Tri-parish pair hopes to make impact for LSU in 2009

Coming off a disappointing 8-5 season, the LSU Tigers are looking to bounce back in a big way for the 2009 campaign.

Two local products are hoping to make major contributions to put the Tigers back into national championship contention: redshirt sophomore deep snapper Joey Crappell and redshirt freshman defensive end Chase Clement.

The pair said the Tigers are a hungrier, mentally tougher team than in 2008.

“What we did last year was unacceptable for our tradition that has been established,” said Crappell, a 2007 Patterson High graduate. “The attitude on the field has been unbelievable. I’ve never seen a team come together like this, not even the 2007 national championship year.”

“Last year wasn’t such a bad season. It just didn’t turn out the way we wanted,” said Clement, a 2008 E.D. White graduate. “There’s been a big difference in our intensity. We’re going to fight every week and see how it rolls. I have really good confidence in our team. Our defense is ready to rock and roll. Our offense is doing well. So it’s all good right now.”

The goal for the season has been set at winning the program’s third BCS National Championship in seven years.

Although Crappell, 21, was part of the team’s last title squad, he is not looking back at that experience to inspire the next run for the Sears Trophy.

“It was a great honor and a tremendous opportunity. I took it and made the best of it,” he said. “The national championship year is something you will never forget. It’s something you can tell your grandkids about, but you got to move on. It’s just a memory now.”

Clement, 20, admitted that getting redshirted last season was a little disappointing after being named Class 3A and District 7-3A MVP his senior year for the Cardinals.

He is the fourth member of his family to play football at LSU. Three of his uncles – Ruffin Rodrigue Sr., Ruffin Rodrigue Jr. and the late Eric Andolsek, who played offensive line for the Detroit Lions – also wore the Purple and Gold.

“It’s in my blood. I would have ticked a few people off if I would have went somewhere else,” he joked.

But the general studies major now believes sitting out last year has helped him make the transition to college football easier and allowed him to excel as a student.

“I thought I was going to have a hard time coming home when the team was traveling to road games and my friends would be like, ‘Why are you not out there?'” he explained. “But it actually helped out a lot. It got me ahead of the game. I was on the scout squad, so I got to go up against the first team offense.”

“I’ve been doing really well in school. My core GPA is about 3.0,” he added.

Under new defensive coordinator John Chavis, who was hired from the University of Tennessee in January, Clement said the defense is more aggressive, reminiscent of the 2003 championship squad.

“We have the same players, but the defense is totally different,” he claimed. “The attitude and the momentum have shifted. We’re flying to the ball. Our coaches don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. They expect perfection.”

Currently on the depth chart, Clement is on the second squad. Going up against the starting offensive line daily in practice is making him better every day,” he said.

Based on those practices, he reported that sophomore starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson and highly prized recruit, freshman quarterback Russell Shepard, are as good as advertised.

“They’re unbelievable. They just have talent out of this world,” he insisted. “I can’t wait to see them out on the field playing.”

Clement will get playing time this season as a member of the special teams unit. Because Chavis likes to rotate eight or nine defensive linemen a game, he is expected to see playing time at that position as well.

But don’t be surprised if head coach Les Miles calls the former high school tight end’s number for a trick play or two this season.

“Coach Miles always tells me to be alert on special teams. We’ll make you run out there and catch a pass,” he said. “Now that I know I’m going to be playing, I got to just hunker down and learn all my plays. The plays are coming easy. We just have to keep executing them.”

As a deep snapper, Crappell is in a no-win situation.

If he does his job right, nobody will ever know his name. If he messes up, his name will get trashed in every sports media forum available.

But he would not have it any other way.

“That’s the great thing about me. I’m a neat, organized guy. Snapping is one of those things where you have to be perfect,” Crappell explained. “I like that people don’t know who I am. I want to be under the radar. If the team knows you, you’re not a good snapper.

“It’s a tremendously weird feeling to have all that pressure on your shoulders, knowing that one bad snap could cost the game or even the season, and every time you have to be perfect. I like it,” he added.

Crappell has been a snapper since the age of six. He said his father taught him how to snap despite never doing it before.

Even though he has attended four camps in his teens, including the Ray Guy Camp under snap coach Ben Fuller, Crappell said snapping is a skill that has to be obtained early, not developed at the prep or collegiate level.

“It’s hard to say a snap camp works because each snapper is unique,” he insisted. “In college, there is no help. If you don’t know by now, you might as well not even try. It’s something you have to acquire at a young age, like 10 or 12. It’s so much more than people think.”

As the snapper on all field goals and the backup on punts, Crappell is responsible for when the ball gets snapped, not the holder or punter regardless of their calls and hand gestures.

“The holder throws his hand up and that let’s me know I can snap the ball at any time,” he explained. “Changing of the snap count is all on me. I just snap and we try to hold off some big 300 pounders.”

Three days before the season opener at the Washington Huskies on Saturday night, Clement and Crappell said LSU fans could expect a much better year from the Bayou Bengals.

The road to the national championship may go through Gainesville and the defending champion Florida Gators, but the duo insisted there would be a diversion in Death Valley.

“We’re going to keep our hearts and fight our butts off,” Clement said. “When a play goes wrong, we’re going to shake it off, not like last year when a play messed up, everybody was all bummed out.

“We’re going to stick together and work it out as a team,” he added.

“At worse, we should be 11-1, so fans should expect a good season,” Crappell said. “The fans make LSU. They make Tiger Stadium magical. They feed off of us and we feed off of them. So it’s one big family. Hopefully, and it seems like a good possibility, there will be another national championship coming to LSU.”