Goff working to build champion at McNeese with local, regional talent

LAKE CHARLES – The State of Louisiana and Southwestern Louisiana, for that matter, have been a hot-bed for talent year-in and year-out, and second-year McNeese football head coach Gary Goff jumped on those trails the minute he stepped foot in Lake Charles.

Of the 110 players in fall camp for the Cowboys, 52 of them call Louisiana home while nearly two dozen are from right here in Southwest Louisiana. Another 22 are from Texas with a majority of those from the Southeast Texas region.

“We have all the talent we could shake a stick at in Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas,” said Goff. “We recruit about a three-hour radius from our campus. We have 20 or so players from what is considered right here in our backyard. I’m excited about those guys.”

Two of the local freshmen signees could see some significant playing time for the Cowboys this season.

“We have Jamaal Levi (Barbe High School) who is a big-time playmaker and was one of the leading receivers in the state of Louisiana. And then Peyton Lemaire (Sulphur HS) is a really good linebacker who I think will do a lot of good things for us this year as a true freshman,” said Goff.

“We want their families in the stands and our community behind us. There will be years where we’ll be very limited in the amount of scholarships we have available, which will be next year, but I always want to make sure we do a good job recruiting local because I think those guys are really good players. I want to be the blue chip, tough-nosed football team, and I know Southwest Louisiana is all about that.”

Eight players from Mississippi make it 82 total from the three-state area and making up 75 percent of the roster. But now with the portal, the Cowboys have claimed some athletes from all across the country – nine from Florida, four Georgia, two from Oklahoma, Arizona and Maryland, and one from Iowa, California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Nebraska and Missouri.

“It’s our job to put the best players on our roster and be productive,” Goff commented.

Goff and staff attacked the Mississippi Junior Colleges in recruiting, signing eight players from some of the best JUCO teams in the nation.

“College football has changed so much. You go back 15-20 years ago when McNeese was rockin’ and rollin’, you didn’t have the portal. You didn’t have these NIL deals. You didn’t need to recruit junior college transfers, or live off of transfers, because you had class after class after class of true freshmen that redshirted, then you’re going to have 25 or more redshirt seniors. That’s why McNeese was so successful back in the day. But those days are over. You’re not going to live solely off of high school recruits anymore, and I hate that and totally against that, but you just can’t if you’re going to compete.”