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Football: Barksdale’s refugeTim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, August 23, 2012 He arrived at UL to play safety, and the hard hitter is expected to start there when the Ragin’ Cajuns open their 2012 season Sept. 1 against Lamar. But Darius "Tig" Barksdale — he introduces himself, with a meaty handshake, simply as "Tig" — came here searching for safety too. Refuge, that is, from the pitfalls of a small, rural Mississippi town, blue-collar Batesville, where Tig and trouble too frequently crossed. Harbor from the youthful temptations brewed by a bad mix of too much time and too little to do. Shelter from overexposure to situations best avoided. No wonder family members are happy that, after stops at Ole Miss and Jacksonville (Ala.) State, he has landed somewhere so far from it all. "My Mom (Teresa) always said she never wanted me to be at Ole Miss," Barksdale said of the SEC school just 25 miles or so away. "She thinks that wasn’t the place for me. "Now they’re glad I’m down here, so I won’t have to be in Batesville or nothing like that." Located about 60 miles down Interstate 55 from Memphis, and about 150 up the same road from Jackson, Miss., Batesville is a mostly manufacturing and farming community with a population of just more than 7,000. Nearly 22 percent of families and almost 29 percent of individuals there lived below the poverty line in 2010 — both more than double the national average. Highway 6 East, a main drag off the Interstate, is a collection of run-down shops and fast-food joints like the Captain D’s whose parking lot is adjacent to that of a McDonald’s. "It’s easy to find trouble (in Batesville)," Barksdale said. "Because there ain’t really nothing to do. There’s ‘stuff’ to do — but there ain’t really stuff to do. "Basically, that’s how people really get in trouble — because they’re bored, and they try to find something to do. That’s how things happen." • • •Barksdale’s intention coming out traditional Mississippi football power South Panola High, which also turned out current Cajun linebacker Qyen Griffin, was to go Ole Miss right away. It was nearby, and seemed to make the most sense. "It was basically in my head," said Barksdale, the father of three girls, "that, ‘I’m home; I can see I see my kids and I (don’t) have to worry about that I’m out of town. "I thought it was a good deal. "» My Momma (wouldn’t) have to worry about traveling all over to come and see me. I just thought that was the best place for me." It was not. "I think that was probably the wrong thing, for me being at home — because I’d come home every day, and that’s how things happen," Barksdale said. But Barksdale had earned Parade All-American and The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger Mississippi Mr. Football honors after helping lead the Tigers to a fifth consecutive Class 5A state championship in 2007. He had never lost a game while playing for South Panola, which was ranked ninth nationally by USA Today in ’07. And he really did think he was ready to be a Rebel. Barksdale would following a long line of products who went to SEC teams from a high school program dubbed "University of South Panola" by a sportswriter. He’d even, some said at the time, quite possibly wind up being the best of the bunch to move on from South Panola. "Tig was a really good ball player," Griffin said. "When he played running back, you give him a seam pretty much and he’s going to take it. He’ll do everything right … He carried that team to the 5A state championship." According to one message-board writer who followed his career, Barksdale was "as talented a player to ever come out of South Panola" and "an NFL type talent for sure." This from a school that since 1993 has churned out the likes of ex-Alabama linebacker and 1997 NFL first-round draft choice Dwayne Rudd (Minnesota, Cleveland and Tampa Bay through 2003), longtime Pittsburgh defensive back Deshea Townsend, 2009 first-round pick Peria Jerry (a defensive tackle still with Atlanta), Minnesota safety Jamarca Sanford and Miami offense guard John Jerry. Road blocks, however, would keep Barksdale from ever playing for Ole Miss, and quiet any NFL talk for at least the time being. It wasn’t the right place after all. Not for a second. • • •For academic reasons Barksdale first attended and played football at Hargrave Military Academy, a prep school in Virginia that boasts about its work helping young men gain college admittance. Against his mother’s wishes, he stuck afterward with his decision regarding Ole Miss and joined the football team there in 2009. That same year, shortly before the season began, he was arrested in Batesville. A female friend accused Barksdale of stealing her car, and after local police found him in it about an hour later he was charged with DUI and driving without a license. According to a report in The Panolian newspaper, she was later convicted and fined $620 for false reporting of a crime — saying she had actually lent the car to Barksdale, but panicked and called police after wanting to get it back. Though academically eligible, he wound up sitting out the season for undisclosed medical reasons. Barksdale also was suspended in the spring of 2010 for an undisclosed violation of Ole Miss team rules. But for a while it looked as if he’d be playing later that year. The Rebels had recruited him as an athlete, and — even though he was Rivals.com’s No. 9 running back recruit in the nation coming out of South Panola — it appeared it would be on defense, at safety. Less than a month before the 2010 season was to begin, however, Barksdale was dismissed by Ole Miss — so he could address personal issues, according to Ole Miss’ coach at the time, Houston Nutt. "When I lost the opportunity at Ole Miss," Barksdale said, "I was hurting inside, because I thought I wouldn’t get another chance to play the game of football." • • •Barksdale bounced back, though, and days later he was at Jacksonville State, where a cousin was a graduate assistant coach. Barksdale was eligible to play without having to sit a year because the Gamecocks were a lower-level FCS program. He was back at running back, the position in which he ran for 2,917 yards and 35 touchdowns as a senior at South Panola. He was a bit rusty, having sat out the previous season and spent time on defense, and ended up with 414 yards and one touchdowns on 100 carries. The man called Tig since he was a kid, however, was back on track. Though not for long. In May 2011, Barksdale was arrested again in Batesville — this time accused of being involved in an altercation along with two other men. With that case still hanging over his head as the 2011 season fast-approached, Jacksonville State suspended him — and he quickly transferred to UL. The Cajun connections were UL defensive coordinator Greg Stewart, who held the same position at Jacksonville State when Barksdale was there in 2010, and cornerbacks coach/recruiting assistant David Saunders, an ex-Ole Miss assistant coach and recruiter. "I’d just like to say I thank them for telling the head coach (Mark Hudspeth) to give me a chance to come down here and play so I can try to be the best player I can be," Barksdale said. "When I lost it (again at Jacksonville State), I just had to sit down and think about the stuff I was doing. "And when I had heard from Coach Stewart and Coach Saunders, they really just wanted me to thank Heaven I got another chance to play football. So I’ve just got to thank God for giving me the opportunity." Barksdale doesn’t necessarily consider this his last chance. But he seems to sense he’s running out of them, quickly. "I was still messing up (last year)," he said. "But God gave me another chance to come down here. I don’t really want to talk about all I did, but I just thank God for giving me opportunity to play ball." • • •Play ball, after all, is all Barksdale really wants to do. He excels at it, too. "We think he has the ability to be a really good, outstanding player," Hudspeth said back in the spring. "I’m anxious to turn him loose on the field, because he has some outstanding playmaking ability." "There’s no doubt that when it’s run that sucker’s coming now," defensive coordinator Stewart added. "He’s coming with vengeance. He will be fun to watch. "» Fun to watch." But after two years away from safety, plus a preseason training camp limited by an undisclosed injury that he is expected to play with throughout he season, the transition back from running back comes with its challenges. Stewart suggested Barksdale indeed should be a good one, "as long as Tig will do what he is supposed to do — and we’ve got to stay on him." The tendency for Barksdale, it seems, is to sometimes play with reckless abandon. "I’ve always liked to hit," he said. "I’m always the man (saying), like, ‘Hold ’em up, and I’ll come and get ’em.’ "» That’s the fun part. "There’s gonna be a time that you need to be aggressive, a time that you have to not be aggressive. As long as you put them together, you’re gonna come out good." Barksdale’s 6-foot, 200-pound frame should help the cause, according to Stewart. "I would a lot rather coach one to slow down than to go, you know what I’m saying?" he said. "Last year," Stewart added, "(safety) Jemarlous Moten (who moved to cornerback this year) weighed about a buck 30 soaking wet and (Lionel) Stokes (UL’s other safety then) weighed a buck 35 soaking wet." Slight exaggeration, but you do know what he’s saying. "You worried about that," Stewart said. "Now we don’t have to worry about that, because you have Tig who’s a 200-pound guy, and Rodney (Gillis), who is a 180, 175-pound guy." "So if Tig does what he’s supposed to do, plays within the realm of the defense "» " Stewart just shakes his head, pondering the possibilities. • • •Stewart is not the only one who wonders. Many are curious as to just what his future holds. His own mother, Barksdale suggested, is simply happy her son has one. "She said, ‘I think that’s a good thing for you to go down and get away from Batesville,’ " he said. "She said, ‘As long are you’re in Batesville, Son, you’re gonna always get in trouble.’ So I just think it’s good that I did come down here." Barksdale seems to know it will take more than a new locale, though, to really see the past in his rearview mirror. "It’s totally behind me," he said. "But sometimes you might cross that path, and you might want to go back to doing what you do. But you’ve go to stay focused, and just stay forward. "The only thing I can say is I have to thank God for the opportunity. He knows what’s best for me, so when He gave this second chance, I just tried to run with it and make the best of it. "Basically," Barksdale added, "I just have to put everything up to God — so I just thank Him for the opportunity and another chance to play ball again."
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