Destrehan High School defensive tackle Marrick Charles will take an official visit to the University of Arkansas on Nov. 12 when the Razorbacks play the University of Tennessee in Fayetteville.
Charles is expected to be joined on his official visit by fellow Destrehan High School defensive lineman Bryan Singleton. The 6’3 ½, 255-pound defensive end has offers from Arkansas, Houston, Ole Miss, SMU and Louisiana Tech.
Charles has offers from Arkansas, Houston, Louisiana Tech, Pittsburgh, Southern Mississippi, South Alabama and Tennessee.
One player trying to recruit both Charles and Singleton to Arkansas is former Destrehan High School standout Jerico Nelson. Nelson has been a stellar football player at both safety and linebacker for the Razorbacks and Charles grew up in the same neighborhood as the very active Arkansas defender.
No question who is No. 1
In what was built up as the “Game of the Century” the LSU Tigers settled any arguments on who was the top team in the nation with a 9-6 victory over Alabama in overtime.
While both teams were pretty much evenly balanced on both offense and defense, it was the LSU special teams that was the difference maker in this toughly-fought contest.
Punter Brad Wing was outstanding against Alabama averaging 38.6 yards per punt. Four of his six punts were downed inside the 20-yard line and his most important punt was a 73-yarder.
Drew Alleman hit on all three of his field goal attempts including the game winner in overtime while the kickers for the University of Alabama only connected on two of their six field goal tries.
After the game former LSU head coach and current Alabama head coach Nick Saban gave full credit to the Tigers for their upset win in Tuscaloosa.
“We had opportunities and we didn’t capitalize on them and sometimes those things happen when you play an opponent as good as LSU is,” Saban said. “They deserve all the credit in the world. At critical junctures in the contest LSU made the plays and we didn’t make enough. That blame falls on me and my coaching staff.
“The credit should all go to Les Miles and the players for LSU.”
If anything major came out of this contest from a personnel standpoint it was the obvious amount of increased playing time by quarterback Jordan Jefferson over starter Jarrett Lee.
Lee struggled against the Tide throwing two interceptions and Jefferson’s ability to run the option gave Alabama problems as both a runner and passer.
Jefferson rushed for 43 yards and he completed 6 of 10 passes for 67 yards, but it is becoming clearer that the former Destrehan standout will get extensive playing time down the stretch, despite Miles dancing around the issue following the game.
While Wing and Alleman played a huge part in the 9-6 victory the star on the defensive side of the ball was safety Eric Reid.
Reid was in on six tackles, had one tackle for a loss, one forced fumble and a crucial interception at the one-yard line when Alabama was driving late in the game.
Unless there is a real shuffle of the BCS cards I don’t expect to see a rematch between the Tigers and the Tide for the national championship.
The networks won’t say it, but I will. The people running the college sports world are hoping for a Stanford/LSU game for the national championship.
They want to see the best defense in college football in LSU going up against a West Coast team with the best offensive player in the nation in quarterback Andrew Luck.
That to them would be ratings gold and it would give the Tigers a chance to win their third national title in a 10-year span right in their backyard in the Superdome.
Saints bounce back
After an embarrassing 31-21 loss to the St. Louis Rams last week the Saints got back in the winning groove with a 27-16 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Finally the Saints went to a balanced offensive attack and their tackling in this game, maybe the best we have seen all season long, helped pace this team to a victory over their NFC South rival.
The Saints ran the football with a threesome of Chris Ivory, Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles who garnered 195 yards on 28 carries.
Drew Brees had another strong game completing 27 of his 36 passes for 258 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Brees tied Brett Favre with 36 consecutive games with a touchdown pass and he is eyeing former Baltimore Colts legend Johnny Unitas who holds the NFL record with 47.
Saints offensive guard Carl Nicks said that the team knew the importance of this game after last week’s disappointing loss.
“We understood the importance of keeping Drew Brees clean,” Nicks said. “Last week give the Rams credit they wanted it more than we did, but it made us refocus on the small details it takes to win. We did a good job upfront today and our backs ran hard all afternoon. We know that keeping Drew without any turf marks, scratches or scrapes on his helmet are important, but we ran the ball well also today.”
The Saints defense played very well against a young and talented Buccaneers offensive team and did it without arguably their best defensive player in middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma. The Saints were also without cornerback Tracy Porter, who was injured early in the game.
“It was a playoff type atmosphere out there today and we weren’t going to be messing around,” said linebacker Scott Shanle. “All of us had that look in the eye that we were going to take care of business.”
This coming Sunday the Saints play a red-hot Atlanta Falcons team and we all know what type of game cranks up when the Saints play the Dirty Birds.
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