Football: Hudspeth hits recruiting trail running

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • December 16, 2010

In his inaugural speech Monday as UL’s new head football coach, Mark Hudspeth shared a vision that included putting "a fence around" Louisiana to keep the top recruits from leaving the state.

 

That construction project is already underway.

Hudspeth and his assistant coaches have been traveling for the past few days to area high schools looking to set up official visits for January. Those are some of the first steps needed for the Ragin’ Cajuns to finalize their next recruiting class. The NCAA’s midyear junior college signing period started Wednesday and ends Jan. 15, while National Signing Day for high school seniors is Feb. 2.

As of early this week, the Cajuns had five public pledges. Three were from the prep ranks in kicker Carlos Alvarez (West St. Mary High) and offensive linemen Nick Smith (Acadiana High) and Greg Siener (Mandeville).

Two signees from last February — former Notre Dame High defensive end/linebacker Jake Molbert and H-back Amari Williams (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — planned to join the football program in January. Molbert did not enroll at UL in the fall. Williams paid his own way this past semester.

Hudspeth said he would visit with UL’s current commitments this week. The Cajuns intend to sign a few junior college prospects — notably from Mississippi — but had yet to do so as of Wednesday.

"We’ll try to pluck some kids out of Texas, Mississippi and a few out of the Florida panhandle," said Hudspeth, the receivers coach/passing game coordinator at Mississippi State for the past two years. "Louisiana is just so talent-rich that if we do a great job evaluating talent in the state we’ll find a lot of great players."

According to UL’s Scout.com affiliate web site CajunRedZone.com, seven recruits have scheduled official visits to campus in January. Three of those visitors are from Class 5A state champion Acadiana: Smith, running back/cornerback Micah Eugene and cornerback Bakari Hollier. Eugene and Hollier were recently offered scholarships.

St. Thomas More teammates Evan Tatford and Sam Scofield are also expected to visit the campus. Tatford is projected to play tight end and has offers from a number of schools, including Memphis, Miami (Ohio) and Tulane. Scofield, a safety, verbally committed to Tulane earlier in the fall.

The two other prospects that plan to make a trip to UL are Oxford (Miss.) High teammates Larry Pettis and DeShaun McNeal. Pettis and McNeal both earned first-team Class 5A all-state honors as seniors. Pettis had 30 catches for 438 yards and three touchdowns this season. McNeal was the second-leading receiver in the state of Mississippi this year with 81 receptions for 1,236 yards and 15 scores.

There are also rumors that the Cajuns are in the mix for former Capitol High star quarterback Terrance Broadway, who recently requested and was granted a release from his scholarship at the University of Houston. Broadway, a four-star prep prospect by Rivals.com, left Houston after throwing for 424 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in limited action as a freshman this season.

Steve Robertson, a regional scout for Scout

.com, said Louisiana should serve as the perfect recruiting ground for the wide-open offense and attacking defense that Hudspeth plans to employ.

"I think Louisiana high school athletes will enjoy playing in his system and will fit in his system," Robertson said. "He won’t have to go and try to get a bunch of guys from other places and beg them to come here. Mark is going to find winners first and adjust his offense around them."

NCAA rules prohibit college coaches from publicly commenting on unsigned players, but Hudspeth can say that the Cajuns are going after a lot of prospects that he recruited while at Mississippi State.

With Hudspeth leading the way, UL won’t be afraid to fight with bigger-name programs for recruits.

"We’re going to recruit the same kids that LSU is going to recruit because they can’t sign them all," Hudspeth said. "You can only take so many quarterbacks, running backs and receivers, so we’ll start out recruiting the same kids as every SEC school. That is going to be critical to our success, the early identification of players as sophomores and juniors and getting our name out there early."