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Luigs almost overlooked Wednesday, Jul 30, 2008 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - Jonathan Luigs is another one of those athletes whose success in college makes one wonder about the February fuss over signatures of high school seniors. Coming out of Pulaski Academy, he was a two-star on the five-star scale. LSU offered, but with a Que Sera Sera attitude. In Fayetteville, Luigs was almost an afterthought on the list of those scholarship-worthy. Last year, that same young man was awarded the Rimington Trophy as the best center in college football and one of the questions about the upcoming season is whether Arkansas will win enough games for him to repeat. Today, he is the most recognizable of the Razorbacks - the only one named to the All-SEC team picked by the media, the one on the Hawgs Illustrated cover with new coach Bobby Petrino, and the one who shares the cover of the UA media guide with Petrino and linebacker Elston Forte. Luigs is the player who Petrino picked to speak for the Arkansas offense when the SEC media gathered in Hoover, Ala. "He handles it with a humbleness that you like to see," said Pulaski Academy coach Kevin Kelley. Kelley was baffled by the tepid courtship of Luigs. The excuse from Fayetteville was that P.A. was throwing the ball most of the time and there was no guarantee that Luigs could block for the run-happy Razorbacks. "The silliness of it is you don't have to see a kid do something to know if he can do it or not," Kelley said. "If he's got good feet and he's strong and he's big, 'OK, I can teach him.'" In addition, he said, Luigs was an exemplary citizen. Kelley thought Arkansas would offer early that season after Luigs had a great game against Brett Helms of Stuttgart who was LSU-bound. Ironically, Helms represented the Tigers' offense last week in Hoover. Vanderbilt coaches thought they had Luigs, Kelley said, and they still talk about the near-miss. All along, Luigs was up-front with out-of-state schools. "If Arkansas offers, I'm going there," he told them. "I think they waited so long everybody thought they wouldn't," Kelley said. Friends of the Nutt family lobbied on behalf of Luigs and, finally, all of the coaches that needed to see him in person took in a P.A. game deep in the high school playoffs. An offer followed. Luigs was a tackle until the second game of his senior year in high school. At Pulaski Academy, where the center and guards are usually blocking two defenders, pass-happy Kelley demands that the trio prevent any penetration. During the first game of 2003, the P.A. center made some mistakes and Kelley moved Luigs to the middle. He had messed around a little with snapping the ball, Kelley said. "He can do whatever he wants to," the coach said. "He's so good on his feet, so intelligent." The coach and his former player talk often - about once a week during the season, less frequently at other times - and they text back and forth. They also play golf together, particularly when Kelley is in Fayetteville during the summer for the high school coaching clinic. "He has really spoken highly of his line coach (Mike Summers), the things they're having him do," Kelley said. "He thinks a lot of what they're doing, running the pro-style offense that gives them every chance to be successful. Whether they have the kids remains to be seen." Last week, Luigs said all the right things to the media about Petrino, the development of senior quarterback Casey Dick, and the departure of Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, and Houston Nutt. ---- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
