By Steve Yanda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. -- Ryan Perrilloux sat in a booth at a local restaurant, his new coach across the table, and explained to a visitor how he arrived at his current situation. The quarterback who led Louisiana State in last season's Southeastern Conference championship game won't even be watching the Tigers' nationally televised game at Florida on Saturday night. Instead, he'll be 680 miles away, leading Jacksonville State against Eastern Kentucky at a stadium that seats 20,000.
Over baskets of fried shrimp and chicken wings, Perrilloux recounted the various off-the-field missteps that led to his dismissal from LSU and then to a division I-AA program 75 miles northeast of Birmingham, Ala., to a restaurant with rolls of paper towels on the tables instead of napkins. He said he's not perfect by any means but a changed person. He used words such as "accountability" and "responsibility" and looked his questioner in the eyes when he spoke.
"Mainly, I think it was just me being young, just not being responsible," said Perrilloux, who can recite this season's LSU schedule from memory. "It wasn't nothing no more than me just thinking that I could probably get away with it, not really being responsible and not having accountability. My teammates loved me. My coaches loved me. Everybody that meet me think I'm a good guy. It was me waking up in the morning and having to make that decision -- either go to class or sleep an extra hour and then just go to the next one. It was bad decision-making.
"The thing that played a big part in me making those decisions was just me thinking, 'Maybe it will go away.' You know, if I don't go to class, maybe they not gonna say nothin'. But at this level, you're held accountable for everything."
Jack Crowe, the 60-year-old man sitting across the table from Perrilloux, had heard this before. Last May, Crowe listened as William A. Meehan, Jacksonville State's president, grilled Perrilloux about every last transgression: his three suspensions in nine months; his citation by Baton Rouge police for trying to use his brother's identification to enter the Hollywood Casino gambling boat; his involvement in a skirmish outside a nightclub on the edge of LSU's campus; his missing a series of team meetings, workouts and classes at LSU; reports that he had failed a drug test (which Crowe determined to be false after a conversation with Tigers Coach Les Miles).
"His visit here was not a recruiting trip," Crowe said. "It was an interrogation."
Accustomed to the spotlight since he was one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation, Perrilloux knew how to win over an audience, and he did so with Meehan.
"He answered every question like he had it written down on paper," Crowe said. "You either say this is a hell of a con man or this is a guy that answers tough questions in a straightforward way."
After Miles dismissed Perrilloux from the Tigers on May 2, Perrilloux was inundated with calls from coaches at other schools. But Perrilloux returned calls to just two people -- his high school coach, Larry Dauterive, and the man who recruited him to go to Texas, Longhorns offensive coordinator Greg Davis. Both coaches pointed Perrilloux in Crowe's direction.
"Ryan needed someone like me, an older guy he could put his trust in," Dauterive said. "He needed someone who could give him some direction."
Dauterive has attempted to provide Perrilloux with guidance since the quarterback was a freshman in high school. In December 2001, Perrilloux sneaked up behind his sister as she was returning to their home in LaPlace, La., from a date. The act was meant as a joke; he only wanted to scare her. Instead, her date pulled out a 9mm gun and shot Perrilloux in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. Perrilloux spent three weeks in the hospital while he recovered from damage to seven organs and from having both lungs collapse.
Perrilloux left the hospital during Dauterive's first week on the job at East St. John, and the first thing the pair did, according to Dauterive, was throw around a football. After they were through, Dauterive said he joked with Perrilloux that he would need to check the young man's birth certificate because there was no way a 15-year-old could throw the way Perrilloux did.
Indeed, Crowe claimed Perrilloux will be the difference in every Jacksonville State game this season. Such is Perrilloux's talent, which makes his penchant for disconcerting behavior all the more troubling.
Perrilloux made the second start of his collegiate career in December against Tennessee in the SEC championship game, replacing an injured Matt Flynn. He completed 20 of 30 passes for 243 yards and one touchdown. He also scored on a two-point conversion and, after LSU's 21-14 victory, was named the game's most valuable player.
Five months later, Perrilloux was without a team, through no one's fault but his own, he acknowledged. What a shame, Dauterive said, that the most skilled quarterback he ever coached was on his way to wasting such rare talent.
"Ryan realizes he has no more shots," Dauterive said, before noting that Perrilloux is "a media darling. He can wrap you around his finger because he's so convincing."
Perrilloux spent the summer at Jacksonville State, and each of his days was mapped out from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. He worked out, went to class, went to meetings, went to work, did his homework and went to bed. Being on task and on time -- that's the phrase Crowe kept repeating.
"He's better off when it's all structured for him because it's when there's two hours of slack in there, sometimes you get involved in something that goes more than two hours; it's sort of hard to get back on schedule," Crowe said. "He's very committed to what he's focused on. The focus is the issue."
Crowe remains more cautious about whether Perrilloux has changed his ways permanently.
"Listen, I am neither naive nor arrogant," Crowe said. "Do I think I've come up with some magic formula? I'm not that arrogant. Am I naive enough to think that Ryan Perrilloux is not still Ryan Perrilloux? I'm not naive, either. So what does that tell you? I think he keeps waiting for [the scrutiny] to change. It ain't going to change."
Perrilloux said he understands as much and that he is completely focused on earning a degree in sociology and helping Jacksonville State win. The Gamecocks are 4-1 and ranked in the division I-AA top 20.
"Right now, I'm not going to say that I'm up early in the morning getting guys up for class and making sure they're where they're supposed to be, but I'll ask 'em, 'Did you all go to class today?' " Perrilloux said. "Just to see what kind of response I get. Just to let them know I'm interested, not just in the football aspect, but what they're doing in school, as well.
"I know me, and I know that when the pressure's on, I know how to react to it. And this is my opportunity to show everybody who I am and show everybody what kind of person I am."
Perrilloux took four classes this summer, earning two A's, a B and a C. According to Crowe, Perrilloux fell behind in a sociology course -- "the only time when the accountability slipped" -- after missing two days of class while traveling back to LaPlace to see his mother remarry. Perrilloux could have dropped the class. However, the teacher saw that he participated during discussions and wanted him to remain in the course, Crowe said.
Still seated at the booth, Crowe looked over the table at his starting quarterback, the one no division I-AA coach ever could have imagined falling into his lap three years ago, and interrogated Perrilloux once more.
"You ain't still missing her class anymore, are ya'?" Crowe asked.
"Naw, she loves me," Perrilloux responded with a grin.
"I think she does," Crowe said. "I think she does."
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