BATON ROUGE, La. — “This has truly, really been his dream since he was a little boy,” said mother of Landon, Jodi Ibieta.
“He was four or five years old, you know, dressed up in an LSU uniform, running around out there,” said father of Landon, Chad Ibieta.
Mandeville’s Landon Ibieta decided long ago that one day he’d one day play football at LSU.
“It was just constantly throwing the football, throwing the football. He would play football games with himself. He would run right around the house and dive into the sofa and that would be a touchdown,” said Jodi Ibieta.
One of the most influential people in Landon’s life is his childhood coach who is also his dad.
“On the field I’m coach. My wife would always tell me look, you’re harder on him. I wasn’t going to do the whole daddy-ball thing. We didn’t do daddy-ball things. You earned it. If you weren’t the best player you didn’t play the best positions. That’s just how I grew up being coached and that’s how I coached my son,” said Chad Ibieta.
Landon verbally committed to the University of Miami, but once Brian Kelly took the helm at LSU a scholarship for a wide receiver became available, and recruiting coordinator Brian Polian knew just who to call.
“He’s like, ‘We’ve been trying to get in touch with Landon. Is he at basketball?’ I said, ‘yeah, I’m pulling up right now.’ He said, ‘We just watched all this film. Have him call as soon as he gets out of the basketball game,’ said Chad Ibieta.
“I can’t think about it too much. I do cry. It’s just a blessing. It really is all his work,” said Jodi Ibieta.
“He when he was a little kid, he always said his dream was to play ball. Wasn’t playing professionally, it was to play football at LSU. He used to always say it since he was little. It’s just that it comes full circle to him. Have an opportunity to throw out there, which is big,” said Chad Ibieta.