Jesus Shuttlesworth
06-06-2007, 12:27 AM
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10214192/1
RIVER RIDGE, La. -- There is no worse way to insult an LSU fan. Recruit one of its own. Wine him, dine him, then fly him halfway across the country and put him in a strange uniform.
And by strange, we mean anything but purple and gold.
To LSU fans, Joe McKnight is a traitor. (US Presswire)
To LSU fans, Joe McKnight is a traitor. (US Presswire)
"I got death threats," former Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian High School coach Dennis Dunn said. "I got calls at my home. I went on statewide radio and said, 'I'm a huge LSU fan, but I'm not telling these kids where to go.'"
Dunn's sin? "Allowing" Brock Berlin to sign with Florida.
Brock Berlin?
You can understand why, then, Joe McKnight is more than a traitor to those crazed LSU loyalists. Why John Curtis, McKnight's coach, was told he was "the most hated guy in the LSU community."
You can understand -- must understand -- because McKnight will never be Brock Berlin. Thank goodness. McKnight has more talent, more character, more of a future; the nation's best high school running back out of John Curtis Christian High School here in Jefferson Parish near New Orleans; the supposed next LSU Great One who endured all the wining, the dining and finally ended up signing ... with USC in February.
When McKnight went West, the reaction was swift and cruel.
My kids think you suck because you didn't go to LSU one e-mailer wrote.
You don't have any state pride, one critic said.
You'll sit on the bench for three years, said another.
Drunk on their own sense of entitlement, maybe LSU fans didn't know there is a long list of high school running backs who have left New Orleans. Marshall Faulk ended up at San Diego State. From Curtis High alone, Jonathan Wells (Ohio State), Chris Howard (Michigan) and Reggie Dupard (SMU) went elsewhere.
Or maybe that's the point. The fans were aware of the exodus.
"Are you familiar with Mardi Gras?" Curtis said. "The school band played at Mardi Gras. There were some jeers from the crowd. The band would say, '(Joe's) not in the band.'"
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Any day now McKnight will be away from all this. Away from LSU fans. Away from New Orleans where he was one of the thousands displaced by Katrina and Rita. Away to make a life for himself.
"My parents wanted me to leave," McKnight said. "They said, 'It doesn't make any sense to stay home.'"
He will be in L.A., where they are expecting the next Reggie Bush. McKnight's moves, his body (6-foot, 190 pounds), even his modest demeanor suggest a Bush reincarnation. The similarities are eerie right down to McKnight's highlight video on YouTube.
Just like Reggie.
"I first heard the Reggie Bush comparisons from Coach (Ken) Norton," McKnight said of Trojan assistant who recruited, him, "Then Coach Carroll told me and it took off from there."
The recruiting hooks became the sunshine, USC's tradition and a desire to matriculate through the famed Annenberg School for Communication to become a broadcast journalist. Not that different from hundreds of other recruits who are drawn to Troy.
Meanwhile, the local reaction was a shove out the door. The pettiness, McKnight believes, even followed him to a track meet where he was disqualified for wearing black tights, instead of white.
"I think more of that is because I didn't commit to LSU," said McKnight who claimed he wore black at a previous meet without being DQd.
It's silly to talk about an NFL career or even a Heisman, because McKnight doesn't. His college choice followed a pattern that was developed at Curtis. The kid is neither selfish nor afraid of competition. He carried the ball a total of 81 times his last two years of high school. Part of that had to do with hurricanes, which caused McKnight to miss half a season in 2005. Part of it had to do with the character that was nurtured in school.
Curtis' father John founded the non-denominational Christian school in 1962. Since 1975, it has won 21 state titles. Even though his current coach knew McKnight was something special from about the fifth grade on, there has been no rush. The budding star played mostly defense his first two seasons in high school.
"He is a superstar who played within a team concept," Curtis said. "Joe was not the featured player on this team."
What's amazing is that didn't bother McKnight. With friends whispering in his ear that he could get 35 carries somewhere else, he shifted between receiver, running back, cornerback and kick returner.
"You can't look at carries," Curtis said, "You have to look at production."
How about 15 yards per carry since 2005? Out of his 24 catches last season, 13 went for touchdowns.
If he was selfish or afraid of competition, McKnight wouldn't be going to a place with nine other scholarship running backs. At Tailback U., McKnight will be guaranteed nothing except a fair shot.
That might help him in the long run. Out of those 10, one or two will transfer. Some will be injured. Some will change positions. If the running back thing doesn't work, at least McKnight is flexible.
"I think the hurricane helped me," he said.
Shortly before his junior season in 2005, Katrina changed everything. Curtis Christian closed, players scattered. McKnight ended up in Shreveport where he played briefly for Dunn and his national powerhouse high school program. In his first game, he returned a kickoff for a touchdown despite a tweaked ankle. Before anyone there realized who McKnight was, his cell phone started chirping again, telling him it was OK to return home.
"He was the best athlete we ever had on our practice field," Dunn said. "That's saying a lot. He was absolutely incredible.
"What's amazing is he was the best thing that ever stepped on our campus and he was about 80 percent."
t's amazing what a disaster does to everyday life. McKnight couldn't be contacted because his cell was down. Hometown news, while he was in Shreveport, came via rumor and television. Sometimes they were the same thing.
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"What concerned me is people were out there killing people," McKnight said. "I didn't really want to go back home."
His mother Jennifer had relocated to Baton Rouge. McKnight eventually returned to New Orleans and stayed with his coach. Mother and family are now reunited. A sister, Johanna, plays basketball at Richmond. A younger brother Jonathan is a freshman football prospect at Curtis.
John Curtis took it all in and collaborated on a book, "Hurricane Season", that is due to be released next month.
If that sounds like exploitation, it isn't. It begins to explain why an exodus is important not just to LSU fans, but to the region. Any loss of any commodity is significant. The book isn't about just Joe McKnight anyway. It's about where he is from, which starts to explain what he is.
"Joe has the ability to see beyond the tackler," Curtis said.
Past Louisiana, all the way to the West Coast, and beyond.
-------------
Here is a kid, Joe McKnight, who could've been demanding carries and touches but instead he played within the team concept, something which should be recieving a pat on the back for - especially in todays sports world. Then he chooses to move somewhere new, somewhere away from home and everything that he "knows" to play football for and attend classes at USC (Seems to actaully be interested in the student part of student-athlete too) Now LSU fans are calling him a traitor and claiming he turned his backs on them lol give me a break. I love how big football programs have crazy fans and everything, it makes for a great atmosphere but shit like this really hurts it. I am all for jeering professionals who make millions, but this is a kid who just graduated high school. What the fuck does this kid owe you anyway? If he wasn't good at football you wouldn't give a fuck if he was going to college
And another random college football article for anyone who is interested - somebody spoke out about their being a playoff system then quickly shut up and said nevermind. So dumb
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10206327
I like how the Pac10 and Big Ten are against the playoff system claiming the tradition of the Rose Bowl, that's hilarious to me. Especially now when half the time one of the top teams in the Pac10 or Big Ten is playing in a different bowl due to the BSC Championship game.
RIVER RIDGE, La. -- There is no worse way to insult an LSU fan. Recruit one of its own. Wine him, dine him, then fly him halfway across the country and put him in a strange uniform.
And by strange, we mean anything but purple and gold.
To LSU fans, Joe McKnight is a traitor. (US Presswire)
To LSU fans, Joe McKnight is a traitor. (US Presswire)
"I got death threats," former Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian High School coach Dennis Dunn said. "I got calls at my home. I went on statewide radio and said, 'I'm a huge LSU fan, but I'm not telling these kids where to go.'"
Dunn's sin? "Allowing" Brock Berlin to sign with Florida.
Brock Berlin?
You can understand why, then, Joe McKnight is more than a traitor to those crazed LSU loyalists. Why John Curtis, McKnight's coach, was told he was "the most hated guy in the LSU community."
You can understand -- must understand -- because McKnight will never be Brock Berlin. Thank goodness. McKnight has more talent, more character, more of a future; the nation's best high school running back out of John Curtis Christian High School here in Jefferson Parish near New Orleans; the supposed next LSU Great One who endured all the wining, the dining and finally ended up signing ... with USC in February.
When McKnight went West, the reaction was swift and cruel.
My kids think you suck because you didn't go to LSU one e-mailer wrote.
You don't have any state pride, one critic said.
You'll sit on the bench for three years, said another.
Drunk on their own sense of entitlement, maybe LSU fans didn't know there is a long list of high school running backs who have left New Orleans. Marshall Faulk ended up at San Diego State. From Curtis High alone, Jonathan Wells (Ohio State), Chris Howard (Michigan) and Reggie Dupard (SMU) went elsewhere.
Or maybe that's the point. The fans were aware of the exodus.
"Are you familiar with Mardi Gras?" Curtis said. "The school band played at Mardi Gras. There were some jeers from the crowd. The band would say, '(Joe's) not in the band.'"
Advertisement
Any day now McKnight will be away from all this. Away from LSU fans. Away from New Orleans where he was one of the thousands displaced by Katrina and Rita. Away to make a life for himself.
"My parents wanted me to leave," McKnight said. "They said, 'It doesn't make any sense to stay home.'"
He will be in L.A., where they are expecting the next Reggie Bush. McKnight's moves, his body (6-foot, 190 pounds), even his modest demeanor suggest a Bush reincarnation. The similarities are eerie right down to McKnight's highlight video on YouTube.
Just like Reggie.
"I first heard the Reggie Bush comparisons from Coach (Ken) Norton," McKnight said of Trojan assistant who recruited, him, "Then Coach Carroll told me and it took off from there."
The recruiting hooks became the sunshine, USC's tradition and a desire to matriculate through the famed Annenberg School for Communication to become a broadcast journalist. Not that different from hundreds of other recruits who are drawn to Troy.
Meanwhile, the local reaction was a shove out the door. The pettiness, McKnight believes, even followed him to a track meet where he was disqualified for wearing black tights, instead of white.
"I think more of that is because I didn't commit to LSU," said McKnight who claimed he wore black at a previous meet without being DQd.
It's silly to talk about an NFL career or even a Heisman, because McKnight doesn't. His college choice followed a pattern that was developed at Curtis. The kid is neither selfish nor afraid of competition. He carried the ball a total of 81 times his last two years of high school. Part of that had to do with hurricanes, which caused McKnight to miss half a season in 2005. Part of it had to do with the character that was nurtured in school.
Curtis' father John founded the non-denominational Christian school in 1962. Since 1975, it has won 21 state titles. Even though his current coach knew McKnight was something special from about the fifth grade on, there has been no rush. The budding star played mostly defense his first two seasons in high school.
"He is a superstar who played within a team concept," Curtis said. "Joe was not the featured player on this team."
What's amazing is that didn't bother McKnight. With friends whispering in his ear that he could get 35 carries somewhere else, he shifted between receiver, running back, cornerback and kick returner.
"You can't look at carries," Curtis said, "You have to look at production."
How about 15 yards per carry since 2005? Out of his 24 catches last season, 13 went for touchdowns.
If he was selfish or afraid of competition, McKnight wouldn't be going to a place with nine other scholarship running backs. At Tailback U., McKnight will be guaranteed nothing except a fair shot.
That might help him in the long run. Out of those 10, one or two will transfer. Some will be injured. Some will change positions. If the running back thing doesn't work, at least McKnight is flexible.
"I think the hurricane helped me," he said.
Shortly before his junior season in 2005, Katrina changed everything. Curtis Christian closed, players scattered. McKnight ended up in Shreveport where he played briefly for Dunn and his national powerhouse high school program. In his first game, he returned a kickoff for a touchdown despite a tweaked ankle. Before anyone there realized who McKnight was, his cell phone started chirping again, telling him it was OK to return home.
"He was the best athlete we ever had on our practice field," Dunn said. "That's saying a lot. He was absolutely incredible.
"What's amazing is he was the best thing that ever stepped on our campus and he was about 80 percent."
t's amazing what a disaster does to everyday life. McKnight couldn't be contacted because his cell was down. Hometown news, while he was in Shreveport, came via rumor and television. Sometimes they were the same thing.
Advertisement
"What concerned me is people were out there killing people," McKnight said. "I didn't really want to go back home."
His mother Jennifer had relocated to Baton Rouge. McKnight eventually returned to New Orleans and stayed with his coach. Mother and family are now reunited. A sister, Johanna, plays basketball at Richmond. A younger brother Jonathan is a freshman football prospect at Curtis.
John Curtis took it all in and collaborated on a book, "Hurricane Season", that is due to be released next month.
If that sounds like exploitation, it isn't. It begins to explain why an exodus is important not just to LSU fans, but to the region. Any loss of any commodity is significant. The book isn't about just Joe McKnight anyway. It's about where he is from, which starts to explain what he is.
"Joe has the ability to see beyond the tackler," Curtis said.
Past Louisiana, all the way to the West Coast, and beyond.
-------------
Here is a kid, Joe McKnight, who could've been demanding carries and touches but instead he played within the team concept, something which should be recieving a pat on the back for - especially in todays sports world. Then he chooses to move somewhere new, somewhere away from home and everything that he "knows" to play football for and attend classes at USC (Seems to actaully be interested in the student part of student-athlete too) Now LSU fans are calling him a traitor and claiming he turned his backs on them lol give me a break. I love how big football programs have crazy fans and everything, it makes for a great atmosphere but shit like this really hurts it. I am all for jeering professionals who make millions, but this is a kid who just graduated high school. What the fuck does this kid owe you anyway? If he wasn't good at football you wouldn't give a fuck if he was going to college
And another random college football article for anyone who is interested - somebody spoke out about their being a playoff system then quickly shut up and said nevermind. So dumb
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10206327
I like how the Pac10 and Big Ten are against the playoff system claiming the tradition of the Rose Bowl, that's hilarious to me. Especially now when half the time one of the top teams in the Pac10 or Big Ten is playing in a different bowl due to the BSC Championship game.