Football: UL’s Brazil awarded football scholarship

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, July 21, 2015

NEW ORLEANS – Former LSU running back Jeryl Brazil has been awarded a football scholarship and will play cornerback for UL, Ragins Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said at Sun Belt Conference football Media Day at the Superdome on Monday here.

He also will get a good look next month as a possible kicker returner for the Cajuns, according to Hudspeth.

“He’s got incredible speed,” Hudspeth said. “He played at LSU as a freshman. This kid, I think, hopefully can help us. He brings some more speed to our team, and he works hard, and hopefully he can produce.”

Brazil will compete with Jevante Watson, Christian Goodlett and others when preseason camp opens in August for UL’s starting right cornerback spot opposite of Simeon Thomas.

He transferred from East Mississippi Community College to UL last year and spent this past school year as a member of the Cajuns track team, qualifying for the NCAA Championship meet as the anchor leg of UL’s 4-by-100 sprint relay team.

A product of Loranger High, Brazil has a 10.52-seconds 100-meter dash time and a 21.51 time in the 200.

At LSU, the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder rushed two times 10 for yards in a 2013 game against Alabama-Birmingham but was dismissed from the team following off-the-field legal matters.

NCAA student-athletes are not permitted to play football when on scholarship for another spot, which is why he had to be put on a football scholarship this summer.

Hudspeth said he’s uncertain if Brazil will also run track for the Cajuns next season.