BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and his wife Donna welcomed 22 members of the LSU Football freshman class to their home on Tuesday night in what the Governor and LSU Head Football Coach Ed Orgeron hopes will be an annual event.
Coach Orgeron and his wife Kelly were joined by members of the coaching and support staff in a sit down dinner at the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion.
“What a tremendous night for the Tigers,” Orgeron said. “I want to thank the Governor and his wife Donna for opening their home to our freshmen class and our coaching staff. It was a tremendous experience, one that was both educational and eye-opening, for our freshmen class.”
After dinner members of the freshmen class presented the Governor a #11 LSU jersey and Miss Donna her own bag of LSU gear.
“It was truly an honor to be the first LSU freshmen class to have dinner with the Governor at his house,” offensive lineman and Baton Rouge native Kardell Thomas said. “Coach O told me when he was recruiting me that this was something that we were going to do and that our class was going to be the first to have dinner with the Governor at his house.
“I’ve lived in Baton Rouge my entire life and that was the first time that I’ve been to the Governor’s Mansion so it was a great experience.”
Thomas said the highlight of his night was when he was asked to present the No. 11 LSU jersey to Governor Edwards.
“To present Governor Edwards with the LSU jersey was an honor and a special moment for me to be part of. I can’t thank the Governor and his wife enough for welcoming our class to their home and treating us to a great night.”
The 22 members of the LSU 2019 signing class come to LSU from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and Utah.
“It was a great event and it meant a lot to me,” Utah native Siaki Ika said. “Coming from Utah, it was great to learn more about Louisiana and to see the support that our team has from the Governor of this state. It’s been awesome to see how much the community cares and supports LSU football.”