JENNINGS, La. – They all came to see Travis Etienne. Coaches from Arkansas, Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M and others gathered around the practice field at a small south Louisiana high school to see a running back who had only recently appeared on the radar screen of the college football recruiting world. Some coaches wielded small handheld video recorders. Others used their iPhones. All of them were hell-bent on producing evidence of this alleged speedster. A few minutes into practice, not only had Etienne not recorded a single carry, he hadn’t taken a snap.
“I refused to run him,” recalls James Estes, Etienne’s offensive coordinator at Jennings High.