Sunday, January 28, 2018

Lauletta, Leonard are FCS standouts at Senior Bowl

MOBILE, Alabama  – FCS players usually feel they have to do more than their FBS counterparts to impress NFL teams and answer any questions about their level of competition in college.

Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta is pretty good at shaking off that concern. He’s even better at slinging a football.

Lauletta was the offensive standout and South Carolina State outside linebacker Darius Leonard the defensive standout as their South team routed the North 45-16 at the Reese’s Senior Bowl on Saturday in Mobile, Alabama.



All of the players used Senior Bowl week as a way to try to improve their NFL Draft status. They included 13 from the FCS.

The 6-2, 229-pound Leonard, a two-time MEAC defensive player of the year and a first-team selection on the 2017 STATS FCS All-America Team, totaled a school-record 394 tackles in his career on the “small-school” level. His sideline-to-sideline range made its mark in a big way Saturday, including five solo stops.

“Going against the bigger talent and showing the scouts and everybody that I can play with any competition,” Leonard said of the Senior Bowl opportunity, “and actually show that I’m a great player like any other big name or any other big-school guy.”

Other FCS players on the South were offensive linemen Brandon Parker of North Carolina A&T and Skyler Phillips of Idaho State and cornerbacks Danny Johnson of Southern, Siran Neal of Jacksonville State and D’Montre Wade of Murray State. Neal was in on three tackles, including two solos..

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