LSU signee’s dad feeling a bit maroon and gold
BATON ROUGE — David Garrett’s cowbells are losing a little of their ring lately.
A 1982 graduate of Mississippi State, Garrett is a second term president of the Lee County alumni chapter of State. One of his sons, Drew Garrett, is a sophomore at State.
David and his wife Felicia of Jackson, Miss., started taking their boys to Scott Field for State football games since they were old enough to ring a cowbell.
“They’d be down there under blankets,” Garrett said. “No one had more maroon blood than us.”
The Garretts are about as Mississippi as you can get. They live in Tupelo — 45 minutes from Mississippi State in Starkville, 45 minutes from Ole Miss in Oxford and five minutes from Elvis Presley’s birthplace.
But two Thursday nights ago, there were the Garretts hosting a party with Cajun food and music in a part of the country known more for gum trees than gumbo. Their son, Chris, was leaving the next morning — Jan. 9 — to start school on Jan. 12 at LSU, where he will battle for playing time at quarterback. He chose LSU over such schools as Alabama, South Carolina and, yes, Mississippi State.
Garrett is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound prospect out of Tupelo High School listed as the No. 18 pro style quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com. He threw for 1,995 yards and 24 touchdowns at Tupelo last season in a record-breaking season.
As a junior, he committed to Mississippi State on Oct. 13, 2007, to the delight of then-coach Sylvester Croom and the many State alumni who know his father, who was president of the Lee County alumni chapter of State from 2000-01 and became president again in 2008.
“It was an emotional decision on the day of the State-Tennessee game,” his father said in a telephone interview Friday. “State was all Chris knew. He grew up loving State. He still loves State.”
State finished 8-5 in 2007 with its first winning season and bowl trip since 2000, but Chris Garrett wanted to look around. He scheduled a few junior day visits.
“He was exposed to what else is out there,” his father said.
On March 26, 2008, Garrett switched his commitment from State to LSU not long after visiting the LSU campus on junior day, and the Garretts were exposed to what else is out there. The elder Garrett will step down as Lee County’s State alumni president next month, but not because his son is going to LSU.
“That was going to happen anyway,” said Garrett, who works full time in communications and education at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. “Alumni presidents have one-year terms. But there were some folks who tried to make end a lot sooner and were very vocal about it.”
Garrett was not ready for some of the nasty fallout to his son switching to LSU.
“There’s been a reaction here that I never expected and was never really prepared for,” he said. “I knew people would be disappointed and angry, but not to the extent that they have been. It’s my son’s life. It’s my son’s career. I’ve taken a lot of criticism for not making him go to State because I’m active with the alumni chapter. It’s been mainly in the Internet chat rooms and on the radio talk shows and blogs, but there are people in town who no longer speak to me face to face.”
LSU coach Les Miles empathized with Garrett, but he admitted he had never recruited the son of an alumni president of a rival school.
“He asked me to contribute,” Miles cracked this week. “I told him I couldn’t — not in good conscious. But really it’s a great family. You have to understand that people recognize if there’s a better choice for their son or daughter. And I think they are strong and courageous to step beyond what are personal situations that might weigh on a decision that’s really important to their son. That’s a great family.
“We didn’t talk about Mississippi State. It’s just the opportunities that we have for him here. And that was it. Mississippi State’s a great school. There’s no problem with their education. There’s no problem with their football team. It’s just he had an opportunity in my opinion to pursue the field maybe just a little better.”
Chris Garrett, who is not allowed to do interviews according to Miles’ no-interview policy for freshmen, was diplomatic at the time of his commitment to LSU in an interview with Brad Locke of Inside Mississippi State Sports.
“I’m always going to love Mississippi State,” Garrett said. “The hardest thing was telling coach Croom because we really had a good relationship. I met most of the coaches (at LSU) and something about the place just stuck with me. I sat in on a quarterback meeting and was really impressed with the direction of the offense. I came back home, prayed about it and knew it was where I wanted to be.”
The “love” and “pray” comments lit a chat-side fire.
“Chris, I don’t know if you have a future in the NFL,” wrote one State fan. “But you’ll make a darn good politician with a line like that. You just messed in the bowl that fed you. That lie is insult to injury.”
Someone did take up for Garrett in a chat and said, “Note to State fans, God hates MSU.”
Dad’s life has never been the same.
“Some people said he prayed, and God told him to go to LSU,” David Garrett said. “That’s not what he said. He just prayed about it.”
The Garretts know the religion of southern football better now than ever.
“It hurt us,” he said. “My wife is even more protective. It hurt her a lot. She just quit reading everything. There was a lot of profanity on the blogs. It just makes your stomach turn. There were just a lot of personal things. You know, you can hurt me all day, but don’t hurt my kid.”
Garrett even considered calling the other side — Ole Miss.
“I have a friend who is a good friend of Archie’s,” Garrett said. “I was thinking about getting his phone number.”
Former Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning explained in the book, “Manning,” that he was pressured by old buddies to make his son Peyton go to Ole Miss and that he lost friends after Peyton signed with Tennessee in 1994.
“Our situation is not nearly as huge as Archie’s was obviously, but I thought if anyone could help us it would be him,” Garrett said. “In the end, Chris did what he thought was best for him. Every kid has a right to change his mind and the right to go where he wants to go.”
Much of the ill will chatting and blogging have subsided. State has a commitment from a higher ranked quarterback out of Meridian, Miss. — No. 12 pro style prospect Tyler Russell. Croom was fired after a 4-8 season in 2008, and Russell is likely better suited for new coach and Urban Meyer disciple Dan Mullen and his spread attack.
But the treatment the Garrett family received from angry fans is still ringing in David Garrett’s ears.
“I’m still very torn,” he said. “I’ll always be a Mississippi State person. I still have a son at school there. But I’ll say this, everything we’ve been through sure will make it a little easier to put on purple and gold.”
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January 19th, 2009 by Ragin Cajun /
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