McNeese State Joins Chase For Gilmer’s LaMarcus Morton

LaMarcus Morton is still on top of the East Texas football recruiting news.

The Gilmer receiver picked up a college football scholarship opportunity Tuesday morning from McNeese State, less than 15 hours after receiving a separate offer from Louisiana-Lafayette. Morton confirmed the latest news to ETSN.fm.

The Cowboys program, based in Lake Charles, La., is the fourth school to offer Morton in total and the first among FCS schools. Aside from Louisiana-Lafayette, Morton holds FBS offers from Arkansas State and Tulsa.

McNeese State clinched the Southland Conference title last season en route to a 10-0 overall record. The team automatically qualified for the FCS playoffs, but Sam Houston State avenged a regular season loss to the Cowboys in the opening round.

Head coach Matt Viator and big parts of his staff left Lake Charles after the season for jobs in the same capacities at Louisiana-Monroe.

Morton is being recruited by new leader Lance Guidry and his staff. Guidry was McNeese State's defensive coordinator last season and played as a defensive back for the university in the early 1990s.

Morton caught for 589 yards and seven scores on 34 receptions as a junior, which might seem a little underwhelming compared to a few of his local peers. Gilmer, however, had 17 players make at least one reception through its 15-game season, and 10 players recorded at least 100 yards while the team additionally put up 3,158 rushing yards.

He led all individual receivers by 118 yards.

As an occasional defensive back supplement, Morton made 18 tackles and picked off two passes.

Like all high school football players currently in their junior year, Morton will become eligible to sign with any program that offers him on Feb. 1, 2017.