Harvesting talent from the football fields of Louisiana is nothing new to LSU coach Les Miles.
Miles had two Louisiana players on his Oklahoma State roster — one from Baton Rouge and another from the highly coveted New Orleans area.
“Louisiana has a heritage of great football players that play their high school football in the boundaries of Louisiana,” Miles said at his introductory press conference.
Former LSU coach Nick Saban did something that had not been accomplished in the program — consistently bring recruits from outside the state.
Miles said he will make Louisiana his top priority with Texas and Florida coming second. Then he will look beyond those borders if necessary.
“I know the high school football in this area,” Miles said. “I’m very comfortable with the high school coaches. I’m going to reach out to them and their players. We want them to stay here and play for LSU.”
Highly touted East St. John’s quarterback Ryan Perrilloux will be on the recruiting list despite his commitment to the University of Texas.
“I’m not allowed to comment about the recruitment of Ryan Perrilloux, only to acknowledge that we are recruiting Ryan Perrilloux,” Miles said.
Perrilloux said he will give Miles and LSU a chance after meeting with the Tigers’ new head coach later this month.
“LSU’s right back in the mix,” Perrilloux told the Advocate. “For him to call me after he was announced to talk to me and my family, and to come down to Baton Rouge, was an honor. I was pretty much in the dark about LSU after coach Saban left. But coach Miles is a real classy, down-to-earth guy. He talked to me and my family, and I liked what he had to say.”
The Advocate’s report also said Perrilloux will visit Mississippi State, Florida State and Miami (Fla.) before making his final visit at LSU on Jan. 28.
Other prospective high school players are not thrilled with the idea of playing for a new coach.
Zach Schreiber, a 6-foot-3-inch defensive end from Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, said the coaching change at LSU made his commitment to Alabama an easy one to make in December. “I didn’t want to go to a place where they were going to get a new coach my first year there,” Schreiber said. “Mike Shula’s got a great program going at Alabama, and I’m excited about going there.”
However, Schreiber said even if Saban had stayed at LSU, he still was unlikely to commit to the Tigers because of their depth and talent on defense.
“I liked their scheme and their attitude [under Saban],” Schreiber said. “I considered [LSU] but they just had too many talented linebackers and defensive linemen. I wanted to go to a place where I could compete for a starting job right away, and I felt Alabama was the right place for me to do that.”
The Tigers already have nine verbal commitments for prospective high school players with five offensive players and four on the defensive side of the ball, according to Rivals.com, which has been rating and reporting on college recruits for eight year. The Web site also provides information to ESPN.com and The Sporting News.
National signing day is Feb. 2.