AMITE, La. — The white mantle is the first thing guests see when stepping inside the Sopsher family’s mobile home. It is overflowing with memorabilia: athletic trophies, specialty letters, game-worn lanyards, newspaper clippings. Wanda Sopsher has turned her mantle into a shrine to her three children, and the biggest of them—6'5", 305-pound Ishmael—is at the center. Ishmael just happens to be the No. 1-ranked defensive tackle in the 2019 signing class, a teddy bear of a kid whose size and vigor on the football field has made him the most sought after prospect in one of the nation’s most fertile and hotly contested recruiting grounds.
The Other 364 Days of the Alabama-LSU Rivalry
