Grading the SEC's recruiting situations: LSU Tigers
In the coming weeks, SDS will grade each team’s current state of recruiting based upon the factors listed below. Today we continue the series with one of the SEC’s annual contenders, the LSU Tigers.
LSU TIGERS
HOME-STATE TALENT: A+
No team in the SEC owns its home state quite like LSU does. Top prospects from Louisiana don’t leave home often, and if they do it’s to go play for another recruiting titan, the Alabamas and Texas A&Ms of the college football world. LSU has signed the top player in the state in five of the last six years, and generally has a stranglehold on the state’s top-20 players. About 60 percent of the Tigers’ current roster hails from Louisiana, a percentage in line with their typical years. With Ed Orgeron now on staff and Frank Wilson keeping Louisiana on lock down, LSU’s home-state success won’t waver anytime soon.
RECENT SUCCESS: A
Les Miles has kept LSU in the upper echelon of national recruiting since arriving on campus. LSU has had a top-10 class in seven of his 11 recruiting cycles, and in the last two years LSU has ranked second and fifth, respectively. Having multiple top-five classes in a four-year span is a prerequisite for national championship contention these days, so LSU should feel pretty good that the staff’s efforts will pay off with a rise back to the top of the national polls this fall — especially after so many young players gained valuable experience last year.
FAN SATISFACTION: B+
LSU has occasionally dropped to the middle tier of the SEC with its recruiting finishes, but for the most part the Tigers remain stocked with some of the best talent in not just the SEC, but the country. However, there is one major gripe: the staff’s inability to recruit a quarterback ready to step on campus and contribute. Part of that is due to a lack of elite high school quarterbacks in Louisiana; LSU generally nabs the top passers in the state, even if they don’t pan out. The Tigers appear to have missed out on the best quarterback to come out of the state in a decade, as 2016 recruit Shea Patterson has committed to Ole Miss.
COACHING STABILITY: B+
Miles should be one of the most secure coaches in the country, but there’s always a feeling that he’s playing with fire. He hasn’t come close to the hot seat yet, and that shouldn’t happen as long as Miles is winning 10 games and hauling in a top recruiting class most years. There is the pesky fact that vaunted defensive coordinator John Chavis, who served as a draw for top recruits, left for Texas A&M amidst a contract disagreement last season. The Tigers replaced him with Kevin Steele, who is a more active recruiter although not as accomplished as a coach, and brought in Orgeron as well. Wilson, the team’s recruiting coordinator, is one of the best recruiters in the nation, but he’ll continue to field outside opportunities as he did last offseason.
SUM IT UP: As long as the talent keeps flowing like the Mississippi River through Louisiana — and that doesn’t figure to stop anytime soon — LSU is going to be a giant on the recruiting scene. Miles has cultivated a staff of elite recruiters to help bring in all the elite talent in the Tigers’ home state, and they’re adept at going out of state to nab talent from Texas, Florida and Georgia as well. LSU isn’t going anywhere as a factor at the top of the national recruiting rankings.
Editor’s note: Any reference to recruiting ratings in this series – team or individual – are to 247Sports.com’s industry composite ranking.
At the end of the series we will rank the SEC’s recruiting situations from 1-14 based on the grades we assign each program. Here are last year’s recruiting situation rankings:
