LSU coach Brian Kelly walked to the podium, took a slug of water from his Dasani bottle and then entered into a diatribe about the changing recruiting landscape.
“Today feels more like tax day than it does signing day,” Kelly said. “Scrambling the last few days. It’s unlike any other recruiting period that I’ve been involved in."
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Kelly continued: “Recruiting is about identifying, evaluating, it’s about logistics and it’s about a desire to build relationships with student-athletes. You do that over a long period of time. When you’re announcing a class this is the culmination in some instances of 18 months to two years work.
“This is a new landscape that we’re in in recruiting. New when I say it’s not just about finding the right fit academically. It’s not just about finding the right fit where you can develop holistically and graduate and play for a championship.
“It’s about what’s the most money I can get and that’s unfortunate. But it’s the world we live in. You have to be able to adapt and you have to realign and be prepared.”
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Kelly talked like a man pleased to have the sixth-best recruiting class in the country but also someone who could have had so much more.
He didn’t mention Bryce Underwood by name but the five-star quarterback was committed to the Tigers since January only to flip to Michigan when Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison unloaded a massive NIL deal.
He didn’t mention Jahkeem Stewart by name but nearly every No. 1 player in Rivals history save for Landon Collins and Arch Manning from the state of Louisiana ended up at LSU. But the New Orleans (La.) Edna Karr five-star defensive end chose USC – and a reported big NIL deal – instead of playing for the Tigers.
On Wednesday morning, high four-star defensive back Kade Phillips flipped from LSU to Texas. Later in the day, four-star receiver Derek Meadows flipped to Alabama to play with five-star quarterback Keelon Russell.
At one time, five-star receiver Dakorien Moore was committed to LSU as dreams of the Holy Trinity – Underwood, Moore and five-star running back Harlem Berry (who stayed with the Tigers) – was making every LSU fan’s mouth water.
Kelly mentioned none of those players by name but the Underwood news and seemingly the Stewart news (especially since he took a mid-week visit back to Baton Rouge last week) stung on signing day.
“Regardless of what happened over the last week, all of these guys wanted to be here at LSU and representing LSU and wanting to be part of this and wanting to be part of a championship is much more important to me than who didn’t want to be here at LSU,” Kelly said.
For every coach across the country, recruiting strategy in an NIL world has changed. It’s a tough pill to swallow but money is a massive factor when top prospects are making their decisions now.
It’s a space that Kelly is forced to enter, even unwillingfully. The prospects of what has come – and what he endured through the Underwood and Stewart recruitments – seemed to turn his stomach as he faces a new reality.
“You can make the case that you go out through the entire year and you raise money,” Kelly said. “I’m not trying to be a wiseguy. One side of it you say, let’s go raise money the entire recruiting season and get X and then the last few weeks let’s just go buy a team of freshmen.
“Obviously, that’s not what we’re going to do. But what it means is that recruiting is no longer just about recruiting. It’s no longer just about relationships. You need the collective. You need the NIL to supplement your recruiting efforts. That’s just the reality of what we live in. You can’t close every one of these just because you have great relationships and they want to go to LSU.”
Through this new world, LSU still had one of the best classes in the country.
Berry and five-star defensive back DJ Pickett stuck with LSU. Five-star offensive guard Solomon Thomas flipped from Florida State. Four-star linebacker Charles Ross could be a future star. Kelly said four-star offensive lineman Carius Curne is physically ready to play in the SEC now. Four-star linebacker Jaiden Braker could be elite.
There also are legacy prospects in Brett Bordelon and John David LaFleur.
But Kelly made it no secret that LSU will hit the transfer portal hard, another new nexus in the recruiting world.
And the 63-year-old who’s been around the block a time or two with the NCAA seemed a little curious about how NIL would work in the upcoming revenue-sharing model. Each deal is supposed to go through a clearinghouse but Kelly cracked a sly smile – and seemed a little suspicious about that system.
“It’s no longer about just your brand,” Kelly said. “Your brand has to be backed up with the ability to supplement that with dollars because that’s what we’re in. If you want to get into the portal, if you want to close some of these, you have to have active participation from a donor base and it can’t be just one or two guys. It has to be all of those who want to see the Notre Dames or the Ohio States or the Oregons or the Alabamas do well, they have to be involved. So that means if LSUs, if they want to be at the top of the food chain, we have to be involved as well.
“There’s no doubt (it’s pay for play). They’re telling us this is going to be monitored by the NCAA. We’ll see where that goes.”
