Turning from the Tide: How Travis Etienne's SEC roots showed in 2016 title game
Clemson running back Travis Etienne will return home to the state of Louisiana to play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
The No. 1 Tigers will face a familiar Alabama foe for the third consecutive year.
Growing up in Jennings, Louisiana, Etienne always wanted to play in New Orleans’ Superdome. The Superdome is the site for state championship games in Louisiana for high school football, but Etienne’s team never made it.
Now, the freshman from Louisiana is heading back home to play for something much bigger in the stadium he grew up always wanting to play in.
He’ll have plenty of family and friends that will make the two hour and thirty-minute trek from Jennings to New Orleans to see the Tigers take on the Tide. Etienne said that his mom would be handling all of the ticket requests.
It took some time for any major school to target Etienne on their recruiting boards seriously. We caught up with Rusty Phelps, Etienne's high school coach at Jennings, and he told us that when Etienne was a junior, Clemson caught his eye a little bit.
“Coach Swinney and them had played in the national championship game," Phelps said. "He walks in one day and says ‘I’ll tell you what coach, I’d like to take a look at Clemson.’ I said, ‘well buddy, I hadn’t heard from them.’ This was at the point in time where it was Kansas, South Alabama, UL Monroe, Louisiana Tech… We just hadn’t heard from the Power 5 schools.”
Phelps tried to get an evaluation from Clemson from one of his former coaches, and all he heard back from Clemson was “we like him.” That was it.
“I was thinking, ‘what is wrong with them?'" Phelps said. "'Why aren’t the Power 5 schools coming around?'"
It was after Etienne attended a Nike combine in Orlando when bigger schools started to take notice.
This time a year ago, the No. 4 player in the state of Louisiana had yet to commit to anyone. Etienne grew up in SEC country and had always been a fan of the SEC conference in general. LSU, Texas A&M, and Tennessee all expressed interest, but Clemson still wasn’t on the radar.
“Growing up, I was a ‘Bama fan. I was really an SEC fan just growing up around there I always rooted for them. The recruiting process started, and I started watching teams and trying to put myself in their shoes because eventually, I felt like it could be one of those.”
So when last year's national championship game came around, he really didn't have a dog in the fight. Etienne’s mom was cheering for Clemson, but he didn’t believe Alabama would be dethroned.
“She was in there, and she was rooting for Clemson, and I was kind of like, ‘they are not going to win. It’s ‘Bama, mom.’ We watched the game in separate rooms, and of course, you could hear the screaming from the other room when they scored the touchdown.”
Etienne sat by himself and witnessed Clemson win its first national championship in 35 years. Even though he thought Alabama would best the Tigers that night, he was still impressed by what he saw from Clemson.
“I remember watching their running backs. You don’t see many people get a lot of rushing yards on ‘Bama. That’s not something that just happens.”
With Clemson on the brain, it was almost destiny when co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott called Etienne the day after the national championship victory to express interest.
“When he (Tony Elliott) contacted me, I thought it was a joke because after he just won a national championship and he’s contacting me, a small kid from Jennings, Louisiana,” Etienne said. “That kind of was the breaking point for me like, ‘this was meant to be.’”
Etienne committed to Clemson on January 26th, 16 days after Elliott called him, and signed six days after that. He has scored 13 touchdowns on 103 carries this season, breaking a Clemson freshman record, and has become a phenomenon on Clemson’s campus.
The fact that Etienne has been such an unknown yet essential part of Clemson’s success this season will make it that much sweeter to play under the lights in the Superdome.
It’ll be a deja vu moment for Etienne and his mom as they’ll be in the same place again watching the Tigers and Tide go to battle.
This time a room won’t separate them.
This time they will be on the same team.
Watch Etienne's full interview from Wednesday afternoon below: