Former blue chips get another shot

Haywood graduate Emmit Gooden and Lexington alum Tariqious Tisdale went from the high of being big-time football recruits and committing to Southeastern Conference programs to facing the reality of not qualifying for those schools.

They each dealt with their personal setbacks in their own way, but a few weeks before national signing day a year later, they’re in the early stages of another shot at college football.

The 2015 high school football season and ensuing recruiting season leading into national signing day of 2016 was a banner year for rural West Tennessee.

There were a handful of seniors who had big-time offers. Gooden and Tisdale were in that handful.

Gooden announced he would enroll early and forgo his final semester of high school and begin early at the college of his choice, which he would announce at the Tomcats’ end-of-season banquet on Dec. 17, 2015. His choice was Mississippi State, where he was set to play defensive lineman.

Tisdale didn’t wait long to make his commitment. He announced Ole Miss was his choice in June of 2015, a couple months before his senior season began at Lexington. He was set to be a linebacker for the Rebels.

But their journey into SEC football in the Magnolia State didn’t go as planned. While they each proved their worth on the football field, they were still signing on to be student-athletes. They didn’t academically qualify. They're using a second chance to try to rectify that and eventually make it big-time college football.

Gooden

“It was a struggle,” Gooden said about 2016 spent in the junior college ranks. “There were some bumps and bruises, but (Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen) introduced me to the JuCo route, and I took the first opportunity to get out and get started getting through that transition and process.”

When he committed to Mississippi State the week before Christmas, his said commitment was legitimate. He planned to eventually play for the Bulldogs as a four-star rated athlete that spent much of his time in high school ranked as one of the top prospects in the state of Tennessee. What wasn’t as known to the public was he wouldn’t be making a direct trip to Starkville, Mississippi, from Brownsville.

“Word had gotten out about my grades not being what they needed to be, and a few junior college coaches began reaching out to me and letting me know I had options,” Gooden said, with one of those options being early enrollment. “My ACT score was great. I had a 22. But my core GPA needed to be a 2.5, and I was nowhere near that.

“My guidance counselor at Haywood talked to one of the coaches and learned about it, then we talked to my parents and after having all these conversations, the decision was ultimately mine. I decided then to go to Holmes Community College in Mississippi.”

Gooden said junior college transfer rules in the SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference stipulate athletes must spend at least three semesters in junior college. That’s why he enrolled early for the possibility to come out after this spring.

Gooden said he plans on staying with his current school, Independence Community College in Kansas. He transferred there after he spent a semester at Holmes and decided that wasn’t the school for him for reasons he declined to discuss.

“I’m at Independence now, and I love it,” Gooden said. He finished his freshman year with 55 tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles in seven games played last fall.

He announced on Tuesday on his Facebook and Twitter pages he’s re-opening his recruiting and decommitted from Mississippi State.

“Mississippi State is still very much a possibility for me to play, but I think with me about to go through this recruitment process again that it would be best to keep my options open and see what’s out there and what’s the best fit for me,” Gooden said. “I’ve heard from different schools like Texas-San Antonio, Alabama, Tennessee and other schools like that.”

Tisdale

Tariqious Tisdale made history for Lexington High School when he was the first football player in decades to sign a letter of intent to play in the SEC. He was headed to Ole Miss. He was rated by most recruiting services as a three-star athlete.

National signing day on Feb. 3 was a big affair with a full auditorium at the high school to watch him sign.

But as he progressed through his final semester of his senior year, he still had some work to do to make sure he would academically qualify.

“My GPA wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, but it was good enough that I could’ve gotten in if I’d made an 18 on the ACT,” Tisdale said. “I made a 16.”

Tisdale said he still had options to play at a four-year school if he chose to take those opportunities. Two schools he mentioned that were interested in him that he would’ve been able to play for were Tennessee State in Nashville, which plays in the Ohio Valley Conference, and Marshall in West Virginia.

“Ole Miss is where I want to play, so I decided to give JuCo football a try,” Tisdale said.

Tisdale decided to try Northwest Mississippi Community College. It’s close to home and close to Oxford, so staying in touch with the coaches at Ole Miss wouldn’t be difficult.

“I got down there one day last summer, and I immediately got homesick,” Tisdale said. “So I came back the first day and didn’t know what to do.”

Tisdale eventually decided to go to Jackson State for a semester. He was approached about possibly playing basketball for the Generals. He was an effective basketball player at Lexington.

“Football is what I want to do, and I figured that out even more when I’d go to games at Lexington and miss being out there with my brothers,” Tisdale said. “It hurt, and I was afraid I’d wasted an opportunity.”

But that opportunity hadn’t been wasted yet. The coaching staff at Northwest still wanted him to come play a year or two for them. Tisdale and his mother, Erica, had stayed in contact with Ole Miss. He said he’s been told if he does well at Northwest, Ole Miss still wants him with the Rebels.

Tisdale returned to Senatobia, Miss., this week and enrolled in classes at Northwest. He started his second semester of college this past Friday.

“I’m determined to make it work this time because I love playing football,” Tisdale said. “And I want to continue my education.

“It was hard leaving Lexington again and saying bye to my mom and brothers as I stayed here, but it’s time for me to do it and get to work in a football program again.”

Learning experience

Both Gooden and Tisdale have similar plans and hopes. Excel at the JuCo level and get back to the SEC. Some of the biggest names in football history played in junior college. Probably the latest big name to do that was Cam Newton. Before leading Auburn to the 2010 national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy and being selected by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, he played at a junior college in Texas.

Both players look to stories like that as inspiration.

But both players also know they could’ve avoided their current situations if they’d taken care of business that’s more important than making tackles and forcing fumbles.

“For any younger person that reads this article, they need to know how big academics is,” said Gooden, who wants to major in sports management when he gets to a four-year school. “I didn’t realize how important they were until it was too late.

“But because I have my second chance, I’m hitting the books a lot harder than I ever did in high school. It’s paying off for me so far.”

Tisdale made a similar statement.

“I thought my football abilities would be enough to get me to college, but you got to do your work in the class room too,” said Tisdale, who plans to major in something that allows him to stay with football after he’s done playing like getting into physical therapy or teaching and coaching. “I didn’t do that, and now I’m paying for that.

“If I’d taken care of business, I think I would’ve enjoyed last football season a lot more at Ole Miss than back home watching my old high school teammates play. But God has a plan, and I think there were also reasons I needed to be here at home. So I’m glad I could do that too.”

Neither athlete knows what the future holds for them, but they both said they understand better what they have to do now to get where they want to be.

“I’m keeping my eyes on the prize, and that prize is big-time college football,” said Gooden, who was recently listed by 247Sports as the No. 3 JuCo prospect in the country. “I don’t plan on stopping until I get there.”

Brandon Shields, 425-9751