RB Williams cleared to join LSU Tigers

[DKW 86 6,356]

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/....xml&coll=1

RB Williams cleared to join Tigers

Test scores, grades certified by NCAA

Friday, August 25, 2006

By Jim Kleinpeter

BATON ROUGE -- It wasn't just another Clearinghouse victory for LSU on Thursday -- it was the big one.

Prized running back recruit Keiland Williams finally joined the team for practice Thursday after having his high school transcripts certified by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Williams, a 5-foot-11, 223-pounder from Lafayette, has missed nearly three weeks of practice while his test scores and grades were waiting to be verified. He still could become a factor this season with Justin Vincent and Alley Broussard trying to recover from knee surgery and mostly inexperienced running back depth behind them.

Williams played at Northside High School in Lafayette, where he was the Class 4A MVP in 2004. He had more than 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career at Northside.

Williams was ineligible at Northside last year because of his age but competed at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., where he ran for 1,325 yards and 12 touchdowns. He became the first 1,000-yard rusher in school history.

LSU has one player, running back Richard Murphy, yet to be certified. The Clearinghouse previously approved defensive tackle Al Woods and offensive lineman Steven Singleton.

100 PERCENT: Vincent said with camp over he feels better than he has in a long time. He's hoping it translates into a senior season that can approach his freshman year, when he rushed for 1,001 yards to help LSU to a national title. Vincent entered camp coming off knee surgery and appears to be coming out as the Tigers' No. 1 back. "I feel great, the best I've felt in a long time," he said. "I don't know what it is. I feel more energy, maybe because I'm a senior and it's my last one. I just feel different, ready to roll."

TUBING: The LSU football team will be featured for its role in the reaction to Hurricane Katrina in a Fox Sports Documentary called "Eye of the Storm" to air Sept. 3 at 8 p.m.

LISTS: LSU names continues to pop up on watch lists of all kinds. Ali Highsmith is one of 65 players named to the Butkus Award preliminary list. The award is presented by the Downtown Athletic club of Orlando to the nation's outstanding linebacker. Highsmith is already on the Bednarik Award watch list, which goes to the nation's best defensive player. . . . JaMarcus Russell was one of 22 players named to the Manning Award watch list, which goes to the top quarterback, and includes bowl performance. . . . Russell and safety LaRon Landry were chosen by Sports Illustrated as two of the top 10 players in the SEC .

[WAR EAGLE!!! 0]

I will admit that Landry is a Top 10 player in the league. He is a stud in LSU's secondary. Russell I would have to disagree with. Sure, he has the physical "potential" to be the best QB in the SEC, I have no problem saying that, but right now I am pretty sure that I would choose to be where Auburn is at under the QB position....you just don't know what kind of performance you are going to get from Russell.

[WinCrimson 61]

Russell is the best QB in the conference IMO.

1) Russell

2) Leak

3) Cox

4) Mitchell

5) Pretty even past these 4 guys...