At New Orleans Saints training camp, running back Travis Etienne Jr. opened up on why he didn't end up with his home-state LSU Tigers in college, instead choosing the Clemson Tigers.
The New Orleans Saints were able to pull off something that the LSU Tigers weren't a couple of years ago: sign star Louisiana-native running back Travis Etienne.
Etienne finally moved on from the NFL club that drafted him, the Jacksonville Jaguars, this offseason. He saw the opportunity to return to the Saints, and he jumped on it. If he wanted to play in Louisiana so badly, though, why did he end up signing with the Clemson Tigers out of high school instead?
Well, it's NFL training camp season, and players are speaking to the media. Fox 8's Sean Fazende took this chance to ask Etienne why he never made it to Baton Rouge.
"Well at first they offered me at safety when Les Miles was there," Etienne said with a bit of a laugh. "And at that time in high school, I wasn't thinking about defense."
It certainly wouldn't be the first time that Miles recruiting a player to the wrong position kept them from getting NFL talent. Dak Prescott is another famous story of a player who could have ended up at LSU, but Miles wanted him to be a tight end.
That wasn't the only reason, though, as by the time it came to sign, the Tigers had Ed Orgeron and Matt Canada. It turns out that it was really more of a scheme fit at the end of the day.
"Coach O came in and offered me at running back. They had Coach Canada as the OC," said Etienne. "They were in the I-formation. I had been watching Leonard [Fournette], Derrius [Guice], those body styles. I came from the Wing-T. I knew for me to just better my game, the I-formation wasn't for me. I needed something that was going to help me develop my pass-blocking and just things outside the tackles. It worked out for both of us."
Etienne also joked that he would have liked to be a part of the Joe Brady offense with how they used Clyde Edwards-Helaire. While it worked out fine for both, it would have been fun to imagine what Etienne would have done in purple and gold.
Over his four years with the other Tigers, Etienne racked up 6,107 yards from scrimmage and 78 total touchdowns. He ran for 1,658 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2018 alone. In 2019, when LSU had that prolific offense, Etienne scored 19 touchdowns on his own and helped lead Clemson to that National Championship on the other side.
Edwards-Helaire was no slouch, though, which is why it ended up working out. In 2019, he put up 1,414 yards and 16 touchdowns on top of the historic passing numbers the school was seeing.
The big change would have been that 2018 season as Etienne might have been enough to push them over the edge into being more competitive that season. Nick Brossette was solid as the lead back, but Etienne's production that year was absurd.
Now the running back is back home in Louisiana, and the Tigers still have a championship to call theirs despite not landing him out of high school.
