A quick scroll through the 247Sports page of the top Louisiana high school football players in the class of 2022 shows LSU dominance: Tigers commit. Tigers commit. A player not committed, but every prediction from the recruiting site projects him to chose LSU. Tigers commit.
But suddenly, in the sea of purple, there’s a longhorn.
That’s four-star defensive end J’Mond Tapp, who committed to Texas in late August. He had been speaking to LSU recruiters since his sophomore year, but this year, he became the one to break the trend of Louisiana high school players choosing to geaux to LSU.
Tapp spoke to the Daily Advertiser recently about his decision.
“I ain’t going to lie to you, LSU would have been my school if it was out-of-state,” he told the local outlet. “I don’t want to stay in-state.”
Tapp became more interested in Texas after visiting the school in June, the Advertiser reported.
The city’s atmosphere played as big a factor in Tapp’s decision as the football program itself.
“That’s where I’ll be for the next three to four years, so it’s more about the environment, the city and the place,” Tapp said. “(Austin) is more of a city that you would think of. You know how like you’re in your own place for so long, that you can only imagine what other places are like? That’s what it’s like.”
For Tapp, exploring a new environment was a critical part of his search. The University of Texas provided that opportunity for him.
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