You have to give Billy Napier and crew a ton of credit for making the most of this recruiting class with the amount of time he had to get this class in place.
One of the first things that Napier talked about when he was introduced as the new head coach for the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns was that he wasn’t going to focus on the new early signing period because he didn’t have adequate time to get to know these young men that he was going to bring aboard. He then had to assemble a coaching staff to attack that recruiting trail with a focus on the state of Louisiana.
When you take all that into account, he did a pretty decent job, especially when you look at the kind of players he got aboard.
Attacking the Boot
One of the biggest complaints amongst fans of Cajuns football in the last couple of seasons was the lack of Louisiana flavor. When you look at the number of commits for this program, it skews more towards the Pelican State with six of their 16 commits hail from the boot. This is a good look for a program that is trying to get back in the good graces of the Lafayette community.
While getting the local commits for a group of five program may seem like a proverbial bargain bin, the Cajuns worked hard in terms of getting some players like Max Mitchell and Percy Butler out of in-state powers like Plaquemine and Neville. They even brought a player back into the state in former STM Cougar Kendall Johnson who is coming from Nevada. There’s a lot of positives when it comes to getting the boot back in the Cajuns program.
Sticking to Tradition
When you look at the punters the Cajuns have had in about the last decade, it was clear that the focus has been on the rugby-style punter and looking at kickers from a land down under. That tradition continued with Rhys Byrns from Padua College in Australia signing on the dotted line.
Based off of some film I’ve seen, he looks to be a solid punter that can help maintain the standard that punters like Steven Coutts helped set.
Reeled in the Big Fish
Without a doubt, the first recruiting class for Napier is highlighted by getting Covington native Garrald McDowell to transfer from Ole Miss. The 6’2” 264 pound defensive lineman has experience playing against SEC-level talent on the defensive line and will be a solid addition to a front seven that underwhelmed last season.
While there aren’t many stats on him during his time in Oxford, you have to think that he can get more playing time for the Cajuns.
Overall Thoughts on 2018 Recruiting Class
If I were giving this recruiting class a grade, I’d definitely give it a B. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to players like Johnny Lumpkin and no quarterback in the class was an interesting way to go about things. However, the talents they have in this class will be some solid depth to some key positions that lost some footing after the 2017 season wrapped up.
It might be a while until we see some of these guys get meaningful snaps, but the class as a whole is something that Napier and the rest of his staff should be commended for.
-Clint Domingue