This past weekend was the quiet before the storm in college football, with National Signing Day looming on Wednesday. There was still enough SEC football news to go around, and SDS has you covered. Get caught up with everything you missed from the time your weekend started.

  • LSU to pursue John Chavis’ buyout money. The Chief got approximately a $300,000 raise to be the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, but his old school appears to be after a chunk of his change. LSU will seek $400,000 from Chavis as a buyout for leaving the school while under contract, news that came out around the same time that LSU approved the contracts of new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron.
  • Four-star linebacker Leo Lewis drops Ole Miss commitment. Lewis had been playing the field even as a Rebels commit, and over the weekend he officially re-opened his recruitment in the final days before NSD. Lewis was also previously an Alabama commit. He made his announcement while on an official visit at LSU, and has also visited Mississippi State in recent weeks.
  • SEC alums earn NFL awards. The NFL handed out its end-of-season awards on the eve of the Super Bowl, and several former SEC players were honored. New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (LSU) won Offensive Rookie of the Year, along with Play of the Year for his legendary one-handed grab. Kansas City linebacker Justin Houston (Georgia) won the Deacon Jones Award and Carolina Panther Thomas Davis (Georgia) was honored as the Walter Paton Man of the Year.
  • Twitter runs wild. After last week’s fake-Kevin Steele fiasco, LSU’s new defensive coordinator found himself the target of a former Alabama player’s mocking over the weekend. HaHa Clinton-Dix took a jab at Steele, who overlapped with Clinton-Dix at Alabama, with current Crimson Tide linebacker Reggie Ragland coming to Steele’s defense. Later, Tennessee commit Kahlil McKenzie got into a back-and-forth with Ole Miss lineman Robert Conyers over a player deciding between Ole Miss and Tennessee, Drew Richmond. McKenzie later apologized for being “disrespectful” to Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze.
  • CeCe Jefferson announces his final four. From this morning, one of the nation’s top defensive ends tweeted out the four teams he’ll be deciding between on NSD, and they’re all SEC schools: Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Ole Miss. Jefferson dropped LSU after his visit over the weekend. He’s slated to announce his decision around 2 p.m. EST on NSD.

Recruiting Commitments

  • Florida — 3-star DT Richerd Desir-Jones (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 3-star OT Fredrick Johnson (West Palm Beach, Fla.), 3-star DE Luke Ancrum (Sebring, Fla.)
  • Kentucky — 3-star WR Tevin Richardson (Duncan, S.C.), 2-star DE Joshua Allen (Montclair, N.J.)
  • Missouri — 3-star DE Nate Howard (St. Louis, Mo.), 3-star TE Josh Moore (Olate, Kan.)
  • Vanderbilt — 2-star ATH Jaire George (Hyattsville, Md.)