Video: Clemson RB Etienne returns to Louisiana for Sugar Bowl
NEW ORLEANS – It had been 14 years since Clemson signed a football player from Louisiana.
That changed in early February when Jennings running back Travis Etienne picked the Tigers over his home-state Tigers of LSU, among others.
Now, Etienne returns to his home state for the biggest game of his young career.
Etienne leads Clemson with 744 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns heading into Monday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal against Alabama in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
A third-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection and two-time league rookie of the week, Etienne averaged 7.2 yards per carry, third-best in school history. His carries-to-touchdowns ratio of 7.9-to-1 is the best in all of college football.
Etienne just picked up where he left off at Jennings, where he rushed for 2,459 yards and 39 total touchdowns as a senior. He was Clemson’s first Louisiana signee since outside linebacker Nick Watkins of Edna Karr in 2003.
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Lenny Vangilder
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Lenny was involved in college athletics starting in the early 1980s, when he began working Tulane University sporting events while still attending Archbishop Rummel High School. He continued that relationship as a student at Loyola University, where he graduated in 1987. For the next 11 years, Vangilder worked in the sports information offices at Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) and Tulane;…
