oops, sorry, forgot about it being a pay site....
Here's my take on what was written....
L.G. (Janzen's Dad): Of course, when the coaches left LSU, you know, with Mallory, Peveto and Corey (Raymond)...I've known Corey for a while and Janzen knew him. So it was the easy thing for him to commit to LSU. They were national champions the year before he committed. As things went with Peveto going his direction and Mallory got his job -- of course, Corey didn't get his job -- (Janzen) kind of got shook up by it a little bit by it all. He said, 'Dad, I might want to see what else is out there. Do you think I should decommit?' I said, 'No, because you're not sure you want to go to another place ... you open this thing up and it's going to be wide open. People are going to come from everywhere. The only other place would be Alabama. This was before anything happened with Tennessee.
Right around that time with Tennessee I get offered the job with Miami-OH and so that puts another wrinkle in it. So he says, 'Now my daddy ain't gonna be in Lousiana and everybody I know at LSU that I feel good with ain't there.' So I start talking to him and he says, 'I'm just thinking, when there's holidays or anything like that, where am I gonna go?' And I told him, 'I don't know.' Because he can't go back to Welsh which is where most of our people are from. ... Me and his momma didn't want him being there but he would have nowhere else to go. He was battling with that ... and of course we didn't want him to do that. And that played a big factor. At one point he said, 'Daddy if you just stay at McNeese,' and I said, 'You gotta be a big boy, you gotta make a decision, man. This is your future.' At Tennessee when Lane gets the job, of course, and Orgeron comes in, and starts to build a relationship, things started leaning that way. He went on his trip and really enjoyed it.
But it still wasn't done. He came back he actually said, 'Daddy, I think (Tennessee's) where I want to go.' I said, 'Well Janz, you need to go on all your visits, you committed to LSU.' ... So he went and visited LSU. Of course, (Ron) Cooper came in and was trying to build that relationship back, but he could never feel the comfort anymore because.... I think it was the whole deal with me leaving and going to Miami-OH. That played a big factor. Not necessarily because he wanted to be that close to me, but really there was no place he could call home anymore.
M.S. (Mike Scarborough): It sounds like coach Miles would have just wanted you to tell him if he knew several weeks ago.
L.G.: Well, he contemplated all the way until two days ago. After he visited Tennessee, still, LSU was in there. He's got a little girlfriend and that was playing a part. He couldn't say, 'Well, I'm de-committing to go to such-and-such because that would be two weeks of LSU trying to get back on him and people going crazy. ... The daddy part of me was thinking that I took him from California. The reason why I took him from California is his mom was living in South Central. So he was in a bad environment when I took him in. You know, me and my wife actually lost two sons at birth, so he's my only boy. I never could get out of that daddy mode of (thinking), 'I want what's best for him.' But you know, I want to make sure he's gonna be okay. He was feeling kind of the same thing about it too. He finally got stable somewhere and then it was going to be gone. He couldn't get past that. He couldn't get past me being gone and I guess he just felt it felt right at Tennessee. But In my gut I didn't want him in another bad environment. I didn't want him running up and down the highway to New Orleans, and I sure didn't want him in Welsh, Louisiana. I guess what I'm saying is I felt good as a daddy when he did go to Tennessee.
M.S.: But there's a seedy part of every town.
L.G.: That's right, but not when you go back where all your people are at and you're in that town. That's the whole thing. He's had cousins get killed right up in that area. Janzen's the only one in his entire family that's really done anything. So his momma knows that and I know that. That's why she doesn't live in Welsh. That's why I'm in Lake Charles. The way it went down, of course people are going to look at it like he pulled out in the end and he stabbed LSU in the back. But I said to him, 'You know what Janz, you gotta do what's in your heart because you've got one time in your life to make a decision for your future. You've got one time, because LSU's going to recruit another Janzen Jackson next year and this will all be forgotten.' I said look, 'Coach wanted Rueben Randle and pulled the scholarship from (DeAngelo) Benton. So you gotta do what you gotta do.' He felt so bad because he committed. I said, 'Janz, you're a kid.' But you know, people are always going to see it (in terms) of LSU and winning the national championship. They're not going to see it as what's best for that kid.
M.S.: I know you were concerned with the quality of coaching on the defensive side, which was addressed by Miles in the offseason. Previously you mentioned Monte Kiffin and what that would mean to Janzen and him wanting to coach in the future...Some have mentioned that Monte Kiffin is planning to only coach a few more years. Did you compare the defensive back coaches, Ron Cooper vs. a guy from North Dakota St.?
L.G.: It doesn't make a difference where you're at. Why isn't Ron Cooper in the NFL? I've coached in high school and I've coached in college. I'll tell you right now, they've got coaches in high school that can outcoach college guys. It's all about opportunity and who you know. Cooper played at Jacksonville State, a Division II school, and piggybacked off a coach that went to Minnesota with Lou Holtz. It's all about who you know. .. With Monte Kiffin, he's done the deal in the NFL. There's a lot of different things to it. People are going to see things the way they're going to see it.
M.S.: What has the fallout been like?
L.G.: It's all rumor. That's why I wanted to call you and tell you exactly what happened.
M.S.: I've been getting phone calls, lot of coaches around the state talking to one another, everybody's got a story. ...
L.G.: J.T. Curtis called me and he said, 'At least I'm not the most hated coach in the state now.' I said, 'Well I'm not in the state anymore,' he laughed.
M.S.: What happens in the future if you want to come back to Louisiana for employment?
L.G.: You don't think I can come back home and coach in Louisiana? What's that got to do with anything? I'm a coach. I can get a job anywhere I want. I'm a big boy, I'm going to be okay. If they can't understand... You know who's a visitor to our state? Les Miles is a visitor to our state and every coach on his staff is a visitor to LA. My family will be in LA but he will be gone one day, just like every coach that's gone through there.
M.S.: So did you actually talk to any of the LSU coaches after the fact?
L.G.: I talked to coach Miles before.
M.S.: What was his mood?
L.G.: He said that if it was about me being in Oxford and him being in Tennessee he could understand. If it came down to football and football coaches he couldn't understand it. As far as the quality of coaches and all that I said I don't think that has anything to do with it. I said that I think me being at Miami of Ohio might have something to do with it because we discussed that before. But that was it. We play some games on Fridays and Tuesdays so I actually get to see him play at Tennessee.
k:
