for would have to nominate the coach. Also, according to the Hall of Fame’s criteria, a candidate’s “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,” per the criteria.
  In March 2021, LSU released an investigative report from eight years earlier that found Miles acted inappropriately with female student workers, including inviting them to a hotel room or his condo, performing “unwanted touching” and kissing one student. AD Joe Alleva recommended firing Miles to top LSU officials at the time, but Miles kept his job for another three-plus years.
    Kansas fired Miles a few days later.Miles’ attorneys are seeking a declaratory judgment that Miles is eligible for College Football Hall of Fame nomination and that the vacated wins shall be considered as wins for Hall of Fame consideration.
   When reached, LSU said they were not able to comment due to the pending litigation. The NCAA and the National Football Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Da Boot Sports
6/14/2024
By: Terrill J. Weil


   BATON ROUGE, LA - He was a childhood hero of mine. When I was in high school, one of my favorite LSU football players of all-time was Linebacker Ron Sancho. He was a playmaker. Making big play after big play. His passion and emotion on the field was inspirational and contagious. 
   
   #52 in the purple and gold was always around the ball.   "His instincts were incredible." said former LSU defensive line coach Pete Jenkins. "He wasn't the best athlete, but no one made as many big plays for us as Sancho did."  Jenkins added. "I first saw him play when he was a sophomore at Shaw High School. I was at the game to watch a teammate of his, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Sancho, he was everywhere making plays." 

   Ron Sancho was an amazing football player, but he is even more of an amazing person. He's a thoughtful, caring christian man who is super generous, always doing for others. 

   "He played the game of football like he lives his life... By instinct... And his instincts are solid." said former LSU quarterback and good friend Mickey Guidry. 

   "Ron always had a knack for being at the right place and the right time to make a big play." said former LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson. 

   
   Ron Sancho was a great football player, a great person and a real life hero.  In 1986, Sancho and teammate Mickey Guidry were driving from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to attend a wedding and came across a very bad traffic accident. Below is the amazing story in Ron Sancho's own words. 

   **The day of his wedding fell during spring practice. It was on a Friday night, so after football practice that day, Mickey and I jumped in my car and headed out on Nicholson Drive. Back then Nicholson looked nothing like it does now. It was just a back road, especially after you pass Tiger Town. 
   We came up on an accident between a tanker truck and a car and you could tell that it just happened. I got out of the car and I could see that the tanker truck was leaking something. Then I looked at the car and it looked like a tornado had spun it and tore all the parts off of it. The car was just a hunk of metal with all its parts laying around it. 
   Mickey Guidry and I ran to check on the driver. We busted the window. The driver was wearing a white t-shirt and was covered in blood, so it looked really bad, but he was breathing and looked like he was going to be okay.
   After we got him out of the car, I told Mickey that I was going to check on the truck driver. I asked him to move my car so he could shine the head lights on the tanker truck. We knew we needed to get him out of there. 
   The truck was off the road in a cow pasture, laying partially in a ditch and chemicals were dripping into the ditch. When I got down there I saw that the truck cab was smashed and at this point whatever was leaking from the tanker was becoming a cloud. 
   I asked God not to let me see anything too gruesome, I just didn't think I could handle that. Then I heard this scream coming from inside the truck's cab and at that moment I remember hearing the Lord in my head asking me if I believed in him. 
   So ignoring the gas, (I didn't take the time to look for a skull and cross bones. I had no idea what the chemical was.), I told the Lord, "Yes I do believe in you. I'm going in. If I don't come out please take me to heaven." 
   I closed my eyes, took a big breath and went in. I had borrowed and was wearing Mike DeWitt's shoes and as I went into the ditch the chemical started burning and melting the shoes. To this day, DeWitt and I still talk about that and laugh about it. Anyway, when I got out of the ditch I had to climb over a barbwire fence. Mickey was shinning the lights for me but you couldn't see it through the chemical cloud. 
   I heard the guy scream again and found him. He was a big guy, bigger than me. I picked him up and put him over my shoulder, took a deep breath and opened my eyes. My eyes started watering, so I closed them. I tried to take another breath but the air came out of me. It felt like how you loose your breath on a football field after taking a big hit. That's when I started to panic with this guy on my shoulders. I couldn't breath and couldn't see. I didn't know how to get out of there. Something told me, "go this way"..  So I went that way and I got him to the fence, got him over it, walked through the acid in the ditch and put him down on the side of the road right as the cops were pulling up. The cops asked us if we witnessed the accident. We told them, "No sir" while showing them both injured men. 
   About thirty years later I get a call from Nacho and he says. "I Have someone here that I want you to talk to.".. Sure enough, it was the gentleman from that truck. He told me that he has been having problems since that day. His pelvis was broken in the accident along with getting burned by the chemical. So I got to find out how he was doing years later. 
   Mickey was right there with me the entire time helping. If it wasn't for Mickey, I don't know if I would have gotten out of the chemicals because he started screaming for me. 
   We still went to the wedding except I was shoeless. Why did I still go? Because we were half way there and I realized what it meant to Shane for us to go. He wanted us LSU football players at his wedding. So we went. 
   After the wedding, we drove back to LSU that night. Mickey was my roommate at the time and being a quarterback he had to go to practice early to look at game film and study, so he left before me.
   We had a scrimmage at noon that day and Arnsparger knocked on my door. Automatically your stomach drops because it's never good to have your head coach come knock on your door in the dorm. Mickey told him what happen and he came to tell me that I wasn't playing in the scrimmage, sending me to the infirmary. Mickey told him that I was coughing all night so he wanted me to get checked out by a doctor. I got checked and everything was fine. 
   A reporter found out about what happened, so a week later after the spring game Bill asked me to talk to the media. He felt that lately college football players were getting a lot of bad press about being spoiled young men. He wanted to give them something good and positive to report. So I said, "Sure coach, if you think that's what I should do?"...  So that's how the story got out. It kind of snowballed and I got to go to the White House. I met John Glenn. I ate dinner. It was one of the best moments of my life. 


   
   "When I was growing up in high school, my dad Clyde Brecheen was a huge sports fan. A huge LSU fan and a youth football league coach for years. We would watch a lot of LSU football games and one of his favorite players was Ron Sancho." Lee Brecheen, owner of Louisiana Football Magazine said. "My dad loved how tough, instinctive and smart he was. I remember huge games against Ohio State, Florida, Alabama and Tulane and Ron had the most tackles of anybody on the field for LSU." Brecheen would then add, "If you would go back and watch film of Ron when he was at LSU, I think it would be a great way for a young kid to learn a lot today that plays sports. To say this is what high effort, dedication and leadership is. This is the guy. Watch what he did. He gave everything he had on the field for LSU.  What I've learned from Ron in a short time is he's even a greater human being. He loves his family and he helps people. He will give you the shirt off his back. I remember being with Ron and his family for a Saints game. We were parking and four or five valet guys were hanging around and it was Christmas time. Ron gave all these guys a huge tip and thanked them for their hard work and wished them a Merry Christmas. You don't see many people do that." 

   Former teammate and friend Sammy Martin said. " Ron Sancho was underestimated and under recognized, but he always did his job! Just because you didn't make the tackle doesn't mean you were not in on the play! He forced plenty of tackles."

   "Giving a personal quote on Ron Sancho is almost a disservice because there is so much to unpack about The Sanch!" said former LSU Linebacker, and friend Eric Hill.  "For starters, Ron is and has been one of the most gracious people that I've ever met.  As a player he wasn't what you saw visually, which I believe was an asset to his game. Opponents saw a long, awkward, (non-athletic) player and proceeded accordingly. Ron ran circles around them. He was truly the master of deception. I'm still in awe of some of the plays he made in his career. I could never attempt some of the things he did. We competed against one another daily, which ultimately made us one of the best linebacker tandems in the country at that time and in LSU history. Let's just say, there were many highlighted plays in his career that were totally unscripted. The Sanch had the ability to make that great play at a time in need. He was unapologetic for doing what was needed to be done at that time, (calling his own play). Yes I said it. Sancho had his own playbook at times. That's what made him great and differentiated himself from the pack. If we could do it all over again, he'd be my road dog to wreck havoc with on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium. Much love to my brother."

   
​   Stories like to ones above are no surprise to me. Ron Sancho has touched my life and is a shining example of how the Lord wants us to live. Ron Sancho is always there for me. Friendship isn't about who you've known the longest, It's about who walks into your life and says "I'm here for you" and proves it. That's Ron. To have him in my life as a friend is truly a huge blessing. There aren't many people like him in the world today. There are certain people who make the world a better place just by being in it. Ron Sancho is one of those people. 



   After football, Sancho went into business to save lives. He saves people. Sancho owns a medical imaging company, Cardio Health Solutions, that picks up female heart disease. They treat about 305 to 325 patients a week. They have eighteen imaging centers and another four that they're working on now in Florida. They help doctors find patterns for females who have heart disease because it's really hard to pick up and show. Ron's machines help show it to the doctors. 

             About Cardio Health Solutions
   Cardio Health Solutions (CHS) is a diagnostic and imaging company that provides cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) equipment and cardiac positron emission tomography (cardiac PET) to cardiology clinics in Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
CHS provides financing, support, and management services to medical practices interested in exploring the functional capacity of their patients through detection and ancillary imaging. CHS partners with cardiologists to offer in-office fixed-site technology, and we provide capital, development, and operational oversight.
CHS partners with these clinics to create a state-of-the-art heart program specializing in the imaging, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of large vessel heart disease and coronary microvascular disease (MVD), as well as the detection of viable heart tissue.

    In July of 2022 Ron agreed to do a Q&A phone interview with me for Da Boot Sports on his playing career. During the interview, we had personal conversation, discovering that we had some things in common. I then asked him to be a part of our weekly LSU Football podcast, 'Talking Tigers with Da Boot Sports' and he accepted. Not long after, he offered to sponsor the publication and the rest is history.  

   With Ron's help, and support, Da Boot Sports will continue to grow and become as successful as ever. Ron Sancho is a special human being and I thank God everyday that he is my friend and a part of my life. Thank You Ron for everything!  Love ya my friend! 

   
​

Check out this highlight video of Ron Sancho! #52 is always around the ball! Amazing football player! If you've never seen Ron Sancho play, you'll be amazed at his determination, speed, instincts and his nose for the football. All Heart!  

​John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior)

​*John 3;16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.