LSU dialing up the heat on 4-star QB Grant Gunnell (2019)

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LSU coach Ed Orgeron has been on the road recruiting since the start of the current contact period. While his focus remains on the Class of 2018 commitments and the top targets still on the board, Orgeron made an exception.

On Friday, the Tigers’ coach made his way to St. Pius X (Texas) High School in Houston to visit 4-star quarterback Grant Gunnell. A Texas A&M commit, Gunnell remains committed to the in-state school, but will re-evaluate his decision once his junior season comes to a close — ideally with a state championship ring on his finger.

The timing may have worked in LSU’s favor, too, as Orgeron’s message should give the nation’s No. 2-ranked passer in 2019 plenty to think about as he tries to sort through his upcoming decision.

“He said: ‘I don’t want to make any secrets. He’s [Gunnell] our No. 1 priority and I’ll do whatever it takes for him to know that that’s the case,'” Gunnell’s coach, Stephen Hill, told SEC Country. “‘If it takes me coming to the school as many times as the NCAA allows, I’ll be there that many days.’ Grant likes LSU. He’s committed to A&M, but obviously, with everything going on, he’s trying to take a step back from everything to focus on winning the state championship. At that point, he’ll go back and evaluate his situation.”

Orgeron’s tour through Louisiana and Texas during the first part of the contact period has included stops to see 4-star linebacker commit Damone Clark, 4-star receiver commit Kenan Jones and a stop by Northside (La.) and Teurlings Catholic (La.) high schools to see 2019 prospects Billy Sonnier and Thomas Perry (LSU commit). He also made his way to Mississippi to see 3-star center commit Cole Smith and to Texas for 3-star Texas A&M commit Dominic Livingston.

His final stop last week was to see Gunnell, which made an impression on the usually stoic quarterback.

“He thought it was cool that Coach O would step in and come visit our school,” Hill said. “His exact words were: ‘That’s pretty cool.’ And yeah, it was pretty near.”

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After Orgeron’s stop at St. Pius X on Friday, Hill fired off this tweet in support of Canada and how the LSU offense looked to close out the 2017 regular season. Little did the coach realize all of the storylines surrounding the coach and coordinator’s relationship.

When asked about the state of Canada’s relationship with Orgeron based on his talks with LSU’s head coach, Hill had this to say.

“I’ve been so engrossed with game planning and the state semifinals, I didn’t have a clue what was going on with Canada and Coach O,” Hill explained. “Canada and I hit it off big time. When he was here recruiting, he had been in contact throughout time and I liked him a lot. When O was down here, I put that tweet out because it’s easy to see that they came away impressive. I had no idea what was going on. People told me that things weren’t good right now and I saw on Football Scoop that Canada was looking for other work. I had no idea.”

Hill added that Orgeron did not mention Canada while visiting the school last Friday. Like the rest of us, Gunnell’s coach is anxiously waiting to see what the future holds for LSU’s offensive coordinator and whether it will be in Baton Rouge.

As far as how that could go into Gunnell’s decision to stick with Texas A&M or de-commit and re-consider the Tigers, Canada’s role could weigh heavily.

“He liked him a lot,” said Hill. “Obviously, it would all depend on who they hired as offensive coordinator. That’s what he liked about LSU, so now it would all depend on the coordinator and how he fits into the scheme.”

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