Trying to make their mark

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: May 11, 2008 - Page: 3C - UPDATED: 1:20 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

METAIRIE — Three former LSU Tigers are among the 60-plus NFL neophytes trying to make a good first impression on New Orleans Saints coaches during the team’s rookie minicamp this weekend.

Cornerback Jonathan Zenon, linebacker Luke Sanders, and wide receiver Josh McManus are receiving tryouts during the three-day, five-practice camp that concludes today.

Their familiarity with each other, experience with south Louisiana heat, and proximity to their college campus gives them a level of comfort that their counterparts don’t have.

“Everything is comfortable for me here,” Zenon, a native of Breaux Bridge, said between practices Saturday. “It kind of makes me feel like I’m right back at LSU. You just feel comfortable with (Sanders and McManus) here.

“It’s in my backyard so I feel like it’s the best opportunity for me to showcase my skills. I have a lot of family and fans here supporting me. I’m doing everything I can to impress the coaches.”

Sanders said trying to learn a new system on the fly has led to some “overload,” but he thinks playing in Tigers coach Les Miles’ system and former LSU coach Nick Saban’s system helped him.

“It was like a four-year internship for me in college,” Sanders said. “They use some different terminology, but it’s a similar defense because there’s so much information you have to put in, then you have to go out and show it on the field.

“I’m happy to be here; the closer to home the better for me. I’m just happy to be in New Orleans, in my home state. I went from West Monroe High School to Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

“There’s not a better road than that for me.”

McManus, a New Orleans native, is in a similar position to the one he had when he arrived at LSU as a walk-on.

He said having played in the SEC and in the BCS Championship has prepared him for the minicamp, which features draft choices, undrafted free agents, and others with less than one year of accrued time in the NFL.

“Picking up from here is probably the same as going to LSU and Auburn and those schools and practicing, so the speed of the game is not that much different,” McManus said. “It’s still the same level of football.

“The lower-division guys, they might have to adjust to everyone else being a (fast) guy, but we were lucky enough to have that around us at a championship program where the speed of the game doesn’t really change too much.”