Can LU Football recruit enough locally.....

[ThrillHill80LHS]

To allow families of these recruits and ex-teammates of these boys to fill a large portion of the seats at Cardinal Stadium??

[ThrillHill80LHS]

It just seems to me that if my best friend, or my ex-teammate, was playing every other saturday in Beaumont, I would want to go and watch him play. Along with a bunch of other family members, tickets would get sold even if LU didn't win a game all year.

[Guest coachacola]

Maybe it's me but I just don't understand why having a lot of local players on the team is more important than having a winning team.  The best players from the area will not be playing football at Lamar, they'll be playing in the Big XII, SEC, etc., just like in basketball.  And let's be generous and say the whole team is made of 65 local players, and for each home game they each have 15 friends and family attending.  That's about 1000 people, hardly enough to fill the majority of the stadium.

I'm not knocking having local players on the team.  In fact I bet there will be a lot of local players on the team.  But the makeup of the team won't have that much affect on attendance.  Only one thing will:  WINNING!!  Nothing else.

[ThrillHill80LHS]

Maybe it's me but I just don't understand why having a lot of local players on the team is more important than having a winning team.  The best players from the area will not be playing football at Lamar, they'll be playing in the Big XII, SEC, etc., just like in basketball.  And let's be generous and say the whole team is made of 65 local players, and for each home game they each have 15 friends and family attending.   That's about 1000 people, hardly enough to fill the majority of the stadium.

I'm not knocking having local players on the team.  In fact I bet there will be a lot of local players on the team.  But the makeup of the team won't have that much affect on attendance.  Only one thing will:  WINNING!!  Nothing else.

You make an excellent point, however, I'm talking about the notch below the Texas recruits, and so on, the ones i'm talking about are the ones that would fit perfectly at LU the ones who might not be starters for texas could play every down here. just some thought!

[Guest coachacola]

Hopefully they'll get a lot of the local players that are now playing at the other SLC and Sunbelt schools.  Those types of players can make a difference at Lamar, especially in the early years.  Since there's always a lot of good players from SETX I can't see how Lamar cannot have a good number of local players on the team.

[ThrillHill80LHS]

Hopefully they'll get a lot of the local players that are now playing at the other SLC and Sunbelt schools.  Those types of players can make a difference at Lamar, especially in the early years.  Since there's always a lot of good players from SETX I can't see how Lamar cannot have a good number of local players on the team.

i like how you put that, that makes alot of sense to me.

[Tiger90]

They do need some local flavor, but after hearing some of the plan I have a distinct feeling the vision is bigger than SLC.  Local would be great but the goal is to win and make a splash.  It is going to take more than just our area schools' talent.

[Ruckdad]

I have said it before and I'll say it again - It doesn't matter if every player on the team is from Samoa - if they win,, people will come and watch. 

Having said that, I want the best players available that Lamar can get.  I would imagin that a pretty good portion of those will come from the SE Texas SW Louisiana area, but the coaching staff should never, ever restrict their own recruiting area, nor should they recruit a guy over another guy just because he is local.

Whoever the coach is should scour the state of Texas for those hidden gems that the bigger schools don't have time to seek out.

[Guest Jags]

I can promise that there are enough local kids to make a good team.

[Bucof2010]

This should be a good oportunity for local kids to play at the next level.

[LamarJunior]

The large schools target areas like Houston, San Antonio, Austin and the DF/W metroplex. I think a school like Lamar will need to focus on the smaller communities. Develop relationships with the areas HS coaches and hopefully it will pay off. I honestly haven't been to more than two HS games in SE Texas. I'm from near Fort Worth but I've heard there are some good players around here. I'm not sure there is enough for a highly competitive conference but I think Lamar could land about 10 players a year from this area.

[Guest abovetherim]

LamarJunior, they also have summer camps which help their staffs identify prospects. Whoever the coach is if the program is resumed will need to have such camps and possibly team with some of the area stars that have gone onto pro careers. The coach will need to hit it off with the local coaches and community much like Coach Tidwell has.

You might not see his efforts shown in the attendence of the women's games but everyone respects the man and there will be increased season ticket sales and more butts in the seats as the program becomes more successful.