In his weekly series, Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney offers his thoughts on recruiting topics and storylines that impact the national landscape.
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THE SITUATION AT LSU
Ed Orgeron won the national championship with one of the best teams ever assembled in 2019.
Seventeen games later, including 10 in a COVID-19 pandemic year, Orgeron is out after the 2021 season.
Everyone and their mother is writing the Orgeron post-mortems, what went wrong, why his downfall came so fast. Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel has a source that said nobody wanted to be there anymore, not the players and not the coaches. There were off-the-field rumors.
Recruiting now comes into focus and there are going to be an incredible amount of moving parts moving forward.
LSU might throw every cent at Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher because of the connections to athletic director Scott Woodward. Maybe Lane Kiffin is tempting. Maybe James Franklin is. I have a hard time believing Lincoln Riley takes the job but that reporting is out there, too.
There are so many talented in-state prospects that want to play at LSU but also want to make sure it’s the right fit that things could get really interesting in the coming months.
Every No. 1 player in the state of Louisiana for a decade dating back to Landon Collins in 2012 has picked the Tigers. But five-star safety Jacoby Mathews has already decommitted from LSU. The Tigers, along with Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, maybe Alabama and others, are still recruiting him hard. Many believe he ends up back at LSU but the coaching situation is one to watch.
High four-star defensive end Quency Wiggins is high on LSU, Florida and Texas but the coaching uncertainty could especially help the Gators. Are people thrilled with Dan Mullen at the moment? No. And are there always NFL rumors surrounding him? Yes. But the Florida situation is one Wiggins really likes and all this upheaval could assist in getting him to Gainesville.
Four-star receiver Shazz Preston told me he and his family watch college football closely and know it’s a business. Preston wished Orgeron luck and I still think LSU is very high on his list.
“My dad has told me from Day 1, coaches come and go,” he said.
The running back spots for this 2022 class at LSU have always been particularly interesting to me. Trevonte’ Citizen is already committed, the Tigers are going hard after Le’Veon Moss and all-purpose back Travis Etienne is also in play. Would LSU really take all three? Will a new coaching staff want that many backs in this class? If not, which schools does that benefit?
As for committed guys, I don’t foresee complete destruction of the recruiting class. Five-star quarterback Walker Howard is a legacy. High four-star OL Will Campbell doesn’t want to talk about the situation but he’s always wanted to play for the Tigers. Jake Johnson’s brother is the starting quarterback. Some in-state guys seem locked in regardless.
There might be some departures following four-star WR Aaron Anderson’s decommitment, especially from out-of-state guys who are taking visits. But there are still plenty of fish in the sea.
LSU should have a home run hire. That always bodes well for recruiting. There might be some chop along the way as things get figured out but Woodward & Co. did not dismiss Orgeron without some semblance of a strategy in place.
When it comes to recruiting at LSU, Geaux Tigers should be just fine.
