Satellite camps hit Miles’ radar

Published 7:54 am Wednesday, May 18, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Les Miles took quite a gamble with a semi-formal news conference Tuesday to address the growing spread of so-called satellite youth football camps.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Mainly, he ran the risk of putting everybody in Louisiana and several adjoining states to sleep, perhaps into a coma.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s not his fault. Miles is one of college football’s master showmen.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You always have to stay alert when Miles is turned loose with a microphone, although any discussion of the plague of satellite camps stretches even his powers to keep you on our toes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But many of the fringe elements of college football insist that this is an important, pressing issue — if only in a behind-the-scenes sort of way — that we should all care about, fret about and maybe discuss into the wee hours.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At its heart, it conceeeerns recruiting, whichhhh ish a life blood as weee askor woadf …</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Sorry. I just nodded off.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">(Slap to the face; wish I drank coffee).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Let’s try this again.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I think it all started when Michigan talked openly of having off-campus football camps — way off campus — which wasn’t so bad until heartthrob head coach Jim Harbaugh also threatened, since it’d be down South where the talent is, to take off his shirt and get on the cover of US magazine, to say nothing of YouTube.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And how are you going to recruit against that?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was somewhat entertaining when it was just viewed as a hot foot to the SEC, which didn’t allow its own schools to have off-campus camps in the first place, and wasn’t crazy about northern riff raff coming down looking to kidnap the fastest and strongest.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC called in its political muscle and thought it shot down the notion, and for a few weeks the NCAA did officially outlaw them.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in, somehow citing the Sherman Antitrust Act into the free-for-all world of recruiting, and they were back on.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">When they step in, it’s a heavy footprint,” Miles said. “It’s not a light one.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The SEC, of course, was quick to lift its own ban.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So that’s why Miles, who was breathing a sigh of relief when the NCAA briefly banned the traveling-circus camps, was forced to stand before us Tuesday acting excited about the bold new frontier of satellite camps.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Once they’re done with their own on-campus camps, June and July are excellent times for coaches to kick back and just hope their cellphones don’t ring after midnight.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We look forward to getting on the road and get going,” Miles said in a grin-and-bear-it sort of way. “It’s going to be fun.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Perhaps, but he was already lobbying for the NCAA to add a 10th full-time assistant to staffs just to keep up with the logistics.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Anyway — come on, stay awake now; you can do it ?— LSU apparently will start out conservatively with these new adventures.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We really want to get around and raise the understanding of technique in football in the state,” Miles said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fine. But keep in mind that these camps are mostly for the coaches to evaluate the young horseflesh.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They will teach some blocking and tackling, perhaps even dabble in life skills, stuff the kids can take back to their high schools.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They may even tutor them in some cursive writing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But they are, at heart, tryout camps, maybe the most valuable recruiting tool in the box.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Miles was adamant that nothing will replace the traditional on-campus camp.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You don’t want to have a satellite camp in lieu of visiting Baton Rouge,” he said. “When they come to Baton Rouge, they use our facilities, they see our coaches. There’s more information given to that camper.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, just to keep up with the Joneses (Sabans), LSU will have its satellite camps in Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas and Houston.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Miles hasn’t ruled out a trip to Florida, maybe Atlanta too, but nothing there is finalized.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The one in New Orleans will be co-hosted by the NFL Saints at their Metairie facility. The Houston camp will be in conjunction with two high schools. LSU will co-host in Dallas with Texas-San Antonio, conveniently now coached by former Tigers assistant Frank Wilson.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The interesting angle, though, is that the Tigers’ on-campus camps, as well as the ones in New Orleans and Shreveport, will also feature coaches from almost all of the state schools, including McNeese.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“It’s where they get their prospects too,” Miles said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He might have stirred up the dormant LSU-Tulane rivalry, although there are no plans for any football games or anything.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Green Wave will be the only school from Louisiana not taking part.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“They didn’t necessarily want to participate,” Miles said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Well, that’s one way of putting it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">More likely, Miles doesn’t cotton to other SEC schools coming into the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Tulane will join Texas A&amp;M in co-hosting camps on its campus, as well as in Shreveport and Monroe.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I don’t know that they’re going to get out of that what they want,” he said of the arrangement. “If you’re an in-state school, you want that prospect that might fall out of the view of an SEC team. If there’s a bunch of SEC schools in here, there’s a likelihood that, at some point, they take one of their prospects. Again, I don’t see that as being good for a great number of schools in the state.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>

<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</a>

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