LSU Football Coach Ed Orgeron Happy With the Progress of the 2021 Class, Says There’s Still Work to be Done
LSU is up to 16 commitments in the 2021 class and showing no signs of slowing down. The latest commit comes out of the DMV area with highly-touted inside linebacker Greg Penn III.
Outside of the obvious talent that the prospects LSU targets possess, Orgeron said in an interview on “Off the Bench” Tuesday morning that it’s the program’s ability to find high character individuals that makes each class special.
Orgeron mentioned that the program asks potential recruits to fill out a questionnaire to get to know each prospect and their families a little bit better.
“That's big for us, character," Orgeron said. "Guys that can process, do the right things, go to school. Guys that are tough in the weight room that the coaches have.
“We judge recruiting by character. I think character was one of the biggest reasons that we had a great team last year. We had a bunch of young men that did the right thing. Knock on wood, you don't hear about our players getting in much trouble off the field and we're proud of that."
Impact of defensive coordinator Bo Pelini is already being felt across the recruiting trail as his background as a linebackers coach left an impact on a prospect like Penn.
Orgeron has also recently praised the job that Corey Raymond does as recruiting coordinator and the impact that graduate assistant Christian LaCouture played in landing defensive ends Naquan Brown and Keanu Koht.
“Very proud of our staff and all the workers in the office. It's a different time where we didn't go out in the spring," Orgeron said. "We've got to evaluate our players on tape only right now, but we do have a limited number of calls right now to recruits and parents so our staff has done a tremendous job of keeping in contact with the guys that are committed to us, getting new commits and we still have some elite players that we feel very good about that we're going after."
With 16 spots down and 10 remaining, in the 2021 cycle, Orgeron and company will be big fish hunting as the Tigers are major players for Maason Smith, Sage Ryan and Brian Thomas in the state of Louisiana alone. Out-of-state prospects the Tigers hope to land are Tristan Leigh, Camar Wheaton, Nathaniel Wiggins, Korey Foreman and Ga’Quincy McKinstry.
Offensive line, running back, receiver and defensive back are a few positions Orgeron pointed to Tuesday in the hopes of filling out the class the right way.
“We've got some big-time cornerbacks out there, some big-time offensive linemen and we feel good about those guys, but obviously, we've got to close,” Orgeron said.
