UL offers scholarship to 14-year-old who hasn't started high school

LAFAYETTE - A 14-year-old who has yet to play a single down of high school football has already been offered a scholarship to University of Louisiana at Lafayette, according to a Mississippi newspaper.

However, NCAA rules prevent UL coach Mark Hudspeth from speaking publicly about a recruit. A UL source was able to confirm the report was true though.

The Sun Herald, of Biloxi, has reported the player is 6’1” 272 pound defensive lineman McKinley Jackson of Lucedale, Mississippi.

The Sun Herald is reporting the offer was made during a football camp in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

The Cajuns have held satellite camps in Mississippi for the past few years under Hudspeth’s coaching reign. Hudspeth is entering his sixth season as head coach at UL in Lafayette.

The coach sports extensive ties to Mississippi, having been raised there and having served as Mississippi State’s receivers coach prior to taking on his coaching role in Lafayette.

The Sun Herald said: “Jackson said he hit the field at the camp going ‘110 percent’ with hopes of earning an offer, but he was surprised when Hudspeth pulled him aside and talked to him.”

“It’s really a blessing,” Jackson told Sun Herald reporter Patrick Magee. “He said he’d like to offer me, but he wanted me to think about it. He said, ‘You've got many years left and don't stress over it.’

“He was a very nice guy. I would like to play for him one day.”

George County coach Matt Caldwell told the newspaper that Jackson is “a big, athletic kid for 14 years old” and said the boy is “physically mature for his age” while coming equipped with “a good attitude.”

The 14-year-old’s cousin, Tristan Jackson, is a defensive back who played at Central Arkansas and in the Canadian Football League for Edmonton and Saskatchewan.

“I guess Coach Hud (Hudspeth) liked what he saw out of him,” Caldwell, who had his first coaching interaction with Jackson this spring, told the Biloxi paper. “It’s the first time I’ve seen that in 20 years of coaching.”

It is important to note that scholarship offers are non-binding.