GRAMBLING — Grambling State cornerback Marquis Binns has been invited to play in the Las Vegas All-American Classic, Coach Melvin Spears said.
The Vegas game is one of five Division I football all-star games, including the Senior Bowl, East-West Shrine Game, Hula Bowl and Gridiron Classic. GSU offensive tackle Jonathan Banks and defensive end Moe Thompson were invited to the Gridiron, held recently in Jackson, Miss.
"That shows you the caliber of player that we are bringing into Grambling," Spears said.
He added that quarterback Bruce Eugene and defensive end Jason Hatcher are being held out of all-star games to participate in off-season conditioning programs.
Binns, a 5-11, 165-pound senior transfer from Oregon, finished with 42 tackles (including 30 solo), nine defended passes and two fumble recoveries in 2005.
Kickoff for the Las Vegas All-American Classic, televised live on the FOX Sports Net, is 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at Sam Boyd Stadium. Events in advance of the contest include workouts for pro scouts on Jan. 9.
Before moving to Las Vegas and changing the name, the game was played in 2002-03 in St. George, Utah, and broadcast on Fox Sports Net as the Paradise Bowl.
Grambling product Kenneth Pettway, who would become a second-day draft selection by the NFL's Houston Texans, represented the school in Vegas last year. Louisiana Tech's Tramissian Davis of West Monroe was the only other area collegiate athlete on the 2005 roster.
GSU's poll positions: Grambling, which was co-champion of the Sheridan Broadcasting Network's poll of historically black colleges, also topped the TSPN and Cavil's Classic Cuts major HBCU Top 10 poll to end 2005.
Both the College Sports Report and Daniel Seriff of N&H Rankings had Grambling at No. 2 in Division I-AA in the final poll, behind only Appalachian State. Don Hansen lists Grambling at No. 6 in his last Football Gazette I-AA poll for 2005.
The final Sports Network poll put Grambling at No. 11, while ESPN/USA Today had the Tigers falling a spot to No. 12. GSU was No. 19 on Any Given Saturday's last list.
GSU went undefeated in conference play on the way to a league title in 2005, boasting a best-in-the-SWAC finish in the I-AA.org's Gridiron Power Index, at No. 31.
The next conference foe was No. 67 Alabama A&M, which lost to GSU in the conference title game. The only other Louisiana I-AA school to rank higher in the GPI than Grambling was No. 18 Nicholls State.
Pomp and circumstance: Among those graduating from Grambling in its fall commencement exercises were several football players.
They included: OL Tommy Dural, of Irving, Texas, leisure studies; OL/DL Aqua Etefia, of Miami, Fla., leisure studies; DE Antonio Hughes, of Birmingham, Ala., electronics-engineering technology; PK Brian Morgan, of Groves, Texas, biology; OL Huey Prymus, of East Baton Rouge, criminal justice; and LB Marcus Yanez, of Bastrop, marketing.
"We are No. 1 in the nation, but we also want to be No. 1 off the field," said Spears. That's more important to me, personally."
Etefia recently signed with the Manchester (N.H.) Wolves, an arena2 football team. Both Yanez and Morgan were graduate assistant coaches at Grambling during the 2005 campaign.
Tiger bites: Don Hansen's Football Gazette NCAA I-AA Southwest All-Region team includes record-smashing senior GSU receiver Henry Tolbert and Hatcher, the conference leader in tackles-for-loss. ... Spears said he has been invited to be the breakfast speaker at the American Football Coaches Association Convention, to be held Jan. 8-11 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas.
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Saturday, December 31st 2005 at 11:19AM
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