What about this little fellow, 2000 recruit ? The Great Marcus ConSpearsacy September 10, 2000 Marcus Spears, (6-4, 287, 4.8) of Baton Rouge Southern Lab, Louisiana ran a 4.84 at the Texas A&M NIKE Camp while weighing 276 pounds. He was obviously the talk of the camp. He has since run a little faster with a 4.8 to his credit and right now, he weighs-in at 287. With this great size and speed and athletic ability, his stock continued to go up-and-up-and-up. Florida State, Texas, UCLA, Georgia Tech, and Miami all came into the picture, along with the local favorite LSU! The upside potential of Marcus Spears is probably off of the map right now, but I visualize him playing defensive end in the NFL. Most college coaches agree and would like to have him before he goes to that league! The only problem here is that Marcus wants to play offense in college. With all of this pre-season hoopla on Spears, I decided that I needed to see Marcus Spears play in his very first game of the season, so on the opening weekend, I included Southern Lab in my busy schedule. My games started on Friday afternoon when I drove through Baton Rouge to Plaquemine to see Southern Lab play St John of Plaquemine. Before the game, I stopped by to see Rosalie Pasqua, my mom-in-law, for a bite to eat. After finishing my meatball sandwich and a baked potato, it was time to check-out Marcus Spears. It's difficult to explain exactly what I expected to see Marcus do in this game against another 1A team. Last year, Timmy Bracken (Michigan Signee) ran for 228 yards against 1A Southern Lab and beat them, but you have to really remember, this is Class 1A football. The coach for Southern Lab was trying to play some mind games with the St John coaches, because he didn't have Marcus running with the first team offense in pre-game warm-ups. Then when the game started, Marcus Spears lined-up at right halfback in the wishbone. Let me stress again that we were talking about a 270-pound running back, lining-up at right halfback, in the wishbone, in class 1A. In short, Marcus scored twice from 5 and 9 yards, caught one pass for about 8 yards, punted the football on fourth down, and got a quarterback-hurry from his defensive end position. In that first game, I was more impressed with Marcus on defense than I was on offense. In his second game of the season, Marcus caught 4 passes for 80 yards and scored two more touchdowns from his right halfback position. Marcus Spears has tremendous athleticism, with great hands and great strength, but on a very talented team, Marcus just never really was used that much at tight end. Marcus is one of those freaks of nature. He's too fast to be so big. He has so much "upside" potential, it's scary how good he might be in college. "Marcus Spears is definitely a more offensive minded player and he would prefer to play on that side of the football," says high school Coach Eric Randall. "Marcus can run, catch, and block and he definitely wants to go where they throw the football to the tight end!" I finished the football season with Marcus Spears just as I started the season with him, as I was on the Louisiana Superdome sideline for the Southern Lab game with Haynesville and the 1A Louisiana State Championship. Both Southern Lab (13-0) and Haynesville (14-0) came into the game undefeated. The Haynesville defense kept Spears pretty much in check all day, but their offense could not block him as he made tackle after tackle after tackle. At 287 pounds, Spears was a devastating site out there from his defensive end position and Haynesville obviously ran away from his side the whole game. It's not real difficult for me to decide where I would play him in college. There are very few 287 pound dominating tight ends that are playing the game right now. Most defensive teams, just as Haynesville, can contain a 287-pound tight end. What most offenses cannot do is block a 287-pound defensive end with his kind of athletic ability and quickness. After that State championship game, my choice for him is defense and so I re-rated him to a defensive tackle, but just wait. Along with averaging 21 points per game for the 1A State Champions, Marcus Spears averaged 19 points this summer on a traveling Super Select basketball team that played in some national tournaments! "I want to play both sports in college and Florida State, LSU, Texas, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, and Miami have offered me that chance," says Spears. As a senior, Marcus had 96 tackles, including 50 solo, 14 sacks, and he had 25 catches on offense for 6 receiving touchdowns, including one touchdown catch in the National HS All-Star game. Marcus was so impressive in the National High School All-Star game, I re-rated him back to a tight end. He was also one of the most impressive players on the West All-Star team. Marcus will go across town and play for Louisiana State.
