LSU Football Secures Commitment from 2021 Safety Derrick Davis Jr.

LSU continued its absolute tear on the recruiting trail Saturday, particularly at the safety spot when the program secured a commitment from Derrick Davis Jr.

The safety prospect out of Monroeville, Pennsylvania is one of the top prospects in the country and is currently listed as the No. 80 overall recruit on the SI99 rankings. This has been quite the turnaround for the Tigers at the safety position as this time two weeks ago, they had just one committed player at the position.

It was long speculated that Davis would choose to stay closer to home with Penn State being the logical choice. Now the addition of Davis, Sage Ryan and Matthew Langlois makes this one of the deeper positions in the class and provides the program with a number of options moving forward.

Just last week, LSU coach Ed Orgeron was talking about the need to upgrade the safety position and landing a talent like Davis to add to the class is a major step in the right direction.

"There is a deficit, I think we need to recruit more safeties in our program," Orgeron said. "I'm gonna solve that problem by getting more junior college transfers or in recruiting."

With three spots left, LSU will now have some thinking to do with Tristan Leigh, Maason Smith, Brian Thomas and Korey Foreman all high priority players the program hopes to sign.

Here is Davis' SI All-American scouting report and player profile:

Frame: Athletic frame with excellent body definition and composition. Big shoulders and good-looking calves, with a fair amount of room to add even more mass.

Athleticism: Smooth movement skills and athletic ability when on the move. Very good quickness to close and finish when driving on underneath routes, validated by 4.14 shuttle time at The Opening Regionals 2019. Displays a subtle burst that allows him to climb to top speed naturally with good open field stride. Speed and closing quickness compensate for adequate transition footwork at this point. Solid leap timing (35-inch vertical jump) and ball skills.

Instincts: Displays alertness and awareness for crossers and drags underneath from safety position. Good peripheral vision of receivers when working as single-high defender and speed allows him to play with range to reach outside of numbers. Tough when asked to play on edges of box and stack tight ends to set the edge and maintain outside leverage. Doesn’t allow himself to get lost in traffic/trash and chases ball-carriers well in pursuit; will strike with good force as a tackler.

Polish: Has the size, speed and play strength to contribute fairly early in his college career. Will need to improve transition quickness and footwork out of his break/pedal, which will allow him to get off hashes with more urgency. Not asked to perform much man coverage.

Bottom Line: Davis has the traits to develop into a very good starting college back-end defender. He has enough instincts and ball skills to go along with play speed, range and toughness in the box to play both free safety and strong safety, while also having the size to potentially even contribute as a linebacker on sub-packages. As he continues developing his man coverage skills and consistent tackling technique, Davis has a chance to become a core contributor to a collegiate defense.