Even the biggest Ed Orgeron skeptic couldn’t have predicted how the 2020 LSU recruiting class would end up.

Disappointing? Nah. That doesn’t do it justice.

It was the No. 4 class in America. It was the class that was signed in the midst of LSU’s historically dominant 2019 season, which Orgeron said was the “best I’ve had” at LSU. It was the group that was supposed to be the feather in Ed Orgeron’s recruiting cap. We always knew that Orgeron could recruit, but doing so on the heels of a title? That was supposed to be shooting fish in a barrel. In many ways, it was. Orgeron signed a trio of 5-star recruits, and 13 were 4-star recruits.

But 3 years later, yeah, let’s come up with a new way to describe LSU’s 2020 class — one of the bigger bummers of the Playoff era.

Too harsh? Nah. Look a little closer.

The 3 5-stars from that class were Arik Gilbert, Eli Ricks and Kayshon Boutte. Gilbert is on team No. 3 having caught 2 passes since he flashed promise as a true freshman at LSU before opting out and transferring to Georgia … then to Nebraska. Ricks was a freshman All-American in 2020, but he got hurt halfway through 2021 and he transferred to Alabama for 2022, where he battled injury and playing time issues before going undrafted. And Boutte, well, you know how that played out.

To think that none of those 3 went in the first 5 rounds of the NFL Draft is stunning. That’s technically still on the table for Gilbert, though he essentially had 2 lost seasons and could very well be getting his last opportunity in Lincoln.

But zoom out a bit more and look at the rest of the 22 signees from the 2020 LSU class.

  • Arik Gilbert — Transferred twice, now at Nebraska
  • Eli Ricks — Transferred to Alabama, undrafted
  • Kayshon Boutte — 6th round, No. 187 overall of 2023 NFL Draft
  • Jaquelin Roy — 5th round, No. 141 overall of 2023 NFL Draft
  • Phillip Webb — Transferred to Jackson State
  • Jordan Toles — Transferred to Morgan State
  • BJ Ojulari — 2nd round, No. 41 overall of 2023 NFL Draft
  • Jacobian Guillory — Entering Year 4 at LSU, 2 career starts
  • Antoine Campbell — Transferred to Campbell
  • Marcus Dumervil — Transferred to Maryland
  • Kevontre Bradford — Separated from team
  • Josh White — Transferred to Baylor
  • Max Johnson — Transferred to Texas A&M
  • Eric Taylor — Transferred to Southwest Mississippi CC, now at MSU
  • Dwight McGlothern — Transferred to Arkansas
  • Koy Moore — Transferred to Auburn
  • Marlon Martinez — Entering Year 4 at LSU, 4 career starts
  • Alex Adams — Transferred to Akron
  • Kole Taylor — Transferred to West Virginia
  • Ali Gaye — Undrafted free agent
  • Xavier Hill — Transferred to Memphis
  • TJ Finley — Transferred to Auburn, currently in portal

To recap, Ojulari was the lone member of LSU’s 2020 class who went into the NFL Draft as a Tiger and got selected in the first 4 rounds.

Of the 22 signees, 16 transferred or were separated from the team. The guys who finished their careers at LSU were Boutte, Ojulari, Roy and Gaye while Martinez and Guillory are both still working to become full-time starters in Year 4.

Sure, we should expect significant roster turnover when there’s a coaching change in this era of the transfer portal. But you can’t dismiss numbers that staggering as “a sign of the times.” It’s a sign of a coaching staff who didn’t develop in the way that it should. That starts with Orgeron and his staff.

The 2020 LSU class was a casualty of Orgeron’s post-title ways. The guy who “lost track of who he was” made coordinator hires that weren’t vetted as they should have been. A post-title pandemic that forced LSU off campus during that crucial spring developmental time probably didn’t help an inexperienced group in need of structure. The Athletic reported that Orgeron’s handling of racial inequality protests was criticized within the LSU locker room.

Of course, the counterpoint to that is that players still have to control what’s within their power. If that environment was truly incapable of maximizing individual potential, why did someone like Ojulari find a way to still become a legitimate All-SEC player who should be set up for success at the NFL level? Probably because all signs indicated that Ojulari was a self-starter who bought in and he didn’t let the fact that he had 3 different defensive coordinators become an excuse (or a reason to transfer).

If you just look at the coaches who inherited the trio of 5-star players — 3 of the top 5 coaches in the sport — you saw some pretty telling comments.

It was never a question of talent with any of those 3. But for different reasons, all of them had struggles with consistency after their true freshmen seasons. Boutte and Ricks had their midseason injuries in 2021, but it’s not fair to say that health reasons were entirely to blame for why they each failed to live up to preseason All-American love in 2022.

Shoot, even Gilbert was projected as the No. 5 overall pick in PFF’s way-too-early 2023 mock Draft a year ago. Say what you will about that after Gilbert’s year away from football in 2021 and how that should’ve cautioned lofty 2022 projections. But as recently as 8 months ago, you could’ve argued it was more likely that the 5-star trio would all be first-round picks instead of going in the 6th round, undrafted and on to a third school (I’m not including Florida because technically Gilbert never enrolled there).

It’s too bad. It’s too bad because it wasn’t like they were overhyped as recruits. Anyone who watched them as underclassmen saw the makings of stars who could eventually be considered first-round prospects.

Did LSU fail them? Or did they fail themselves? You could argue that all parties are to blame. LSU fans will tell you that Gilbert and Ricks struggled away from Baton Rouge while fans of their new teams will tell you that was because of the bad habits they developed under Orgeron’s watch.

Whatever the case, the result is what it is. It’s essentially a lost class, which is why LSU is extremely fortunate to have already bounced back under Kelly. No, the cupboard wasn’t bare. LSU’s 2022 roster ranked No. 8 nationally in the 247sports talent composite thanks in part because Boutte stuck around after reportedly debating a change of scenery like Ricks and Gilbert. The 2022 LSU roster was, however, a transition year wherein Kelly needed to rely heavily on the transfer portal in large part because of the holes left from the 2020 class.

We shouldn’t say that LSU’s first 2 losing seasons of the 21st century (2020 and 2021) were a direct result of the 2020 class. After all, they were first- and second-year players. Perhaps they were relied on too heavily because of the historic amount of NFL Draft talent lost from the 2019 squad. But somewhere, coaching and development was supposed to kick in. And no, Joe Brady leaving for the NFL can’t be the lone reason why LSU went to a place it hadn’t been to in more than 2 decades.

Who knows? Maybe with the right surroundings, LSU could’ve set itself up to be the team of the 2020s instead of Georgia. It’s the Dawgs who just showed that losing 15 players to the NFL Draft doesn’t have to get in the way of winning a title.

In the end, though, it’s clear that timing didn’t do the 2020 LSU class any favors.

Neither will the history books.