LSU finalized its football roster without former NFL signees Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, but that may not be the end of their saga. Kace Kieschnick reports.
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There is a lot of purple and gold in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2027. Jeff Palermo has the story.
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LSU filled its final two available roster spots last night, seemingly ending its recruitment of players who spent time in NFL training camps. The decision has de-escalated tensions between LSU and the SEC, and this afternoon’s hearing in the lawsuit has been postponed. Attorney Tony Clayton represents the athletes and says it was his clients who sued the NCAA and SEC, not LSU.
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SEC presidents and chancellors scheduled a vote on whether to expel LSU from the conference on Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that LSU’s coordinated effort to recruit players in NFL training camps violates the conference’s First Amendment right to govern itself, but Clayton says LSU never rostered the players and broke any SEC rules.
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The lawsuit claims that LSU coach Lane Kiffin was involved in coordinating and encouraging the athletes’ lawsuit against the NCAA, but Clayton says there is no evidence of that. He says his clients made their own decisions, and he has never even met Kiffin.
Cut 5 (09) “…and the SEC.”
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The Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy is launching a massive effort to plug and clean up orphaned oil and gas well sites. Spokesman Patrick Courreges (KOO-rezh) says the department will use 30-million dollars in federal funding to clean up the sites in north Louisiana.
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The department will use state funding to clean up orphaned well sites in south Louisiana. Courreges says it’s important to get these orphaned well sites plugged and cleaned so that they don’t cause any problems down the road.
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Courreges says the Monroe and Shreveport districts contain more than 42-hundred of the state’s roughly 64-hundred orphaned wells.
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Lafayette-based Lemoine Disaster Recovery and Houston-based Garner Environmental Services will lead the first phase. The overall effort will take three to five years to complete.
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Two of LSU’s best football players during this century, running back Leonard Fournette and cornerback Patrick Peterson, highlight the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2027. Chairman Doug Ireland says Fournette earned All-American honors as a sophomore at LSU, rushing for nearly two-thousand yards, a school record.
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Fournette also broke the school single-record for most games in a game when he had 284 yards on 16 carries in a 38-21 win over Ole Miss. Fournette went on to play seven seasons in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay.
In 2010, Peterson won the Bednarik Award as the nation’s top defender and the Thorpe Award as the top defensive back, becoming the first LSU player to win those two prestigious awards. Ireland says after LSU, Peterson played 13 seasons in the NFL and made the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons.
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The 2027 class also features former LSU baseball stars Ryan Theriot and Aaron Hill. Ireland says one of the state’s most successful high school football coach, Hank Tierney, is also a member of the 2027 class.
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Tierney has won two state titles at Shaw.
The 2027 class also includes two-time Triple Crown winning jockey Robby Albarado, former Northwestern State baseball coach Jim Wells, former ULM women’s basketball star Lisa Ingram and former LSU defensive tackle standout Henry Thomas, who helped LSU win an SEC title in 1988 and then played 14 seasons in the NFL.
The induction ceremony will take place in Natchitoches from June 24th to the 26th.