LSU Football Making a Big Play for Rising Quarterback Prospect Cameron Edge
DeMatha Catholic High School is one of the premier high school football programs in the country. The team has sent over multiple players to Division I college programs over the years, with a handful of them playing professionally as well.
It’s the school where LSU recently landed a commitment from 2021 linebacker Greg Penn and is now looking further into the future with 2023 quarterback Cameron Edge. Edge has separated himself as one of the elite rising quarterback prospects in the country because of his strong showing with the program as a freshman.
The Tigers were one of the first programs to extend the rising sophomore a scholarship, but had shown interest in him even as a freshman.
"Greg has actually told me since last September when he went down there for a visit that LSU was interested in me," Edge said. "Greg's somebody I like playing with but as a defensive guy we argue a lot during practice but he's definitely somebody I love being around."
While the two haven't specifically talked LSU since Penn made the decision to commit to the Tigers, Edge knows that once the two meet up again for school, the LSU recruiting will start.
LSU, Maryland, Wisconsin and Tennessee are just a few of the schools to offer Edge to this point with plenty of others showing significant interest. Building the relationships up with the various coaching staffs has been the most fun part for the rising sophomore, who loves to talk ball any chance he gets.
The Tigers were the fourth school to offer Edge back in January, when life was normal and he was still in school. After a long day of school and just picking up an offer from Wisconsin earlier in the day, Edge headed home and crashed for a few hours.
He awoke to the buzz of his phone with his high school coach on the other line.
"He tells me to call this number and the contact that he sent me read coach Ed Orgeron," Edge said. "So I just stared at the name for a minute and gave him the call. It felt unreal at the time and definitely woke me up from my nap."
Orgeron offered Edge the scholarship on that phone call and since then the rising sophomore has made sure to keep in constant contact with the staff, calling every other week to check in and get to know Orgeron and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger a little better.
"Coach Steve loves my film and he can't wait until I can get down for a visit," Edge said. "If not for the pandemic I would've already been down there this summer because of how great my relationship is with those guys."
Edge has a strong LSU influence in his household as his mother's side of the family is from Louisiana originally.
"When I got the offer my mom went absolutely nuts," Edge said. "The whole house was packed and crazy so I'll never forget that day for as long as I live."
On the field, Edge takes great pride in his leadership abilities. Walking in as a freshman at quarterback, Edge knew that he needed to earn the locker room's respect from day one. Senior quarterback Malakai Anthony started most of the games in 2019 but Edge never stopped working.
By the time DeMatha Catholic's last playoff game of the season rolled around, the freshman phenom had earned his first start of the season.
"You have to have that leadership ability to take over a team that was really full of a lot of seniors," Edge said. "After a while you start building that relationship with your receivers and most importantly your linemen until your coaches give you a chance to start a game."
Edge, who had played in most of the games during the season, didn't know he'd be starting until pregrame warmups on game day and said it was a great experience to get that first start under his belt in a high pressure situation.
Now that he's a sophomore and expected to be the full time starter for a stacked DeMatha Catholic roster that includes himself and Penn, Edge knows it's an important year to show the strides he's made in his game. This offseason, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound quarterback has been working out every day and trying to get his receivers to throw as much as possible throughout the pandemic.
It's a particularly weird year for Edge and his teammates as their season has been pushed back to February because of COVID-19 concerns. Edge is using the next four months to build that chemistry with his receivers while also physically transforming his body as well.
"I've been really trying to put on good muscle, tried to stay lean and then getting faster as well," Edge said. "Obviously I'm always working on my mechanics but physical growth has been a big part of my offseason regimen."
Building a consistent winner is a difficult feat to accomplish. It's something that Nick Saban has done at Alabama and Dabo Swinney has accomplished at Clemson. Edge believes that Orgeron is building a dynasty in Baton Rouge, one that's sustainable and will keep the program in the national championship picture for years to come.
"I just see them as a program that will always find a way to stay on top," Edge said. "It's hard to win a national championship every year but I feel like coach O will continue to get them to win and continue to produce dominant offenses on the field which is very intriguing to me."
