Recruiting Analyst: LSU Portal Additions Coming | ’25 Prospects To Watch

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Shea Dixon of On3Sports joins AFR to recap national signing day and look ahead to the LSU roster for 2024. What holes remain and what positions could the Tigers target in the transfer portal?

You found it your home for the best content on your favorite team the fighting tigers of LSU do us a favor subscribe to the channel leave your comments below and be sure smash that Like the dust is settled on the February signing period LSU finishes with the number four class in the country according to on three our buddy from on 3 bangal tiger Shay Dixon good enough to join us here for a couple of minutes how are you

Shay hey I’m doing well how are you Matt I’m doing awesome okay so the number four class uh let’s put a a bow on uh on this 2024 signing class for LSU uh what are the what are the standouts how are you great and how Brian Kelly and his staff did pulling it

Together I’m mean a top five finish up there with Georgia Ohio State B I mean that’s the company you want to keep so uh in that regard it was was excellent and I think and this is something Brian Kelly talked about last week but geographically it’s something we talked

About a lot on your show throughout the year even when they were ranked in the teenss and people said can this even be a top 10 class and at the time it was June July and I said yes look waited out things happen but they’ll keep pushing

Kids to the end and when you’re recruiting Louisiana East Texas that put you you know south Mississippi in the mix with all these guys you know not just in the summer but the way through Signing Day so to Come Away with the number four class when I think gosh Matt

29 SES 26 of them were from 25 of the 29 were from Louisiana or Texas more than 20 were Louisiana Naes and then toss in the south Mississippi sige 26 of the 29 are from Louisiana or border state and that’s kind of what Brian Kelly said he

Wanted the recipe to be they said from the start we want to sign 25 to 30 guys they got 29 so when you look at number four class you look at three five stars which is up there with as many as anybody in the country it’s more than

Impressive number four from on three number seven in the composite heck of a job by this staff pulling it together there and of course everyone’s excited looking ahead to 20125 but Chay are they done for 24 whenever you look at a blended ranking with high school and

Portal or should we expect more portal editions in the next portal cycle I would definitely expect more portal Editions and look I don’t know I can’t sit here and promise that the spring window which is only a 15-day window right when Spring football inss for everybody is going to be the most

Active s you know spring of all time now it may be considered how much shakeup there was at different schools with head coaching changes and all that but it’s not going to have the same flare or numbers that the first portal you know kind of stretched us the 30-day window

With is in the middle of all the bow prep and everything else so one or two guys I think could probably pop up that they would then jump on maybe three uh but in terms of the 2024 class which is everybody who just signed uh you would

Only count high school in juko and they are still out there one Joo D lineman uh out in Kansas so we’ll monitor that one that will come down to you know if he gets all his grades in order he get out of Joo for the spring and then after may

He could sign with or transfer to a a four-year school so Joo high school wise they have another addition it would be from the J ranks is it safe to say though sh of course for the for the the signing class but it’s safe to say

Though that be it the jco ranks a defensive tackle or in in the portal be it from another Power five depend on how it goes that defensive tackle would be the the biggest need I think Brian Kelly alluded to that as well yeah group of

Five power of five I mean if there’s a guy out there who who’s legit that fits the uh the bill of kind of what they’re looking for then absolutely I mean you’re thinking about a position not and look some other guys can play D tackle but nose tackle and then you’re bigger D

DT wise you have Giller and jayen Lee those are the only players left on roster so signing mckenley a festar DT was massive you know bringing in three total I think defensive uh three or four or four total defensive true defensive lineman in this class ha in the dirt was

Good to get that going and you’ve got a Joo guy in Sean Washington who comes in with experience when he won a national championship at Georgia he played for a Joo national championship and now he’s coming back home after prepping at Warren Easton so he gives you some

Experience Beyond a high school guy and um but is that enough I think that’s why the spring portal window Matt is probably whether it is Joo or whether it’s transfers from Power five group of five that they want to come away with at least one more defensive tackle Shay

Dixon on three the Bengal tiger um I noticed you do have up over at on three right now your your big board or your um uh your mock for 2025 I guess is is how we’d put it there there they already off to an amazing start for 2025 Shay with

The number one class what are going to be some of the the biggest prospects that we’re going to keep an eye on here throughout the spring as um as spring uh recruiting periods heat up yeah I put up today my uh my mock 1.0 people enjoy me doing my class

Predictions granted where a year out from when they’re signing 10 11 12 months but uh hey look 29 total predictions I had to make I know I’ve got nine of them right so far because those guys are very publicly committed but beyond that I think look you have to

Start in Louisiana right and if go and look right now at the rankings the top eight players in Louisiana seven of seven are committed to LSU right now publicly committed the one guy who’s not is James Simon of a Calvary Baptist who running back had a fabulous junior year

They went to the Dome he’s being recruited by everyone he’s a top 10 running back nationally and from the start Frank Wilson had eyed parl and Barry the festar out of New Orleans who’s New Orleans area who’s a number one running back in the country consensus and then James Simon is that

One two punch you wanted and look when it comes to recruiting Louisiana and running backs I’m not going to bet against Frank Wilson so I think that’s the biggest fish we’re kind of looking for right now and then it gets in my opinion fun to watch because they

Haven’t been in a position like this Matt where yes they’ve had 10 commitments by February before but they weren’t 10 guys who were all ranked as top 250 prospects they weren’t three of them five stars number one at their position and four of them top 20 overall

Players nationally so I think they can be a bit picky and that’s a good thing and look you’re going to always eval Louisiana you’re going to be heavy on the border state guys but with these new hires on defense coupled with them coming off a number one offense finish

You know the Heisman all of that we’re seeing it paying dividends obviously with a Bryce Underwood at quarterback and Doran Moore at receiver and an early commitment from teron Francis at receiver who’s Louisiana’s number one wide out Harlem Barry a five star like they’ve got the guys rolling on offense

But how much further do they take it there and then what do these new defensive hires do because between Cory Raymond Bo Davis Blake Baker I mean you’re tossing around some big names would have been the uh the early returns from those guys out on the trail the

Staff I’ve got to say yeah I’ve got to say it’s positive because before we hit this Dead period between all of those guys I just mentioned they had a number of kids come in and visit that weren’t previously scheduled to come and I know DJ picket made headlines we had talked

About him a fstar defensive back out of Florida who Cory had recruited there Bo Davis has had a couple D linemen that he was recruiting at Texas from Texas uh from The Lone Star State come in from before the Dead period who are Juniors and all these guys now are starting to

Schedule visits for March and April so I uh I think that we’ll see in in the coming weeks and months uh maybe not weeks we’re in a dead period but starting in March when it opens back up and into April and May just how big those hires were because that’s when

Recruits are usually popping you know in the spring in the summer before senior Seasons right now we’re seeing these guys kind of lay the groundwork for what’s to come Shay let me ask about the off field guys well adding Austin Thomas of course will Redmond leaving for

Auburn some of the other turnover in the in the the personnel there how how significant is that or what is significant therein I think what’s significant is you go from one group of people or you know number of people that worked in the Personnel Department heading things up

To now a new wave of people but they’re going to have a lot of people look beyond the names that we’ve mentioned in the past few weeks that got new jobs they’ll have people within that program that have been there since they were student workers and worked their way

Into full-time jobs now we’ll get bigger jobs so you’ll have some semblance of of normaly in terms of hey look this is kind of how we’ve done things what the Grove will be like now Austin Thomas having been here before you know multiple times he knows the lay of the

Land so as much as things could change I think what you’re going to see is just more of the organization put on it probably staffed a little bit more uh and really kind of you’re moving into this era obviously where everybody and there was word kind of broke today that

Um someone from Old Miss Austin and I forgot his name it’s not right in front of me but Austin um had pegged and hired or is set to be hired as the new Personnel director or one of the new Personnel directors and younger guy out of Old Miss who immediately I texted

Around and people said yep one of the bright young minds and he gets all you know all facets of it and it used to just be recruiting and then it turned into recruiting and managing the team then you had to know about nil and the

Portal and I think a lot of these guys coaches who are coming up when you’ve got that on your resume of hey I do I’ve got a background and a little bit of a at all or an understanding of it all then that’s going to kind of carry you

Even more is it Preston Tiffany is that what you were talking about yes there you go he was a guy was at Old Miss it was just I I didn’t know the name either I just saw it tweeted earlier today um I think maybe uh maybe I think football

Scoop might might have had it first earlier today so it’s just another one of those off field recruiting Personnel staff Personnel that LSU added today U Jay last thing for you a sha Dixon on three the Bengal tiger uh we always talk about the calendar so for those who who

Don’t follow the singer religiously every day what is the recruiting calendar like right now with Signing Day hav passed a week ago there’s people who don’t follow this religiously every day oh my goodness hard to believe when you are uh very much in the deep end of this

Every single day I need to get out of the house more um look yeah we’re in the middle of a of a month-long Dead period and that means no coaches can go on the road to see kids no kids can pop up on visits and do the photo shoots and all

That kind of stuff uh and that will end in March and from there it’s back to kids can come to campus and by April coaches are back on the road doing evales when high school football teams have spring practice obviously and then we’re into the summer we’re in June they

Have their annual fall camps and kind of get a good feel for everybody who gets offered and all that good stuff so right now February I think the coaches are enjoying some much deserved time off after what Brian Kelly and pretty much every coach out there has said as an

Unmanageable stretch from the end of November to you know just recently he is Shay Dixon you do a great job managing it for on three the Bengal tiger make sure you follow him on Twitter Shay Dixon appreciate you shay thanks man yeah thanks for having me on Matt hey

Thanks so much for watching please leave your comments I love to interact and be sure to hit the red subscribe button below fur with you f with [Applause] you with you