A salute to John Emery
The post-spring transfer portal opened up for college football last week and LSU—like every program across the nation— has seen a couple of players put their names into the portal.
- Rising sophomore Jaxon Howard was the first to put his name in when the portal opened. The Minnesota native has since transferred back home and will play for the Golden Gophers this season. The defensive end was Minnesota’s No. 1 overall player in the 2023 recruiting cycle.
- Fellow sophomore Khai Prean put his name in on April 17. The St. James product will play for Tulane in 2024. Prean’s biggest contribution as a Tiger was catching a touchdown pass in this year’s spring game.
- A pair of rising sophomore DBs put their names in the portal and at the time of this writing have yet to announce their new school. Ryan Yaites and Jeremiah Hughes both entered the portal on the 19th. Yaites is originally from Denton, Texas which is about an hour south of Dallas; Hughes is from Las Vegas.
- Redshirt freshman linebacker Christian Brathwaite put his name in the portal on the 20th. Brathwaite was originally committed to Baylor before flipping to LSU.
- The most interesting portal entry is probably offensive lineman Joe Cryer. I say it’s interesting because Cryer is an incoming true freshman and enrolled in January. Cryer was originally committed to Ole Miss.
- John Emery is the most recent player to put his name into the transfer portal, closing the book on an up-and-down career.
4 out
God Timing for sure pic.twitter.com/9X26YmoalY— John Emery (@Emery4____) April 24, 2024
Emery came to LSU with a ton of fanfare. A five-star, No. 1 running back in his class, Emery leaves LSU with 1,042 career yards, 16 touchdowns, a national championship ring, and a ton of what ifs.
The word I’ll always use when I think of Emery is “flashes.” He never put it together, but there were so many wow moments over the course of his LSU career: the 39-yard touchdown run against Arkansas in 2019; his 100-yard effort against Vanderbilt in 2020; the touchdowns he scored against Auburn and Alabama in 2022; the 14-yard run against Florida this past season that ultimately ended up being his last carry as a Tiger. He flashed the potential time and time again but it never came to fruition.
Emery had about the worst luck imaginable. He was deemed academically ineligible for the entire 2021 season days before the year began. On top of that, he had another three games tacked on to his suspension to begin the 2022 season; and as mentioned above his 2023 season was cut short due to an ACL tear against Florida.
Wherever Emery ends up, we wish him all the best.
As the portal taketh, it also giveth and LSU will now be able to add players out of the portal. Prior to the portal opening, LSU had 88 players on scholarship, three more than the 85-man limit. With these seven losses, LSU has 82 players currently on scholarship meaning they can add three more players. LSU has a pressing need at defensive tackle and now they have the freedom to address that need.