A few weeks ago, Grambling State students, alumni, and supporters celebrated the inclusion of Grambling State University in the TreVonte’ Citizen Top 8. It meant that Grambling State had found it’s way into a competition for elite talent with the likes of LSU, Alabama, Miami, and other highly regarded football programs. While Grambling has produced some of the greatest athletes in the history of the NFL, when it comes to the modern day 4 or 5 star recruiting competitions, Grambling is rarely in those conversations. In recent weeks, Citizen has posted photos from visits to schools in his top 8, but there were no photos of a visit to Grambling. Grambling has done a tremendous marketing job lately with the use of the 360 cameras and the photos of their visiting athletes. So one can assume there was no visit from Citizen after he announced his top 8. If Citizen did take a visit to Grambling, it did not include the typical “suiting up” and corresponding photos that has seemingly taken place on all his other visits. Since January 13th, Citizen has posted pictures of visits to only two schools Auburn (Jan.17th) and LSU (Jan 23rd).
After his visits, Sunday January 30th, he announced his “Final Four”. The schools included in Citizen‘s “Final Four“ are; The University of Florida, Auburn University , LSU, and the University of Miami. That list no longer includes Grambling. Citizen is rated as the number 1 Running Back in Louisiana, if Citizen would have decided to attend Grambling State it would have been a monumental moment for Grambling and a major statement for Coach Hue Jackson.
Citizen has been dubbed as not just a Game Changer, but a complete “Program Changer”, by ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. As a Grambling signee he would have been a “World Changer”, as a move like that, would have shifted the focus of the football world to the HBCU landscape, similar to the signing of Travis Hunter and Kevin Coleman to Jackson State.
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While Grambling will miss out on Citizen‘s services, Grambling will not be devoid of talent at the running back position as they have added some dangerous weapons in the backfield this off-season. Along with Nebraska transfer Maurice Washington, Grambling recently received a verbal commitment from Penn State recruit, running back Floyd Chalk IV. Grambling beat out Penn State, San Deigo State, and Boston College to acquire Chalk. Chalk, paired with Washington, should give the Tigers ample firepower in the backfield this season. On film, Chalk looks like an explosive and decisive runner with great contact balance and good vision.
Chalk is another California recruit for Hue Jackson, as Coach Jackson has grabbed several recruits from the West Coast this recruiting cycle. If what Chalk did in high school translates to college, Grambling is adding a future SWAC star.
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Citizen will most likely make his decision on signing day February 2nd. At that time, according to Citizen, he will choosing between four schools. Citizen intentionally committed to LSU, and based on the visits and his post, they may be at the top of his list again. Anything can happen in the next few days, but it seems as if Citizen won’t be a part of Grambling campaign to get back to the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
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