Robinson explodes in Trojans win
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On South Lafourche’s football roster, senior linebacker Jeremy Rogers is listed as 5-foot, 8-inches tall and 170 pounds.
That’s small for a linebacker – a position where guys are usually well above 6-feet tall and often weight near 220, if not more.
But do ‘ya want to hear a secret?
Rogers is probably even smaller than that, though his impacts on games Friday night after often huge.
Indeed, Rogers is undersized for his defensive position – not the most imposing physical specimen on the field for the Tarpons’ defense.
But Rogers overcomes his lack of size with quickness, athleticism and an all-around nose for the football, which makes him one of the top players in the Houma-Thibodaux area – a guy who has a shot to play football at the collegiate level.
“Well, since you want to call out my roster, I can tell you that he’s probably not as tall as 5-foot-8 and he probably doesn’t weigh as much as 170 pounds,” South Lafourche coach Blake Forsythe said with a laugh last week. “He just makes an impact. He finds ways to make plays. It doesn’t matter where we line him up. It doesn’t matter what we ask him to do. He just gets the job done and helps our football team.”
Rogers has been doing that his whole career.
He’s started for South Lafourche since his sophomore season and has been an instant impact player for the Tarpons.
In the 2015 season, Rogers was one of South Lafourche’s leading tacklers, playing several positions for a team which made the Class 4A state playoffs.
Former South Lafourche coach Dennis Skains said he had concerns about giving Rogers such a big role so early in that season – in part because of his size.
But Skains said every time he put on tape of practice or games, the same guy was making plays and disrupting things for opposing offenses.
“If you see him getting off the bus and then you see him lining up with the first defense on the first snap, you’re probably over on the other sideline saying to yourself, ‘Man, this is going to be a day where we can get a lot of kids in the game,’ said Skains, who is now the head coach at Cecilia High School. “He doesn’t really have the look, but he’s just a bulldog. His fighting spirit, I think, sort of embodies the fighting spirit of the kids out there. You’ll find a lot of kids who are bigger and a good bit will be faster, too. But I’d go to battle with Jeremy Rogers any day. He just makes plays.”
As a junior, Rogers role grew and he started playing some offense – a role he’s continued this year.
Rogers is a spot tailback for the Tarpons. He plays about 10-15 snaps offensively in key situations and in select packages – a role he’s enjoyed since his junior season.
As a runner, Rogers is tough to tackle. He sees the field well and is apt to break tackles to turn short runs into long ones.
Rogers said playing the offensive side of the ball is actually his most natural position – something he’s done his whole life.
In week 2’s game with Thibodaux, Rogers had a touchdown run to put South Lafourche up 7-0 early on.
In typical Rogers fashion, he also had other impacts, including a blocked punt, two interceptions and several vicious hits on Tigers quarterback DeMarcus Mitchell, which kept the powerful passer out of rhythm.
When asked which role he likes best, Rogers hesitated for a minute, then gave a decisive answer.
“I like to hit the quarterback,” Rogers said with a laugh. “That is my favorite thing to do on the football field. The interceptions are a lot of fun. It’s great to help my team. The touchdown runs are fun, too. But I like to hit the quarterback. There’s nothing like coming off the edge, getting through the blockers and putting everything you have into a good, clean hit.”
So now, the senior linebacker and his teammates are focused on finding wins – something that will be tough to do in a brutally challenging schedule that’s been sort of weird so far.
South Lafourche opened its season with a loss against De La Salle – one of the best teams in Louisiana. After that, they rebounded from 21-10 down and beat Thibodaux 38-28 – a game in which the Tigers outgained the Tarpons by more than 150 yards.
On Friday night, South Lafourche had the script get flipped on them. The Tarpons outgained Central Lafourche by more than 150 yards, but blew an 11-0 lead and lost to the Trojans to fall to 1-2.
This Friday, they’ll open district play against Ellender at home.
Rogers said the team has a clear goal – to play its best every Friday and to compete at a high level.
“We just don’t want to have any regrets,” he said. “We don’t want to have to wonder about what could have happened if we didn’t make this mistake here or that mistake there. Just go out, play hard, play clean and if we do that, we think we can get where we want to be.”
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