BATON ROUGE, La. – Southern University was late to the party, but the Jaguars released their 2022 early signing class. Contrary to their new offensive-minded head coach, Eric Dooley secured a defense-heavy recruiting class. Five of the eight players are on defense, including four on the defensive line, but Dooley has been focused on a more important pass rusher: Jordan Lewis.
The Buck Buchanan Award Winner entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal a week after Southern hired Dooley, but the Jags’ new head football coach didn’t budge about Lewis’s playing destination in 2022.
“He’ll line down for the Blue and Gold this year.”
“He’ll play for Southern University.”
“Just my conversation with him,” Dooley said, when asked why he’s so confident the junior would return to the Bluff.
Lewis finished his least productive season as a Jaguar, recording only 5.5 sacks in 2021, but Dooley expressed his desire to bring the pass rusher back, only if Lewis wants to return.
“He’s still a young adult, not knowing. still having an inquisitive mind, wanting to know what he should do, and I will say this here: from my conversations with Jordan Lewis, I feel very, very confident, but I always want a young man to go where he’s gonna be happy at because you can’t play your best football if you’re not happy,” Dooley explained.
The Jags’ head coach added he thinks of the transfer portal as a “quick fix” to solve immediate team needs, but Dooley preferred to develop players from the ground up.
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