A Look at the LSU Football Recruiting Trail a Week Out from Early Signing Period
In between guiding his team to a 13-0 record and LSU's first berth in the College Football Playoff and racking up postseason awards for his job, coach Ed Orgeron has been on the recruiting trail making last minute pitches and check ins on the 2020 recruiting class.
The class currently has 23 players committed after decommits from four-star recruits Major Burns and Alec Bryant and Jalen Lee all in the last month.
We caught up with Geaux247 recruiting expert Billy Embody to gage just where the 2020 recruiting class lies a week from the early signing period.
What are you hearing about the in-home recruiting meetings that have gone on this week between Orgeron and the committed players?
It's just a good opportunity for them to sit down with families and for a lot of these guys, to go over the plan for them one last time, go over any last concerns. Make sure that they're signing early or maybe if they're not, go over what's next as far as their stance and where they're moving.
We've seen some guys drop off here as of late but there's a lot of conversations going on with just how guys fit and what the plan is for them.
You mentioned a few guys have dropped out (decommitted) from the class. What's the reaction from Orgeron and how they could potentially fill those spots moving forward?
It's a good time to be recruiting for LSU right now with the way they're rolling on the season and so I think you'll see them address some needs. I think they'll land some offensive tackles, maybe a running back and some defensive linemen that are still out there. It'll really be interesting to see how that plays out because they filled up so early ans will have to make some tough decisions.
How many guys do they think will sign during the early signing period from Dec. 18-20?
I think it's fluid for some of these guys but it'll be I bet in the 22-23 range maybe. A lot of these guys that are still out there are some early decision type guys, Phillip Webb, Zachary Evans, Marcus Dumervil. I think if things hold and those guys do go to LSU like the crystal ball says then I think you'll see that number in the 21-22 range.
The best way to describe Zach [Evans] is he marches to the beat of his own drum. I think people try to read the situation but I think honestly he could wake up on signing day and go anywhere he wants.
Are there any big fish LSU is going after to make a final push to finish the class off on the right note?
I think Jordan Burch is a guy to watch, he's an early signing period guy, he's a five-star defensive end to really keep an eye on. He's the No. 2 overall prospect in the country, he's really good, the No. 1 defensive end.
He's somebody that can play across the defensive line and somebody they would love to see in purple and gold. That's kind of the big fish that's out there right now. He keeps things pretty close to the vest.
We touched on it earlier but just how has the perception changed with recruits overall now that LSU has propelled itself to the top of the college football mountain?
There's tons of recruiting momentum, recruits love what LSU is doing offensively. They love what they're doing defensively and are probably the hottest program in the country right now as far as recruiting goes.
Caleb Williams is the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the country for the 2021 class and he was on campus for a multi-day visit over the Texas A&M weekend. So he's probably one of their top quarterbacks and then Garrett Nussmeier is a four-star guy out of Texas with a really high ceiling that is probably high on the lit when it comes to quarterbacks as well.
