video of presser
at 9:15 Wednesday night it's not quite done processing on youtube but will be done soon
transcript:
Opening comments:
"Here we are. It is finally signing day. I know coaches all over the country are taking a deep breath on this day, having the opportunity to ink so many of these young men we have been chasing around the country for the last, really I would say, two months, but really for about the last year with the way recruiting has started developing with everything. I am just really proud of the staff and the job they were able to do. We had six coaches that really carried the bulk of this thing when you talk about the holdovers with Coach (Tony) Petersen. I though Joe Sloan as the recruiting coordinator really did a nice job of organizing this class. The job that Jabbar Juluke, Tim Rattay, Blake Baker and Ronnie Bradford did in putting this class together - I think they are really to be commended because I think it is a very talented class."
"We answered a lot of needs with this class. When you look at this class, there are a lot of different ways to break them down. There are 14 on defense and nine on offense. When you look at them geographically, there are 11 from the state of Louisiana, three from Arkansas, five from Texas, three from Mississippi and one from the state of Florida. I believe you have seven that played for or won a state championship. Seven out of 23 is a pretty impressive number. I am just really excited about this class. There are 22 high school players and one transfer. Probably the one thing that is missing from a Louisiana Tech class is a junior college player, which we are really trying to wean ourselves off that right now. We are trying to build this with high school players that are going to come in here and help us build it from the ground up. That does not mean we will never take another one, but for right now we are trying to wean ourselves out of it and we really felt like with some of the high school players that were along this I-20 corridor, 13 of these players were from east Texas, southern Arkansas, Shreveport, Monroe, Rayville. When you look at it, I think 12 of them are from the I-20 corridor. We felt like there were enough really good high school players that were interested that we had the opportunity to build it with."
"With the question, 'What needs were you looking for?' Obviously it starts on defense and signing 14 over there; a very balanced class. We signed three linebackers. I really like the three linebackers. Every one of them are extremely smart from a GPA standpoint when you look at them. They have range. They can run. They will hit. They are athletic. I really like this group of linebackers coming in. I think Brandon Durman, who is a young man who will enroll early in March, definitely has a chance to come in and make an impact. I think the other in Dante Williams and Collin Scott are very talented players. We have three very solid linebackers coming in."
"We signed five defensive linemen, two defensive ends in Immanuel Turner and Brandon Brinson. If you look at both of them, they are both about 6-4, 220 pounds. You are going to hear me use that word a lot. They can run and they have range. We talk about trying to get that range and you look at what Kurt Hester has done to guys that are on this football team when you look at a redshirt year of a Carlos Henderson and right now we are talking about Secdrick Cooper, who is now a 208-pound safety at about 6-foot-2. I look at what he has done to Shane Carpenter, who came in at 270 pounds at 6-6 and now he is 315 pounds. I just think he has done some great things with these guys. That is one of the things that we look at these young players with. That is what both these defensive ends have. They have range. They have speed, athleticism and toughness. If you can continue to recruit that, you certainly have a chance."
"On the defensive line and the tackles inside, we signed three of them. I think Jordan Bradford is a defensive tackle out of Mississippi who is a big, strong physical presence inside. Courtney Wallace, who I think kind of leads that group of defensive tackles and was a late addition coming down the stretch from Monroe. I think he has huge size on the inside and gives us an opportunity to make a presence inside. I am really excited about what he brings to the table. La'Davenport out of Shreveport also; those three guys and then those two on the edge give us five young guys to work with that are going to be there for a while. I am really excited about getting them in here and watching their development."
"A year ago at this time on Signing Day, coming into it, we did not sign many defensive backs. We had lost three defensive backs the last three days before signing day and really kind of got raided at that position. This year, we really tried to make up for it by signing six in the secondary that I think really has a chance to be a special group. You look at the addition the last couple of years with guys like Xavier Woods, Secdrick Cooper, then what Kentrell Brice and Le'Vander Liggins, Adairius Barnes, Bryson Abraham have done. You have some guys that have played some football, but the depth was really important for this class. When I start at the corner, Ephraim Kitchen I think is probably the most polished. I am really excited to get him in here to see what he can do. I also think Trey Spencer and Aaron Roberson from Shreveport - I think Aaron may be one of the more talented players in this class that would have an opportunity to play either way, although we are going to start him at corner."
"At the safety position, it starts with James Jackson from Haynesville, right up the road. He is 190 pounds. He is a 6-foot safety, but yet he plays center on his basketball team because of his athleticism, his jumping ability and some of the things he can do. I think he is really going to develop into one of the better safeties in this league before he leaves here. I really like what he brings to the table. Theron Williams, a young man from New Orleans, brings a toughness and kind of a linebacker mentality to the safety position. Also Johnny Shaw, who was a young man that committed to Texas early in this process, de-committed there and then ended up coming here. I just think the world of him and what he can be and develop into as a safety."
"Overall, when you look at the defensive side of the ball, it is a very balanced class with six in the secondary, three linebackers and then five up front on the defensive line."
"When you go to the offensive side of the ball, I am really excited about the three high school offensive linemen. A year ago, we signed Shane Carpenter. You look at him as a redshirt and a guy that has a chance to step in and compete for starting time right now. I think O'Shea Dugas, DeVante Lovett, who I think has huge size where he is, and then Ethan Reed are all very talented. They all have range and size. We took a picture of all three of them when they were here. They are all about 6-4 to 6-6 and 280 to 300 pounds. I think all three of them really have a chance to be really good players here. It will be exciting to see their development. You never know until an offensive lineman gets here, you do not want to count on them to come in and play as a freshman, but I think they all three are going to be really stand out players here. It will be nice to see young guys like that who will be in the program for a long period of time."
"At the running back position, we signed a running back out of southern Arkansas, Jaqwis Dancy, who I think is a steal. I think he is really a special player and a great combination of size, athleticism and speed when you look at his highlight film and what he does. The number of yards he has rushed for and he hardly played in the second half this year. I think he is a very talented player and a great get for us at Louisiana Tech. Even though when you look at our depth at the tailback position having guys like Jarred Craft coming in from Haughton a year ago and playing, having Kenneth Dixon, Blake Martin, Marlon Seets and some of the guys we have there right now - we have a little depth there - but he is definitely a guy who has a chance to be a big play threat for us in the future."
"We signed three wide receivers and I like all three of them. They are all different in their own way. Again, talking about Jarred Craft coming in from Haughton and some of the Haughton players that have come in here and had great success, but it starts with Javonte Woodard. He is very talented with a lot of speed. You look at him and Rhashid Bonnette. Both of those guys bring speed and athleticism to the position. Jamarion Johnson is a 6-4, 220-pound athlete that will start at wide receiver. If he gets bigger, he could always move inside, but I think he kind of gives you some mismatch issues. We do return a pretty good nucleus of receivers with Paul Turner, Trent Taylor, Carlos Henderson and some of those guys that played a lot for us and then a couple of the freshmen in Marlon Watts and Marcus Gaines. It would be harder for those guys to get on the field this year, but I am really excited to see what they bring."
"With the quarterback position, I think J'mar Smith is a very talented young player. He was a player in the Mississippi All-Star Game. He is a very talented quarterback. When you are watching him on film, you hear he may be a little undersized, but when you meet him in person he has great strength and great size. He is 225 pounds, throws the ball, runs with it and is athletic. When you look at Price Wilson, Alex Woodall and J'mar Smith, you have three really good quarterbacks that are in the redshirt freshmen and freshmen class that I think will bode well for the future here at Louisiana Tech."
"The one transfer is Jeff Driskel. Jeff Driskel, I think, has a chance to come in here and really be a special player. We came into this season and said we had one upperclassman in Ryan Higgins, who I think has made some great strides in the last year. I am excited to watch him continue to grow as a player. When you look at Ohio State, they played three quarterbacks this year and we are going to have a junior, two redshirt freshmen and a freshman, and that is why we were interested in bringing another transfer in here to give us an opportunity to play with some upperclassmen at that position while some of the young guys continue to get their feet underneath them. Jeff brings a combination of speed and athleticism. He throws the ball very well. He will be here in March and I am looking forward to him getting here and seeing what he has the ability to do. I know he was a very highly-recruited young man, but I have just really been impressed with his presence, his class, the way he has carried himself. I have been impressed with him as a young man with everything he has been through. I am looking forward to getting him here and getting on the field with him."
"With recruiting and signing 23, we do have 25 available. Just like last year, we save a couple spots because there are always some transfers that show up. Last year, I believe it was during spring ball that we pretty much nailed down Cody Sokol and Houston Bates, which turned out to be two pretty impactful players for us and gave us the ability to have some success. We will continue to have our eyes open for that and some of those guys that have the opportunity to be late additions to this football team."
"I am really excited about the high school players and the class that has been put together and having recruiting kind of in the books. We know these guys are here. They will be reporting here this summer with two of them being here in March and watching these guys grow as a class. Kurt Hester has been working with this football team. I think he is doing an unbelievable job. You look at some of these upperclassmen that are really changing their bodies right now and really excited. There were seven freshmen that played a year ago when you start looking at Jarred Craft, Roland Dunn, Secdrick Cooper and Russell Farris, Marcus Gaines and Marlon Watts. There were seven freshmen that played and watching these guys develop and continue to grow, it is neat to see what they are doing to their bodies."
"We start our winter workouts on Monday where the coaches will have the opportunity to be on the field with our football team. We begin spring practice on March 13 and that will culminate with the spring game on April 18. That is kind of what we have going for the spring. We are really excited about signing day and getting these guys in the boat."
On players from the I-20 corridor:
"This is where it starts. We talked about how important the state of Louisiana was to us. You are not going to sign 12 from around here every year, but when you have a year like this with this many talented players, this is what we were looking for. If you gave somebody from Louisiana Tech a globe, they would spin it to the United States. If you gave them a map of the United States, they would look for Louisiana. If you gave them a map of Louisiana, they would look for that I-20 corridor right in the middle of the state. This is home. This is where we are and we think it is important that we start here and work our way out. We are going to try and find those 25 players that we feel have a chance to come in here and believe in this program and that want to stay close to home. It gives them an opportunity to play in front of their families and play at a high level and win."
"This is an exciting program right now. It is certainly evident by what we were able to do this year in going over to Dallas and winning the Heart of Dallas Bowl against a Big 10 team. I think this building that is outside definitely has an impact on recruiting. It has helped to create a lot of excitement. When you get down on the field, you realize how big that structure is sitting right off the field. As the steel is going up, that is helping to create a lot of excitement and it is showing the commitment the university is making to this football program and the level we want to compete at. I think all of those things go into the equation of building this Louisiana Tech athletic program and especially the football team when we recruit in this area. If these people right down the road feel that they can come here, go to bowls, develop with the strength coaches, play a high level of football, win and have a great experience, then there are no reasons to leave north Louisiana."
On quality of the players from this area:
"The program was built with a lot of junior college players over the past few years before we got here. We just felt like we wanted to build the program with the stability of high school players. We have recruited these players the past two years, we just did not have the same response we had this year. That is where our success on the field, the new football facility, and being one of the top schools in the country in regards to current players already having a degree. I think all of those things have gone into the equation to make Louisiana Tech more attractive to some of these players. We are going to continue to recruit the state of Louisiana. That is first and foremost. Out of our 23, 22 of them are within a four hour car ride from where we sit."
On how the perception changed as the team continued to win in 2014:
"It comes into play with young men like Courtney Wallace. He is from right here locally in the Monroe area and maybe earlier thought bigger was better. When he had an opportunity to see how the season played out and saw the success players like Xavier Woods had as freshmen. He had the opportunity to leave for other programs but turned them down, just like many other players on this list did. They turned down division 1, BCS programs to be here. Xavier Woods started every game. Trent Taylor was our leading receiver coming in from Shreveport. Kenneth Dixon is from 45 minutes away. He comes here, starts every game and has pulled in some impressive accolades. A lot of people realize that you do not need to leave North Louisiana to play big time football and get those accolades and opportunities. As we tell them, you want to find a place where you can play. Being in a stadium with a lot of people and standing on the sideline is not the objective. You want to get on the field and play. That way you have an opportunity to make your mark. That is what so many of these players have done, that have come from the local area."
On difficulty of hanging on to early commitments:
"It was difficult. It is because a lot of them had opportunities to go to other schools. Many of these young men were visited by schools out of the Big 12 and SEC and had some opportunities to leave, so many of them stayed with their commitment. I look at the character of the young men that said I made this decision in June and I am sticking with it. There were others who got caught up in the recruiting process and the size of the prize out there. Some of that is hard to combat. I have always said that in recruiting, I am excited about the ones we get and the ones that have that character to stick by their word. It was hard to hang onto them but I think that is a real compliment to this staff and the job they did, undermanned a little bit with three coaches leaving during the recruiting process. Those six guys I mentioned at the beginning had to hold on and continue with these relationships. I thought Rick Petri came in here and did a nice job building a relationship with those five defensive linemen. He was very influential in Courtney Wallace's decision to stay here close to home. I thought Robert McFarland did a really good job with those offensive linemen. Those three linemen have size and athleticism. They have a chance to be special. To have three high school linemen come in here and have a chance to be here for the next five years excites me for the future."
On difference between losing coaches last year vs. this year:
"We lost Stan Eggen after signing day. He was here through signing day and left right after recruiting ended. We had a much better nucleus. We lost our defensive coordinator and defensive line coach and we felt like we had to put people in place. We had two guys left on defense to try and hold it all together. Offensively, I cannot say enough about what those guys have done in building relationships. We still have another coach that I have not hired yet. We have been a coach short since I made the decision to promote Blake Baker to coordinator and move him to the linebackers. He held the linebackers. Ronnie Bradford took over the secondary. Rick Petri came in and took over the defensive line. We still have to hire a safeties coach. We have been doing it a little shorthanded but I felt like our focus needed to be to get in with these young men. I believe in the last week of recruiting, I drove 1,980 miles from Sunday to Thursday. I participated in 18 home visits. I felt like it was more important that we did that than it was that we put another coach in place. That is one of the things we are going to try and work on and see if we can get that done by the end of the week."
On team recruiting:
"With the number of players we had committed early, you were really only recruiting about 25 players, rather than having to recruit 50 to sign 25. With players committed so early, we had the opportunity to tag team and go in with a coordinator, position coach, recruiting coach or a head coach. We were able to put an emphasis on how important this young man was in our process. I think a lot of those young men are committing early, which is the wave that is starting to happen. You are seeing a lot more people do that and try and get a jump on 2016. I think it definitely helped us hold on to a lot of these young men and show the emphasis that we had on them and how important they were to our class."
On Blake Baker:
"The transition has gone great. It has gone great for a lot of the commitments on the defensive side of the ball. A lot of players were worried that with Coach Diaz leaving, the defense would change. That was part of promoting Blake Baker. The terminology is going to stay the same, not that it was a big issue for our signees. I thought it was a huge issue for our players. Our defensive players have had three coordinators in four years. I did not want to make it a fourth, where they were having to learn new terminology. Even though it is a new coordinator, there is a familiarity with Coach Baker. There is a familiarity with his coaching style and the style of defense we are going to run. With a lot of that staying the same, I thought that was the least abrasive move for our defense to make sure we can go into spring this year not teaching what to do, but how to do it. We can get a little bit better and take another step forward with what we want to do. I thought it was the right move for our players. I thought it was the right move from a recruiting standpoint with so many of these young men that enjoyed the aggressive style that we played defensively. There was not a shortage of coaches that were very interested in the coordinator job. There were some name coaches, some experienced coaches and there were coaches that would have been "wow" coaches. I felt like the right move was Blake Baker internally with what we needed for our football team right now and for the signees, especially with the number that we had committed early. When you look at the 14 signees, I think most of them were in the boat before the season began."
On most impressive aspect of the 2015 class:
"I would say the key to it all has been speed. That is one of the things we have tried to recruit here. We have six in the secondary, three wide receivers and a running back. That gives you ten guys in the class that are skill players. That is the one ingredient you see with all of them. They can run, they are physical and they are aggressive. That is the main thing I see overall with this class. We just signed eight offensive and defensive linemen as freshmen out of high school. I think it has been a long time since that has happened here in trying to build a program with a foundation of high school players that will be in your program for four and five years."
On special teams:
"When you look at our statistics, it certainly was not that we could not use one, because we could. We were 120th out of 128 teams in the country in punting average. We were 63 percent on our field goal attempts. Neither one of those are good enough to win with. We could only sign 25 and we did not have any to count backwards. I felt like we had bigger needs at other positions, rather than trying to continue to just stock pile kickers or punters. If we went and signed another one, that would have been one less defensive back, one less offensive lineman or one less of something else that I felt like we really needed. I am hopeful that the kickers and punters we have on scholarship right now will continue to improve and get better. You are always looking for a walk-on who is looking for an opportunity to come in and beat somebody out to earn a scholarship."
On influence of Super Bowl players:
"Certainly the success many of these players have had in the NFL, speaks volumes. I think it would be difficult to say that Justin Ellis' success did not affect Courtney Wallace, coming from the same high school. Ellis was on the all-rookie team in the NFL after playing here at Louisiana Tech. We also have the success of IK Enemkpali. We have many different players in the NFL. I certainly think that helps build the image of what we are doing here and how we are building it here at Louisiana Tech."
On how recruiting has changed throughout the years:
"The timing of it is the biggest thing. Young men used to take visits in January and start making their decisions the last two weeks of January. You kind of recruited them all along and it was an all-out sprint. All of a sudden you go into the season and you have 20 commitments. Let's just make sure we maintain this. We know much more about these student athletes, we are in on them earlier, we know more about them academically, we have been around them more with the way summer camps have continued to move on. They have the opportunity to get out in the spring. I also think that recruiting has changed from a standpoint that the world has gotten a lot smaller. With the use of the internet I think there are schools that are recruiting a much broader area than they used to. They can now pull up the internet and watch a young man on film and say to offer him. We are kind of recruiting this area the old fashioned way of going into schools, developing relationships with the high school coaches, and trying to get on these young men earlier. I think these young men have a lot more attention on them now than they ever have in the past. I enjoy the recruiting part of it; I enjoy getting to meet these families and these young men. You look at the 23 signees; you probably had 23 really great experiences, having the opportunity to meet the young man and really be around him and really be impressed with him. There is an under-belly and there are some people that change their minds at the last minute and they are 18 year olds and they get confused with all the information being thrown at them, but ultimately what recruiting is about is not how many stars are next to your name, not how many offers you get, it is about making sure that you find a place that you feel you can go graduate, get on the field and develop as a football player and have a phenomenal experience socially and a family here. If you can find that then that is what recruiting is all about. I am so proud of this football team and we are trying to build here right now because I think it plays too many of the players that we are trying to attract."
On if there are similarities between Courtney Wallace and Justin Ellis:
"They are both about 340 pounds and they are both from Neville High School. They both have great feet. I think Justin did a great job of coming in here and working extremely hard and having the opportunity to coach him and see how much he developed as a young man and his work habits, I am anxious to see where Courtney [Wallace] is when he comes in. I know he has great size and phenomenal power and I think he has got great feet. It is going to be how quickly he adjusts to the learning curve that goes into playing college football. He is a very talented player and has a lot of similarities to where they are athletically."
On what the coaches do differently on recruiting locally:
"We are there. We are going to be at every school in this state at a minimal of once a year. Most of the schools on the I-20 corridor and some of the more populated places we will be in twice in the spring and then a couple of times in the December and January times that we can go out. We have put our emphasis here and what we have done is this is where we spend our time. Wherever you put your time kind of is where you are going to get your results from and we have certainly tried to spend our time and we think there is great football in the I-20 corridor and we talk about the whole northern part of the state and even when you get into Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas I think there is a lot of talent in the state. We need to make sure that we do a great job of beating the bushes and going into these schools every year and identifying a lot of these young men as sophomores and juniors and getting them on our recruiting radars and following them. We need to be making sure they are doing what they need to be doing academically and those types of things and I think those types of things will steamroll and build this as we continue to move forward."
On recruiting from the Shreveport area due to the successes of some other guys:
"I think when you recruit an area it starts with one or two and then they come and have success and then you get three or four and then five or six and before you know it you start to build an area as your own. It is going to take us time to do that. When I look at the players out of the Shreveport-Bossier area and when I look at the success out of Haughton that we have had with Marlon Seets and Jarred Craft and Trent Taylor, Xavier Woods, and I think all those things go a long way in helping us build it. Hopefully as we look at this big class of signees, when these guys come in and have some success, it is only going to make it easier to recruit these local towns. When they say you know what I do not care who else calls me, they will not be an option because Tech is 30 minutes to an hour down the road, my family can be at every home game, I can play a high level of football, I can build my career to get into the NFL, go to Bowl games and have success. If you can do that because I do not think it is just about us recruiting that area, it is about that area feeling like Louisiana Tech is a valid option for them regardless of who offers them. When you look at some of these schools and the offers they have turned down that is becoming more and more of a reality."
This post was edited on 2/4 9:15 PM by J. Ford
This post was edited on 2/4 9:16 PM by J. Ford
at 9:15 Wednesday night it's not quite done processing on youtube but will be done soon
transcript:
Opening comments:
"Here we are. It is finally signing day. I know coaches all over the country are taking a deep breath on this day, having the opportunity to ink so many of these young men we have been chasing around the country for the last, really I would say, two months, but really for about the last year with the way recruiting has started developing with everything. I am just really proud of the staff and the job they were able to do. We had six coaches that really carried the bulk of this thing when you talk about the holdovers with Coach (Tony) Petersen. I though Joe Sloan as the recruiting coordinator really did a nice job of organizing this class. The job that Jabbar Juluke, Tim Rattay, Blake Baker and Ronnie Bradford did in putting this class together - I think they are really to be commended because I think it is a very talented class."
"We answered a lot of needs with this class. When you look at this class, there are a lot of different ways to break them down. There are 14 on defense and nine on offense. When you look at them geographically, there are 11 from the state of Louisiana, three from Arkansas, five from Texas, three from Mississippi and one from the state of Florida. I believe you have seven that played for or won a state championship. Seven out of 23 is a pretty impressive number. I am just really excited about this class. There are 22 high school players and one transfer. Probably the one thing that is missing from a Louisiana Tech class is a junior college player, which we are really trying to wean ourselves off that right now. We are trying to build this with high school players that are going to come in here and help us build it from the ground up. That does not mean we will never take another one, but for right now we are trying to wean ourselves out of it and we really felt like with some of the high school players that were along this I-20 corridor, 13 of these players were from east Texas, southern Arkansas, Shreveport, Monroe, Rayville. When you look at it, I think 12 of them are from the I-20 corridor. We felt like there were enough really good high school players that were interested that we had the opportunity to build it with."
"With the question, 'What needs were you looking for?' Obviously it starts on defense and signing 14 over there; a very balanced class. We signed three linebackers. I really like the three linebackers. Every one of them are extremely smart from a GPA standpoint when you look at them. They have range. They can run. They will hit. They are athletic. I really like this group of linebackers coming in. I think Brandon Durman, who is a young man who will enroll early in March, definitely has a chance to come in and make an impact. I think the other in Dante Williams and Collin Scott are very talented players. We have three very solid linebackers coming in."
"We signed five defensive linemen, two defensive ends in Immanuel Turner and Brandon Brinson. If you look at both of them, they are both about 6-4, 220 pounds. You are going to hear me use that word a lot. They can run and they have range. We talk about trying to get that range and you look at what Kurt Hester has done to guys that are on this football team when you look at a redshirt year of a Carlos Henderson and right now we are talking about Secdrick Cooper, who is now a 208-pound safety at about 6-foot-2. I look at what he has done to Shane Carpenter, who came in at 270 pounds at 6-6 and now he is 315 pounds. I just think he has done some great things with these guys. That is one of the things that we look at these young players with. That is what both these defensive ends have. They have range. They have speed, athleticism and toughness. If you can continue to recruit that, you certainly have a chance."
"On the defensive line and the tackles inside, we signed three of them. I think Jordan Bradford is a defensive tackle out of Mississippi who is a big, strong physical presence inside. Courtney Wallace, who I think kind of leads that group of defensive tackles and was a late addition coming down the stretch from Monroe. I think he has huge size on the inside and gives us an opportunity to make a presence inside. I am really excited about what he brings to the table. La'Davenport out of Shreveport also; those three guys and then those two on the edge give us five young guys to work with that are going to be there for a while. I am really excited about getting them in here and watching their development."
"A year ago at this time on Signing Day, coming into it, we did not sign many defensive backs. We had lost three defensive backs the last three days before signing day and really kind of got raided at that position. This year, we really tried to make up for it by signing six in the secondary that I think really has a chance to be a special group. You look at the addition the last couple of years with guys like Xavier Woods, Secdrick Cooper, then what Kentrell Brice and Le'Vander Liggins, Adairius Barnes, Bryson Abraham have done. You have some guys that have played some football, but the depth was really important for this class. When I start at the corner, Ephraim Kitchen I think is probably the most polished. I am really excited to get him in here to see what he can do. I also think Trey Spencer and Aaron Roberson from Shreveport - I think Aaron may be one of the more talented players in this class that would have an opportunity to play either way, although we are going to start him at corner."
"At the safety position, it starts with James Jackson from Haynesville, right up the road. He is 190 pounds. He is a 6-foot safety, but yet he plays center on his basketball team because of his athleticism, his jumping ability and some of the things he can do. I think he is really going to develop into one of the better safeties in this league before he leaves here. I really like what he brings to the table. Theron Williams, a young man from New Orleans, brings a toughness and kind of a linebacker mentality to the safety position. Also Johnny Shaw, who was a young man that committed to Texas early in this process, de-committed there and then ended up coming here. I just think the world of him and what he can be and develop into as a safety."
"Overall, when you look at the defensive side of the ball, it is a very balanced class with six in the secondary, three linebackers and then five up front on the defensive line."
"When you go to the offensive side of the ball, I am really excited about the three high school offensive linemen. A year ago, we signed Shane Carpenter. You look at him as a redshirt and a guy that has a chance to step in and compete for starting time right now. I think O'Shea Dugas, DeVante Lovett, who I think has huge size where he is, and then Ethan Reed are all very talented. They all have range and size. We took a picture of all three of them when they were here. They are all about 6-4 to 6-6 and 280 to 300 pounds. I think all three of them really have a chance to be really good players here. It will be exciting to see their development. You never know until an offensive lineman gets here, you do not want to count on them to come in and play as a freshman, but I think they all three are going to be really stand out players here. It will be nice to see young guys like that who will be in the program for a long period of time."
"At the running back position, we signed a running back out of southern Arkansas, Jaqwis Dancy, who I think is a steal. I think he is really a special player and a great combination of size, athleticism and speed when you look at his highlight film and what he does. The number of yards he has rushed for and he hardly played in the second half this year. I think he is a very talented player and a great get for us at Louisiana Tech. Even though when you look at our depth at the tailback position having guys like Jarred Craft coming in from Haughton a year ago and playing, having Kenneth Dixon, Blake Martin, Marlon Seets and some of the guys we have there right now - we have a little depth there - but he is definitely a guy who has a chance to be a big play threat for us in the future."
"We signed three wide receivers and I like all three of them. They are all different in their own way. Again, talking about Jarred Craft coming in from Haughton and some of the Haughton players that have come in here and had great success, but it starts with Javonte Woodard. He is very talented with a lot of speed. You look at him and Rhashid Bonnette. Both of those guys bring speed and athleticism to the position. Jamarion Johnson is a 6-4, 220-pound athlete that will start at wide receiver. If he gets bigger, he could always move inside, but I think he kind of gives you some mismatch issues. We do return a pretty good nucleus of receivers with Paul Turner, Trent Taylor, Carlos Henderson and some of those guys that played a lot for us and then a couple of the freshmen in Marlon Watts and Marcus Gaines. It would be harder for those guys to get on the field this year, but I am really excited to see what they bring."
"With the quarterback position, I think J'mar Smith is a very talented young player. He was a player in the Mississippi All-Star Game. He is a very talented quarterback. When you are watching him on film, you hear he may be a little undersized, but when you meet him in person he has great strength and great size. He is 225 pounds, throws the ball, runs with it and is athletic. When you look at Price Wilson, Alex Woodall and J'mar Smith, you have three really good quarterbacks that are in the redshirt freshmen and freshmen class that I think will bode well for the future here at Louisiana Tech."
"The one transfer is Jeff Driskel. Jeff Driskel, I think, has a chance to come in here and really be a special player. We came into this season and said we had one upperclassman in Ryan Higgins, who I think has made some great strides in the last year. I am excited to watch him continue to grow as a player. When you look at Ohio State, they played three quarterbacks this year and we are going to have a junior, two redshirt freshmen and a freshman, and that is why we were interested in bringing another transfer in here to give us an opportunity to play with some upperclassmen at that position while some of the young guys continue to get their feet underneath them. Jeff brings a combination of speed and athleticism. He throws the ball very well. He will be here in March and I am looking forward to him getting here and seeing what he has the ability to do. I know he was a very highly-recruited young man, but I have just really been impressed with his presence, his class, the way he has carried himself. I have been impressed with him as a young man with everything he has been through. I am looking forward to getting him here and getting on the field with him."
"With recruiting and signing 23, we do have 25 available. Just like last year, we save a couple spots because there are always some transfers that show up. Last year, I believe it was during spring ball that we pretty much nailed down Cody Sokol and Houston Bates, which turned out to be two pretty impactful players for us and gave us the ability to have some success. We will continue to have our eyes open for that and some of those guys that have the opportunity to be late additions to this football team."
"I am really excited about the high school players and the class that has been put together and having recruiting kind of in the books. We know these guys are here. They will be reporting here this summer with two of them being here in March and watching these guys grow as a class. Kurt Hester has been working with this football team. I think he is doing an unbelievable job. You look at some of these upperclassmen that are really changing their bodies right now and really excited. There were seven freshmen that played a year ago when you start looking at Jarred Craft, Roland Dunn, Secdrick Cooper and Russell Farris, Marcus Gaines and Marlon Watts. There were seven freshmen that played and watching these guys develop and continue to grow, it is neat to see what they are doing to their bodies."
"We start our winter workouts on Monday where the coaches will have the opportunity to be on the field with our football team. We begin spring practice on March 13 and that will culminate with the spring game on April 18. That is kind of what we have going for the spring. We are really excited about signing day and getting these guys in the boat."
On players from the I-20 corridor:
"This is where it starts. We talked about how important the state of Louisiana was to us. You are not going to sign 12 from around here every year, but when you have a year like this with this many talented players, this is what we were looking for. If you gave somebody from Louisiana Tech a globe, they would spin it to the United States. If you gave them a map of the United States, they would look for Louisiana. If you gave them a map of Louisiana, they would look for that I-20 corridor right in the middle of the state. This is home. This is where we are and we think it is important that we start here and work our way out. We are going to try and find those 25 players that we feel have a chance to come in here and believe in this program and that want to stay close to home. It gives them an opportunity to play in front of their families and play at a high level and win."
"This is an exciting program right now. It is certainly evident by what we were able to do this year in going over to Dallas and winning the Heart of Dallas Bowl against a Big 10 team. I think this building that is outside definitely has an impact on recruiting. It has helped to create a lot of excitement. When you get down on the field, you realize how big that structure is sitting right off the field. As the steel is going up, that is helping to create a lot of excitement and it is showing the commitment the university is making to this football program and the level we want to compete at. I think all of those things go into the equation of building this Louisiana Tech athletic program and especially the football team when we recruit in this area. If these people right down the road feel that they can come here, go to bowls, develop with the strength coaches, play a high level of football, win and have a great experience, then there are no reasons to leave north Louisiana."
On quality of the players from this area:
"The program was built with a lot of junior college players over the past few years before we got here. We just felt like we wanted to build the program with the stability of high school players. We have recruited these players the past two years, we just did not have the same response we had this year. That is where our success on the field, the new football facility, and being one of the top schools in the country in regards to current players already having a degree. I think all of those things have gone into the equation to make Louisiana Tech more attractive to some of these players. We are going to continue to recruit the state of Louisiana. That is first and foremost. Out of our 23, 22 of them are within a four hour car ride from where we sit."
On how the perception changed as the team continued to win in 2014:
"It comes into play with young men like Courtney Wallace. He is from right here locally in the Monroe area and maybe earlier thought bigger was better. When he had an opportunity to see how the season played out and saw the success players like Xavier Woods had as freshmen. He had the opportunity to leave for other programs but turned them down, just like many other players on this list did. They turned down division 1, BCS programs to be here. Xavier Woods started every game. Trent Taylor was our leading receiver coming in from Shreveport. Kenneth Dixon is from 45 minutes away. He comes here, starts every game and has pulled in some impressive accolades. A lot of people realize that you do not need to leave North Louisiana to play big time football and get those accolades and opportunities. As we tell them, you want to find a place where you can play. Being in a stadium with a lot of people and standing on the sideline is not the objective. You want to get on the field and play. That way you have an opportunity to make your mark. That is what so many of these players have done, that have come from the local area."
On difficulty of hanging on to early commitments:
"It was difficult. It is because a lot of them had opportunities to go to other schools. Many of these young men were visited by schools out of the Big 12 and SEC and had some opportunities to leave, so many of them stayed with their commitment. I look at the character of the young men that said I made this decision in June and I am sticking with it. There were others who got caught up in the recruiting process and the size of the prize out there. Some of that is hard to combat. I have always said that in recruiting, I am excited about the ones we get and the ones that have that character to stick by their word. It was hard to hang onto them but I think that is a real compliment to this staff and the job they did, undermanned a little bit with three coaches leaving during the recruiting process. Those six guys I mentioned at the beginning had to hold on and continue with these relationships. I thought Rick Petri came in here and did a nice job building a relationship with those five defensive linemen. He was very influential in Courtney Wallace's decision to stay here close to home. I thought Robert McFarland did a really good job with those offensive linemen. Those three linemen have size and athleticism. They have a chance to be special. To have three high school linemen come in here and have a chance to be here for the next five years excites me for the future."
On difference between losing coaches last year vs. this year:
"We lost Stan Eggen after signing day. He was here through signing day and left right after recruiting ended. We had a much better nucleus. We lost our defensive coordinator and defensive line coach and we felt like we had to put people in place. We had two guys left on defense to try and hold it all together. Offensively, I cannot say enough about what those guys have done in building relationships. We still have another coach that I have not hired yet. We have been a coach short since I made the decision to promote Blake Baker to coordinator and move him to the linebackers. He held the linebackers. Ronnie Bradford took over the secondary. Rick Petri came in and took over the defensive line. We still have to hire a safeties coach. We have been doing it a little shorthanded but I felt like our focus needed to be to get in with these young men. I believe in the last week of recruiting, I drove 1,980 miles from Sunday to Thursday. I participated in 18 home visits. I felt like it was more important that we did that than it was that we put another coach in place. That is one of the things we are going to try and work on and see if we can get that done by the end of the week."
On team recruiting:
"With the number of players we had committed early, you were really only recruiting about 25 players, rather than having to recruit 50 to sign 25. With players committed so early, we had the opportunity to tag team and go in with a coordinator, position coach, recruiting coach or a head coach. We were able to put an emphasis on how important this young man was in our process. I think a lot of those young men are committing early, which is the wave that is starting to happen. You are seeing a lot more people do that and try and get a jump on 2016. I think it definitely helped us hold on to a lot of these young men and show the emphasis that we had on them and how important they were to our class."
On Blake Baker:
"The transition has gone great. It has gone great for a lot of the commitments on the defensive side of the ball. A lot of players were worried that with Coach Diaz leaving, the defense would change. That was part of promoting Blake Baker. The terminology is going to stay the same, not that it was a big issue for our signees. I thought it was a huge issue for our players. Our defensive players have had three coordinators in four years. I did not want to make it a fourth, where they were having to learn new terminology. Even though it is a new coordinator, there is a familiarity with Coach Baker. There is a familiarity with his coaching style and the style of defense we are going to run. With a lot of that staying the same, I thought that was the least abrasive move for our defense to make sure we can go into spring this year not teaching what to do, but how to do it. We can get a little bit better and take another step forward with what we want to do. I thought it was the right move for our players. I thought it was the right move from a recruiting standpoint with so many of these young men that enjoyed the aggressive style that we played defensively. There was not a shortage of coaches that were very interested in the coordinator job. There were some name coaches, some experienced coaches and there were coaches that would have been "wow" coaches. I felt like the right move was Blake Baker internally with what we needed for our football team right now and for the signees, especially with the number that we had committed early. When you look at the 14 signees, I think most of them were in the boat before the season began."
On most impressive aspect of the 2015 class:
"I would say the key to it all has been speed. That is one of the things we have tried to recruit here. We have six in the secondary, three wide receivers and a running back. That gives you ten guys in the class that are skill players. That is the one ingredient you see with all of them. They can run, they are physical and they are aggressive. That is the main thing I see overall with this class. We just signed eight offensive and defensive linemen as freshmen out of high school. I think it has been a long time since that has happened here in trying to build a program with a foundation of high school players that will be in your program for four and five years."
On special teams:
"When you look at our statistics, it certainly was not that we could not use one, because we could. We were 120th out of 128 teams in the country in punting average. We were 63 percent on our field goal attempts. Neither one of those are good enough to win with. We could only sign 25 and we did not have any to count backwards. I felt like we had bigger needs at other positions, rather than trying to continue to just stock pile kickers or punters. If we went and signed another one, that would have been one less defensive back, one less offensive lineman or one less of something else that I felt like we really needed. I am hopeful that the kickers and punters we have on scholarship right now will continue to improve and get better. You are always looking for a walk-on who is looking for an opportunity to come in and beat somebody out to earn a scholarship."
On influence of Super Bowl players:
"Certainly the success many of these players have had in the NFL, speaks volumes. I think it would be difficult to say that Justin Ellis' success did not affect Courtney Wallace, coming from the same high school. Ellis was on the all-rookie team in the NFL after playing here at Louisiana Tech. We also have the success of IK Enemkpali. We have many different players in the NFL. I certainly think that helps build the image of what we are doing here and how we are building it here at Louisiana Tech."
On how recruiting has changed throughout the years:
"The timing of it is the biggest thing. Young men used to take visits in January and start making their decisions the last two weeks of January. You kind of recruited them all along and it was an all-out sprint. All of a sudden you go into the season and you have 20 commitments. Let's just make sure we maintain this. We know much more about these student athletes, we are in on them earlier, we know more about them academically, we have been around them more with the way summer camps have continued to move on. They have the opportunity to get out in the spring. I also think that recruiting has changed from a standpoint that the world has gotten a lot smaller. With the use of the internet I think there are schools that are recruiting a much broader area than they used to. They can now pull up the internet and watch a young man on film and say to offer him. We are kind of recruiting this area the old fashioned way of going into schools, developing relationships with the high school coaches, and trying to get on these young men earlier. I think these young men have a lot more attention on them now than they ever have in the past. I enjoy the recruiting part of it; I enjoy getting to meet these families and these young men. You look at the 23 signees; you probably had 23 really great experiences, having the opportunity to meet the young man and really be around him and really be impressed with him. There is an under-belly and there are some people that change their minds at the last minute and they are 18 year olds and they get confused with all the information being thrown at them, but ultimately what recruiting is about is not how many stars are next to your name, not how many offers you get, it is about making sure that you find a place that you feel you can go graduate, get on the field and develop as a football player and have a phenomenal experience socially and a family here. If you can find that then that is what recruiting is all about. I am so proud of this football team and we are trying to build here right now because I think it plays too many of the players that we are trying to attract."
On if there are similarities between Courtney Wallace and Justin Ellis:
"They are both about 340 pounds and they are both from Neville High School. They both have great feet. I think Justin did a great job of coming in here and working extremely hard and having the opportunity to coach him and see how much he developed as a young man and his work habits, I am anxious to see where Courtney [Wallace] is when he comes in. I know he has great size and phenomenal power and I think he has got great feet. It is going to be how quickly he adjusts to the learning curve that goes into playing college football. He is a very talented player and has a lot of similarities to where they are athletically."
On what the coaches do differently on recruiting locally:
"We are there. We are going to be at every school in this state at a minimal of once a year. Most of the schools on the I-20 corridor and some of the more populated places we will be in twice in the spring and then a couple of times in the December and January times that we can go out. We have put our emphasis here and what we have done is this is where we spend our time. Wherever you put your time kind of is where you are going to get your results from and we have certainly tried to spend our time and we think there is great football in the I-20 corridor and we talk about the whole northern part of the state and even when you get into Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas I think there is a lot of talent in the state. We need to make sure that we do a great job of beating the bushes and going into these schools every year and identifying a lot of these young men as sophomores and juniors and getting them on our recruiting radars and following them. We need to be making sure they are doing what they need to be doing academically and those types of things and I think those types of things will steamroll and build this as we continue to move forward."
On recruiting from the Shreveport area due to the successes of some other guys:
"I think when you recruit an area it starts with one or two and then they come and have success and then you get three or four and then five or six and before you know it you start to build an area as your own. It is going to take us time to do that. When I look at the players out of the Shreveport-Bossier area and when I look at the success out of Haughton that we have had with Marlon Seets and Jarred Craft and Trent Taylor, Xavier Woods, and I think all those things go a long way in helping us build it. Hopefully as we look at this big class of signees, when these guys come in and have some success, it is only going to make it easier to recruit these local towns. When they say you know what I do not care who else calls me, they will not be an option because Tech is 30 minutes to an hour down the road, my family can be at every home game, I can play a high level of football, I can build my career to get into the NFL, go to Bowl games and have success. If you can do that because I do not think it is just about us recruiting that area, it is about that area feeling like Louisiana Tech is a valid option for them regardless of who offers them. When you look at some of these schools and the offers they have turned down that is becoming more and more of a reality."
This post was edited on 2/4 9:15 PM by J. Ford
This post was edited on 2/4 9:16 PM by J. Ford
