Louisiana
Top running backs in Louisiana high school football
This is “The Year of the Running Back” in Louisiana.
The crop of senior tailbacks in the state is unprecedented in its depth, starting at the top with the country’s best in LSU commit Harlem Berry.
Top quarterbacks in Louisiana high school football
Keep reading to learn more about the senior backs and a couple of juniors as SBLive Louisiana now presents the top running backs to watch for in the 2024 season.
Top 2025 Louisiana high school football recruits
Measurables: 6-0, 220
Ford ran for 1,836 yards on 174 carries with 19 TDs in the regular season alone for the Tigers, who won five more games to claim the Division II non-select state title. Ranked as a four-star, the No. 5 player in Louisiana and No. 14 running back by Rivals. Will run against some of the state’s best programs in non-district games vs. Edna Karr and Zachary.
As a sophomore, helped OHS to its first district title since 1994. That year against Beau Chene, he set a school record with a nine-carry, 317-yard, four-TD performance.
Opelousas 2025 RB D’Shaun Ford building momentum off team’s surprising state championship run
Measurables: 6-0, 200
The University of Texas commit is ranked by On3 as a four-star, the No. 4 player in Louisiana, No. 10 running back and overall No. 162 player. Rushed for 1,600 yards on 192 carries with 21 TDs for a 14-0 team that won the Division III select state title.
Named to The Shreveport Bossier Advocate’s preseason Tremendous 13. Older brother John Simon IV is a receiver at Louisiana Tech. Father John Simon coached collegiately.
Measurables: 5-10, 182
LSU commit is ranked five stars, the No. 1 player in Louisiana, the No. 1 RB and overall No. 17 player by On3. Rushed for 2,080 yards and 37 TDs as a junior for a Division IV select quarterfinal team. Added 20 catches for 401 yards and seven TDs.
Also placed second in the 200-meter dash at the Class 1A outdoor state track meet. Has rushed for 2,000 yards all three years. Named the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Amateur Male Athlete in the New Orleans metro area for 2023-24.
Measurables: 5-11, 185
LSU commit is ranked four stars, the No. 4 player in Louisiana, No. 5 RB and overall No. 151 player by 247Sports. Rated four stars and a top 10 in-state player by all four major recruiting sites.
Totaled 1,729 yards and 26 TDs for a No. 13 seed that blanked No. 4 Brother Martin, 23-0, in the regionals before falling, 40-34, to Edna Karr in the quarterfinals. Has 4.48 speed in the 40-yard dash and 10.85 in the 100 meters.
Measurables: 5-8, 150
Liberty University commit is rated four stars and the No. 9 player in Louisiana by ESPN. Ran for 1,648 yards with 19 TDs (averaged 7.6 yards per carry, caught 12 passes for 148 yards and a TD, and averaged 39 yards per kick return with a score). Runs a 10.4 in the 100 meters and 21.48 in the 200.
Measurables: 6-0, 200
University of Michigan commit is rated four stars, the No. 6 player in Louisiana, No. 14 RB and overall No. 186 player by On3. Ran for 171 yards and five TDs in a rivalry game vs. Archbishop Rummel. Gained 174 yards on 19 carries with three TDs and caught two passes for 87 yards in a 57-50 win over Carencro.
Finished with 1,119 yards on 167 carries (missed two games) with 16 TDs.
Measurables: 5-10, 175
Ranked as the No. 17 player in Louisiana and No. 35 RB by On3, which predicts Duke, California and Ole Miss as the favorites to land Sheppard, who scored six TDs in a quarterfinal upset of Airline. Rushed for 1,847 yards on 270 carries with 36 TDs.
Added 26 receptions for 308 yards and four TDs to ignite the Skippers to their first state semifinal berth since 2015.
Measurables: 6-0, 205
Miami, Penn State, North Carolina and Marshall have offered Harvey, who has an attractive size/speed combination. Scored three TDs in a 42-0 win over South Lafourche. Helped the Griffins to the Division I non-select semifinals.
Won the 100 and 200-meter dashes at the district track meet, posting personal best times of 10.73 and 21.91. Was the Offensive MVP of District 5-5A despite sharing carries with senior backs.
Measurables: 5-11, 200
Has rushed for 5,130 career yards and 64 TDs. Picked up a Tulane offer in August. As a junior, rushed for 2,425 yards on 295 carries with 32 TDs.
The nephew of former Leesville & LSU tailback Michael Ford is the two-time All-Vernon Parish Offensive MVP. Named to the Warrick Dunn Award watchlist.
Measurables: 5-9, 195
Rushed for 2,911 yards on 198 carries with 47 TDs (14.7 yards per carry). Caught 15 passes for 305 yards and two TDs. Finished with 3,468 all-purpose yards and 320 points, which include 10 two-point conversions. Scored nine touchdowns in a win over Opelousas Catholic.
Named the No. 11 senior in the Baton Rouge area by JK Lee Sports. Analyst Brandon Howard said this: “Elzy is a well-put-together back who has several DI FCS offers. He knows how to find the hole, has great vision and shows burst.”
Measurables: 5-10, 185
Gordon rushed for 1,918 yards with 23 TDs and tacked on 324 receiving yards and four TDs. Shouldered a heavy load after quarterback Jaboree Antoine was injured early in the season. Topped the 200-yard mark in two games and ran for 196 and three TDs in another.
Analyst Sam Spiegelman wrote about Gordon last year: “Well-equipped back who can run inside and out, through contact, and has enough juice and quickness to beat herds of tacklers around the edge.”
Measurables: 5-9, 185
Played a traditional fullback role in a flexbone-type offense. Has 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash and a 4.1 shuttle. Ran for 1,902 yards on 270 carries with 21 TDs for a team that reached the Division II non-select quarterfinals. Was also a Louisiana Football Coaches Association Class 3A first team All-State selection.
Invited to play in the Gridiron Football All-American game. As a sophomore, rushed for 1,008 yards and eight TDs with 334 receiving yards and five scores.
Measurables: 5-9, 180
Ran for 1,560 yards on 316 carries and 28 TDs. Also played defense, recording 38 tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception he returned for a touchdown.
KALB-TV in Alexandria named Burlew its ACA Athlete of the Week in September 2023. “I just play football,” the unassuming senior told KALB’s Mary Margaret Ellison.
Measurables: 5-10, 170
Rushed for 1,306 yards and 19 TDs on 149 carries. Also had a memorable season in the secondary with 125 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, six interceptions and 13 passes broken up. Set the school record with a 575 lbs. squat in July.
Played on the Tigers’ state champion basketball team this past spring. Goes by “Monk” and has a second nickname: “Big Truck”
Measurables: 6-0, 170
Paved the way for the Tigers to claim the No. 1 seed in Division IV non-select by rushing for 1,509 yards on 198 carries with 16 TDs. Named the District 3-1A Offensive MVP.
“(Jukadynn) is a speedster who can run and catch,” LHS coach Kevin Magee told Matt Vines of The DeSoto Parish Journal in June. Ran for 156 yards on 22 carries with two TDs in a playoff win over Franklin.
Measurables: 5-10, 175
A jack of all trades on the Class 4A level, Paul returned 12 kicks for 570 yards and six TDs and accumulated 47 tackles on defense with four interceptions (two pick-sixes).
In addition, ran for 1,365 yards and 14 TDs on 146 carries and caught 11 passes for 213 yards and three scores. Squats 445 pounds. Hometown program Southern University offered in May.
Measurables: 5-9, 170
One of two 1,000-yard rushers for the Griffins, who secured the top seed in Division II non-select and reached the semifinals. Thomas ran for a team-high 1,422 yards on 186 carries with 16 TDs.
Ran for 117 yards and two TDs in a win over Northwood-Shreveport. Has a 4.0 GPA, 4.42 speed in the 40-yard dash and 10.8 in the 100 meters.
Measurables: 5-9, 195
Rushed for 1,282 yards on 155 carries (8.7 yards per carry) with 14 TDs and five 100-yard games for the Division II select runner-up Knights. Tough, sturdy runner with excellent balance who gained a lot of real estate after contact.
Caught 31 passes for 518 yards and six scores. Has a 3.7 GPA.
Measurables: 5-10, 180
“The Jet” led the Bearcats to the Division I non-select state championship with 1,752 yards on 227 carries with 20 TDs (7.7 yards per carry). Rushed for 249 yards in a win over West Monroe. Squats 405 pounds, and runs a 4.43 in the 40-yard dash.
Teams up with power back Dylone Brooks (5-10, 205, Sr.) for a thunder and lightning type combination.
Measurables: 5-9, 185
Ranked by On3 as the No. 8 player in Louisiana, No. 32 RB and No. 287 overall player. Pittsburgh, UCF, Missouri, Arkansas State, TCU, Indiana, Arkansas and Houston are among his scholarship offers.
Helped Holy Cross to the No. 1 seed in the Division I select playoffs. Tom Lemming wrote about Smith: “Very talented running back with 4.4 speed, excellent vision, balance and production.”
Measurables: 5-8, 192
Charles has put together consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons. “I’m a downhill running back,” he told Jamarcus Fitzpatrick of KATC-3 TV in July. “I don’t do a lot of juking. I’m not the size of (current NFL tailback) Derrick Henry, but that’s who I feel my game is like.”
Measurables: 5-7, 195
Durable back who squats 500 pounds and power cleans 280. “It’s a whole new lifestyle,” he told Louisiana vs. All Y’all of the environment at Central under coach David Simoneaux, who led the Wildcats to the Division I non-select quarterfinals in his first year. Ran for 60 yards on four carries in a win over Capitol.
Measurables: 5-6, 150
Led the Rebels to a Division IV select runner up finish by carrying 258 times for 2,528 yards (9.8 ypc) with 42 TDs. Added 25 catches for 262 yards and two scores, and also returned a punt for a TD. Has an offer from Kentucky State. Had a career-high 344 yards and four TDs in a 55-14 win at rival St. Martin’s.
“Looking at the season, this was always going to be the big game,” he told Louisiana vs. All Y’all afterward. “(St. Martin’s Harlem Berry) is the No. 1 back. I just had to prove I’m up there, too.”
Measurables: 5-10, 200
Southeastern Louisiana commit. Scored all three of the Tigers’ touchdowns, highlighted by a 90-yard reception, in the spring game vs. Jesuit.
“He’s a phenomenal back who had a great spring,” Hahnville coach Greg Boyne told Ryan Arena of The Herald Guide. “He’s multi-dimensional and you saw that right there.”
Measurables: 6-0, 190
Nichols has been running free in the Tigers’ backfield for years. As a sophomore, was named one of Aaron’s Aces by KNOE-TV after rushing for 198 yards on 28 carries in a playoff win over East Ascension. Scored on a 1-yard plunge to lift the Tigers to a 30-29 win over Evangel Christian in the 2023 season opener.
Prep Redzone called Nichols “a hard-running mainstay” in its Offseason 3-2-1 Spotlight.
Measurables: 5-9, 195
Bullish runner is a perfect fit for the Knights’ blue-collar attack. Two-time powerlifting champion who rushed for 1,224 yards on 166 carries and 20 TDs and caught 14 passes for 166 yards and a TD. Has a 4.0 GPA.
“I’m not a vocal person, I lead by example,” he told William Weathers of Geaux Preps in an article titled “Powering Up: Reid Chauvin’s ascent to Episcopal’s No. 1 running back.”
Measurables: 5-11, 205
Asberry, who committed to nearby Southern University, was named to the Warrick Dunn Watch List. A two-time state champion who rushed for 1,278 yards and 19 TDs in 2023. Told John Eads of WAFB-TV that he “gets chills” thinking about playing in the SWAC.
Could go for 2,000 yards with the transfer of Jerome Harris, who rushed for 1,118 yards on 120 carries with 15 TDs as a sophomore, from Southern Lab to another Baton Rouge select school in Dunham.
Measurables: 5-9, 160
Broke the single season rushing record as a freshman at St. Edmund in Eunice. Led the Lafayette metro area in last year with right around 2,000 yards. Transferred to Northwest, which graduated the area’s second leading rusher in Ja’Vain Reese.
Named the Gridiron Football Player of the Week in September 2022 after rushing for 248 yards on 21 carries with two TDs (and an 83-yard kickoff return).
– Mike Coppage | @SBLiveLA
DESTIN, Fla. — A North Carolina man allegedly headed to do a mass shooting at a large Louisiana festival was arrested in Okaloosa County Wednesday evening.
Federal authorities contacted the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in regards to the man. The department was told the man would be in the area.
The man’s name has not been shared by authorities.
Deputies found the man at a Destin Hotel. They took him into custody as a “fugitive from justice.”
The man will be extradited to Louisiana to face state charges, deputies say.
Louisiana
Mom whose 3 children were killed in Louisiana mass shooting still has bullet lodged in face — and sometimes thinks kids are alive
The mother of three of the eight children massacred by deranged Army veteran dad Shamar Elkins in Louisiana still has a bullet lodged in her head and is struggling with her memory — sometimes believing her kids are still alive, according to a relative.
Christina Snow, the girlfriend of 31-year-old Shamar Elkins, was shot in the face early Sunday when the former National Guardsman went on a shooting rampage at two nearby homes in Shreveport.
Three of Snow’s children she shared with Elkins — Braylon Snow, 5, Khedarrion Snow, 6, and Sariahh Snow, 11 — were killed in their home.
Elkins fired a bullet through Snow’s nose which is lodged in her head, and doctors aren’t ready to risk surgery, according to her cousin Jamarckus Snow.
The mom is now dealing with heartbreaking memory loss about the fate of her kids.
“One day, she’ll remember they’re dead. I heard yesterday she woke up and was like, ‘I got to get my kids ready for school.’ She’ll lose memory of what happened,” he told NBC News.
“One day, she’ll know, and the next day, she’s thinking her kids is still there.”
Follow the latest updates on the Louisiana father who killed 8 children in Shreveport shooting:
Elkins fatally shot his seven children — the three he shared with Snow and his four daughters with his wife, Shaneiqua Pugh: Jayla Elkins, 3, Shayla Elkins, 5, Kayla Pugh, 6, and Layla Pugh, 7.
He also killed Mar’Kaydon Pugh, 10, the son of his wife’s sister, who was staying at their house.
The vet turned his gun on Pugh and Snow, too, severely wounding both women, who are still in the hospital.
Elkins shot himself in the driveway of his former military mentor as law enforcement closed in.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but Elkins was suffering from mental health issues and was scheduled to appear in court on Monday after Pugh asked him for a divorce.
Louisiana
Federal appeals court upholds Texas’ Ten Commandments law. What does it mean for Louisiana?
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a Texas law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, just weeks after the same court allowed a similar Louisiana law to take effect.
A majority of judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas’ law, which is nearly identical to Louisiana’s, is constitutional and does not violate students’ religious freedom. In February, the court lifted an injunction on Louisiana’s law, which cleared schools to put up the posters, but the judges said it was too early to rule on that law’s constitutionality.
Tuesday’s ruling could bode well for Louisiana’s law if it eventually returns to the 5th Circuit, considered the country’s most conservative federal court of appeals.
In their majority opinion, the judges rejected the argument that posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms would pressure students to honor the biblical mandates or adopt particular beliefs.
“To plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination. We disagree,” the majority wrote about the Texas law, known as S.B. 10. A minority of the court’s active judges dissented.
Even though Tuesday’s ruling only addressed the Texas case, defenders of Louisiana’s legislation celebrated it as a victory. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the 5th Circuit’s argument in upholding Texas’ law was identical to the one Louisiana made in defense of its law.
“Our law clearly was always constitutional,” she posted on X, “and I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit has now definitively agreed with us.”
Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed the law in 2024, which requires all public K-12 schools and colleges to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. A group of parents quickly challenged the law in court, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that stopped the state from enforcing the law.
In February, the 5th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, saying it had been premature to block the law before it took effect. The judges said they could not rule on the law’s constitutionality before seeing how it played out in schools.
But in the case of Texas’ law, which that state’s Republican-led Legislature passed in 2025, the court did rule on the merits.
Rejecting arguments made by attorneys for the Texas families who challenged the law, the 5th Circuit majority said that requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments does not amount to the government endorsing a particular religion, which the U.S. Constitution forbids. The law also does not impose religious beliefs on students, the judges wrote.
“As noted, S.B. 10 authorizes no religious instruction and gives teachers no license to contradict children’s religious beliefs (or their parents’),” the majority opinion says. “No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin.”
The Texas families were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel. The same groups, including Louisiana’s ACLU chapter, represented the Louisiana families.
In a statement Tuesday, the organizations said they are “extremely disappointed” by the 5th Circuit’s ruling, adding that they expect to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction,” the groups said. “This decision tramples those rights.”
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