Recruiting has gone national, which means the challenge of signing the best in-state talent is exponentially more difficult than, say, 30 years ago.

With that in mind, we’re building a six-man all-star in-state team of sorts for each program in the SEC, looking for more recent recruits with more options who chose to stay home.

Alabama keeps its share at home, but nobody builds fences quite like LSU coach Les Miles.

Here are the best, by position, Louisiana kids who became Tigers.

Quarterback — Tommy Hodson

Bert Jones, the Ruston Rifle, is the only All-American quarterback in program history.

That’s a sore spot, considering both Manning brothers grew up in New Orleans.

Hodson grew up 45 miles southwest of New Orleans and arrived in Baton Rouge in 1985, more than a decade after Jones, and soon began rewriting LSU’s record book.

He became the first SEC quarterback to throw for 9,000 career yards and still holds the Tigers’ career records for passing yards (9,115) and touchdown passes (69).

Running back — Leonard Fournette

Georgia has Herschel. Auburn has Bo. And LSU has Fournette, not only the Tigers’ greatest in-state signee but in the running for the title of the SEC’s greatest in-state signee.

Fournette, a star from New Orleans, was the No. 1 prospect in the 2014 cycle. Alabama and LSU offered him a scholarship during his ninth-grade year.


Fournette rewrote LSU’s record book last season, finishing with 1,953 yards in just 12 games.

He enters 2016 as the frontrunner to win the Heisman Trophy.

Baton Rouge’s Billy Cannon and Lafayette’s Kevin Faulk set the bar for LSU’s in-state running backs, but Fournette has raised it.

Wide receiver — Odell Beckham Jr.

Beckham starred at the Mannings’ old high school, Isidore Newman in New Orleans.

He was a U.S. Army All-American, but he wasn’t a five-star recruit or even a top-1o player at his position in the 2011 class.

He wasn’t even the highest-ranked receiver in LSU’s class. Jarvis Landry, a five-star recruit and No. 2 receiver from Lutcher, was.

Beckham was ranked No. 19 among receivers but became an All-American in 2013, when he broke LSU’s single-season record for all-purpose yardage.

The Giants drafted him 12th overall in 2014, and Beckham made the Pro Bowl each of his first two seasons.

The one-handed catches? Yeah, he was doing that at LSU, too.

https://vine.co/v/OpdIYQY1ajF

Defensive lineman — Glenn Dorsey

Dorsey was a five-star prospect and No. 3-ranked defensive tackle in the 2004 class out of Gonzales, about 30 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.

He became a two-time All-American and had a 2007 to remember, sweeping every major national award possible for a defensive lineman. Oh, and he helped LSU win the national championship.

Kansas City selected Dorsey with the fifth pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, and he has been a starter throughout his seven-year career.

Linebacker — Kendell Beckwith

LSU hasn’t produced a homegrown All-American linebacker since Monroe’s Bradie James won the honor in 2002.

Beckwith, from Clinton, decided not to enter the NFL Draft and will try to match Bradie’s accomplishment as a senior in 2016.

A four-star recruit and No. 7-ranked outside linebacker in the 2013 class, Beckwith finished second on the team with 86 tackles in as a junior.

Defensive back — Tyrann Mathieu

DBU gets who it wants — even out of South Florida, where it pried away Patrick Peterson — so it’s a mild upset that a former four-star recruit finds his way to the top of the list.

The Honey Badger, from St. Augustine’s, the same New Orleans power that later produced Fournette, was the No. 17-ranked cornerback in the 2010 class.

Alabama and Florida combined to sign the top four corners in that class. South Carolina signee Victor Hampton was ranked one spot higher than Mathieu.

Needless to say, those rankings would look dramatically different if redone today.

Mathieu, who won the 2011 Bednarik Award and was a Heisman finalist, overcame some bad decisions in college, which caused him to slip to the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft, but he has rebounded in style.

He had five interceptions this season and was named to his first Pro Bowl.