When it comes to college football, massive American universities spare no expense. Perception and appearance are equally as important as on-field success, and that starts in the locker room. There's an old saying in sports that goes, "if you look good, you play good." Well, down at Louisiana State University, the school just made a multi-million dollar upgrade hoping to keep every LSU football player in that mindset for years to come.
To make this point very clear, all you need to hear is what junior safety JaCoby Stevens said after this year's LSU Tigers were introduced to their brand-new locker rooms on Sunday night.
"There's no point in going home," Stevens said. "Why would I need to leave? I got everything I need right here."
Inside LSU Football's Locker Room
This isn't your everyday, run-of-the-mill locker room. Far from it, actually. The state-of-the-art facility was designed by Kansas City-based firm HNTB with one unique quality that you won't find anywhere else. Each LSU player's locker — aside from being designed to look like a first-class airplane pod — no longer has that classic boxed-in view you remember from high school athletics. Instead, there are no walls keeping the players from each other and allows a direct line of sight from end-to-end.
Plus, each locker becomes its own lounge for players to grab a nap and relax anytime they need an escape from off-the-field distractions, focus on school work in a private area, or to sit back and watch film for the upcoming SEC game. There are personal charging stations at every player's locker, too.
The price tag for this party? LSU Athletics' Director of Equipment Greg Stringfellow said in a video released by the school that the new football operations building renovations cost $28 million for nearly 25,000 additional square feet of space, ranging from the locker rooms to a brand new dining area.
"The locker room, it goes without saying, I think it's absolutely one of a kind. This is where they live, this is where they spend most of the time. We want them to be comfortable here. And having a place like the locker room where they can actually put on their NormaTecs, put on their headsets, watch film in their own little cubbyhole, where they could actually be comfortable is just a tremendous asset, because you do waste time going back and forth. And we really want it to be as easy as it can be for them."
— Shelly Mullenix, LSU's Senior Associate Athletic Director for Health and Wellness
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LSU honors past Tigers with these renovations, as well. A hallway outside the new football locker room remembers former players who are in the NFL with projector screens that flash their LSU and NFL uniforms onto blank jerseys on the adjacent wall.
Also, current Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu, who was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a Heisman Trophy finalist playing for Les Miles' football team back in 2011, donated $1 million back in 2016 to have the "Mathieu Players Lounge" named in his honor.
This is a huge upgrade for the LSU Tigers football program. Head coach Ed Orgeron is setting the table with an impressive roster of talent in Baton Rouge, and this brand new locker room is just another recruiting tool in his box of tricks.
You better believe the best high school prospects in the country will come to Death Valley to get a glimpse of this incredible facility, too.
Running back Zachary Evans is the No. 1 high school prospect in the country for the 2020 recruiting cycle. And yeah, he noticed.
