Southern’s Lenard Tillery wants more team success

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Lenard Tillery remembers when individual milestones were put into perspective for him.

Senior quarterback Dray Joseph had just broken the Southern record for career passing yards two seasons ago when Tillery, then a freshman running back, approached him.

“I sat down and I was trying to congratulate him, and he just looked at me and said none of that really matters,” Tillery recalled. “”You get your name in the books and stuff like that, but unless you win championships, nobody cares.”

Joseph went on to break the school record for touchdown passes as he helped the Jaguars win a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. So when Tillery became Southern’s first 1,000-yard rusher in 11 years last season, it meant little after losing to Alcorn State in the SWAC title game.

“I could have had 3,000 yards last year and no championship, and it wouldn’t have mattered,” Tillery said. “You can’t get caught up in what can I do for me? You have to look at what’s the whole goal? Is the team getting better? Is that run I made good for the team? If you go for 200 yards in a game and y’all still lose, it’s still a loss.”

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