(Editor’s Note: In the interest of full disclosure, Chris Fisher’s mother, Brenda Fisher, is the business manager for The Independent Weekly.)
When your name is Fisher, the nicknames come easy: “big fish,” or even “fish sticks” as some teammates preferred. Perhaps the strangest one that stuck for Chris Fisher came from UL offensive coordinator Ron Hudson.
About a week into training camp in Fisher’s redshirt freshman year, Hudson, who at that time was offensive line coach, noticed something in the overly quiet and reserved young player: a newfound tenacity and refusal to back down, even to much bigger opposition from across the line of scrimmage.
“I noticed he was pretty good,” Hudson recalls. “And you know his name’s Fisher. I said, ‘you’re a tough fisher. You’re a tough fish. You’re a muskie!”
A Muskie, or muskellunge, is a rare freshwater fish — the largest of the pike family — found in the Great Lakes and known by Midwestern fishermen for their vicious fight. It’s also the mascot of Hudson’s alma mater: He played offensive line in the 1980s for the Muskinghum University Fighting Muskie’s in New Concord, Ohio.
“None of my players had any idea what a muskie was,” Hudson says. “And I had to explain to them it was a tough fish. It was a joke at first, but it was true. So [Chris Fisher] got the nickname Muskie, and he’s been Muskie ever since.”
Fisher has since lived up to his big fish billing. This year he is again a pre-season pick for the All-Sun Belt Conference team. He’s also found himself on the watch lists for the prestigious Rimington Trophy (nation’s top center), Lombardi Trophy (top lineman or linebacker) and Outland Trophy (top interior lineman). (UL senior left guard Brad Bustle was also named pre-season All-Sun Belt and is on the Lombardi watch list.) Fisher is the only Sun Belt Conference player to make the Outland Trophy watch list. The UL center has also drawn the attention of pro scouts, and is viewed as perhaps the team’s top NFL prospect this season.
“It’s a possibility for me,” he says. “That’s a choice I’m going to have to make in December and January when the time comes. Right now, I’m just focusing on the season. I’m not really letting the thought of that and some of the desires I have in my life to affect that choice right now. I’m just going to have to sit down with my family and the people that are important to me and make that decision on whether I’m going to try to go [pro] or if I’m just going to continue my education and get a job.”
An honor roll student, Fisher will obtain his bachelor’s degree in accounting in December. He plans to continue school for another semester to get an additional degree in finance and has aspirations of taking his CPA exam following school.
“I remember [Delhomme] taking the knee for the play to win it and people rushing the field,” Fisher says. “And my mom made me leave because she was scared I was going to get hurt in the crowd. She was pretty protective of me when I was younger.”
Despite being a three-year starter at offensive guard at St. Thomas More High School, Fisher wasn’t recruited to play for any major colleges, including UL. Scouts who visited STM often overlooked him, dismissing the 6-foot-3-inch, 250-pound lineman as too small to be effective at the college level. Fisher says he had pretty much given up on any thought of playing college ball when he enrolled at UL. Then he got the call from Coach Rickey Bustle asking him to come out for the team as a preferred walk on.
“I had decided after signing day and after the recruiting classes were in, I wasn’t going anywhere [to play football] and that I was just going to be a student over here [at UL],” Fisher says. “Then I got the opportunity to walk on a couple of days before camp started as a freshman. I had to make a pretty quick decision on whether I wanted to play or not. I decided to play, and I really believe it’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
Fisher had been out of training for months when he first showed up at camp. But what he lacked in size, coaches found he made up for in technique, heart and determination.
“We didn’t know what we had,” says Hudson. “He was a late walk on, so we weren’t sure that he was going to be a player. But he was very well coached in high school. He was a very good technician and he was very competitive.”
“He was very resourceful,” Hudson continues, “because he wasn’t very big so he tended to have to find other ways to be successful even if it was unorthodox and he always did.” Through good fundamentals, Fisher found ways to compensate for his lack of size. Fisher also made an impression by letting his playing do the talking, almost to a fault. “He didn’t say two words for six months,” Hudson says. “It was actually comical. We all made fun of the fact that he didn’t say anything. He just played and you put him at center, you put him at guard you put him at tackle he played it very well. He played very hard.”
Despite impressing coaches with his solid technique and scrappy determination, Fisher still struggled to acclimate himself to the college game his rookie season. But he showed up to camp his second year with a newfound determination.
“Every coach,” Fisher says, “that came into my high school and looked at me, just said, ‘You know he’s a little short and not big enough for what we’re looking for.’ And when I got here it was the same thing. I was undersized; I was getting thrown around a lot. But I put my head into it my redshirt freshman year that I wasn’t going to let that be the problem anymore. I wasn’t going to let that be what I felt was a cheap excuse for not letting guys that are smaller play.”
Fisher also hit the weight room, bulking up to 285 pounds. He soon found himself at second-string center; following an injury to the starting center, Fisher was on the field for the second game of the season at LSU. Lining up against the Tiger tandem of Glenn Dorsey and Charles Alexander, two of the nation’s most imposing defensive linemen, Fisher held his own. He’s been UL’s starter at center ever since.
Now entering his senior year, Fisher, in the unsung role of offensive lineman, is one of the core leaders of this year’s team. “Chris is very deserving,” says Bustle. “I think he’s one of the best centers in this league. I think he’s one of the best in the country; that’s why he’s on those lists.”
The coaches don’t hesitate to underscore the important role UL’s veteran offensive line will play in any success this season, giving a solid front for the team’s new starters at both quarterback and tailback. Fisher is joined by two other seniors and three-year starters on the offensive line, Brad Bustle (the coach’s son) at left guard and Kyle Pirdle at the left tackle position.
“Those guys were all a little undersized, under-strength [as freshmen],” recalls coach Bustle. “But all of a sudden now, those guys have really worked hard to develop themselves. They are athletic and they know how to work and they have worked themselves into these positions.”
Hudson adds that Fisher has grown comfortable with the role of being a vocal leader for the team. “He’s loud and obnoxious now,” Hudson says. “He and Brad Bustle and Kyle Pirdle are my three seniors and they were all quiet freshmen. Now they’re all loud and obnoxious. They’re fun. They’re great kids.”
 |
| Chris Fisher |
| Photo by Robin May |
The football limelight is new for Fisher, but playing for the Ragin’ Cajuns has long been a dream of his. Fisher got his first vision of one day playing for UL when he was 9 years old. That was the year he attended his first college football game and watched Jake Delhomme lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to the team’s biggest upset victory in history over the Texas A&M Aggies.
Click here to view a pdf of The Independent Weekly staff football picks.
The football limelight is new for Fisher, but playing for the Ragin’ Cajuns has long been a dream of his. Fisher got his first vision of one day playing for UL when he was 9 years old. That was the year he attended his first college football game and watched Jake Delhomme lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to the team’s biggest upset victory in history over the Texas A&M Aggies.
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed