Transitioning Tigers win big on recruiting trail

The LSU Tigers, heading into their first year under new head coach Brian Kelly, are a program in transition.
It’s to be expected in a regime change at the college level. It should be expected on an even higher level in this new era of college sports, where NIL are now dictating for the most part where major recruits land.
There’s a strong argument to be made that this is the first time in 25 years that there has been such a massive overhaul down on Nicholson Drive.
The last time things were overthrown on this level was 1999, when a little-known head coach named Nick Saban came into Baton Rouge.
Since then, there have been head coaching changes. But, there was never a wholesale changing of the guard.
When Les Miles took over following Saban’s departure, there is strong speculation that then-athletic director mandated that offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher be retained.
When Ed Orgeron took over for Miles, he pretty much maintained the status quo of the previous head man’s coaching staff.
Brian Kelly, he threw the book out. Fired them all. Coaches, support staff, the whole lot.
I’m not even sure his wife felt safe in the move. And that was his fam-uh-lee!
Only offensive line coach Brad Davis was maintained.
So, it made sense that there were decommitments, transfers out (10 of them to be exact), and general upheaval within LSU’s roster.
The purge was nothing if not thorough.
So, it’s under those circumstances that Brian Kelly managed nothing short of a miracle signing class.
On3.com, a website that compiles composite recruiting rankings from all the major recruiting services, had LSU’s high school signing class ranked as twelfth-best in America.
Considering Kelly put this thing together in a couple months, that is nothing short of remarkable.
Then, there was the ballyhooed transfer portal rankings.
No, we shouldn’t read much into them. LSU brought in a ton of transfers, 12 to be exact. If you get enough of anything, you’re bound to have the most valuable collection.
As an example, you can stack up as many pennies as you want, the sum will be less than the parts of the whole when it’s all said and done.
That isn’t to say that LSU didn’t bring in good players through the Transfer Portal. I believe that, at worst, many of these guys can end up being valuable rotation pieces for the Tigers.
Depth matters, especially at this level.
But, mentioning that, here’s the remarkable part about Brian Kelly’s inaugural recruiting class as LSU’s head ball coach.
When combining the incoming high school seniors and the incoming transfers, LSU managed a class ranked as high as sixth in America.
LSU signed 27 players overall. That’s an incredible number.

Even crazier was Kelly’s ability to maintain a five-star quarterback in Walker Howard and sign a five-star linebacker in Harold Perkins.
This, for a transitional class, has everything LSU needs in a recruiting class.
A secondary that was bleeding players? There are potential impact transfers in Greg Brooks Jr., Joe Foucha, Jarrick Bernard and Mekhi Gardner?
A linebacker corps that needed rotational bodies? Transfer West Weeks and Perkins will help that out too.
Offensive lineman? Miles Frazier, Will Campbell, and Emery Jones should help out there.
Running back? Penn State transfer Noah Cain can be that between-the-tackles grinder that Ty Davis-Price was last season.
All in all, I believe that Tiger fans should be pleased as punch with Kelly’s first class.
Through hard word, Kelly and his staff managed to take a six-win roster and turn it into one that can potentially win between eight and ten games next season.
And for all the anxiety the coaching change brought? That may be the biggest win of all.