Coach Criticized for Losing Local Recruit — When Curley Reed Chose UW
The new college football coach does a great job of recruiting, everyone heartily agrees. However, if there's a quibble, he hasn't been able to keep all of the top locals from leaving the state.
Where have we heard that before?
In this case, the criticism was leveled at LSU's Brian Kelly — when Lake Charles College Prep cornerback Curley "Lockdown" Reed last week chose the University Washington and Kalen DeBoer's staff, and not the SEC team.
Consider this following assessment served up by LSU Wire: "As good a job as Brian Kelly and his staff have done in putting together LSU’s 2023 recruiting class so far, the returns in the state of Louisiana have been hit-or-miss, and the Tigers whiffed on another in-state prospect on Thursday."
Yes, that would be Reed, who picked the Huskies, this after Seattle cornerback Caleb Presley committed to Oregon and Spanaway corner Jasiah Wagoner narrowed his choices to four schools that weren't named Washington.
A 4-star recruit, Reed is considered by 247Sports as the nation's 155th player and the No. 11 Louisiana prospect, in the Class of 2023 and his decision to play for the Huskies didn't go unnoticed around Baton Rouge, the French Quarter or the rest of the Bayou State.
Furthermore, LSU Wire had this to say about the situation: "Reed is a talented player, and it’s never a good look for the Tigers when a top-200 national recruit leaves the state of Louisiana. With that being said, it’s not a major loss for Kelly. He has 16 commits currently in the 2023 class (which ranks seventh nationally) including one from cornerback Daylen Austin, a California prospect who sits one spot behind Reed on the national composite rankings."
In the accompanying photo, Reed is shown on his visit to Florida State, one of the 26 schools that offered him.
LSU's 16 commitments include just three homegrown players compared to Washington, which counts just two locals among its 18 pledges, possibly an all-time low for the Huskies.
What's obvious — and, again, this is not an issue isolated to LSU or the UW — is college football, with its transfer portal and name, image and likeness opportunities in place, has evolved to the point where local prospects are far more inclined to go elsewhere and play.
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