A somewhat calmer analysis on today...

So who are the big misses of today?

Jarrett and Burton -
LSU's WR room next year is completely stacked (Chase, Marhsall, Palmer, Kirklin, Lee, McMath, Jenkins) so the notion that LSU was going to get 4 more elite WRs should have drawn more skepticism for months. Realistically, taking 2 elite receivers this year was always going to be the proper haul - any more would have been overkill and probably would have resulted in transfers. If you're freaking out over Jarrett and Burton, you're somehow certain that they're significantly better than Boutte and Moore and frankly that's dumb as hell. Not a problem. Next.

Burch and Clowney -
These are bigger issues but not really. Developing on the OL and DLs (along with moving the offense into the 21st century) is how LSU has closed the gap with Bama and beat them this year. Burch and Clowney would have continued that trend nicely but Burch was always a toss-up in terms of plucking him out of SC. Clowney does appear to have been a minor gaffe in recruiting. It looks like he was told to look elsewhere, and that was a bad call in retrospect. But look at the rest of the DL haul. Roy, Guillory, Taylor at DT (who knows whether they'll be NT or DE in our 3-4), Gaye as a clear 3-4 DE, and Ojulari as a pass rusher. That is as near a perfect haul for a 3-4 DL as they come. Clowney would have been nice, as LSU could have used another pass rusher to go with Ojulari, but clearly not irreplaceable.

In general-
Looking to the rest of the class, this is probably the best linebacker class LSU has snagged since the Queen/Phillips class in getting Sampah as a clear ILB and White and Webb as OLBs. Keep in mind that next year LSU still has a new wave of LBs coming through with Baskerville and Clarke to replace Phillips and Queen IF they leave, with Anthony and Thornton ready to finally take the spotlight as OLBs. Honestly the LB haul is the best part of this class to me. It confirms that LSU's moved past the Les Miles recruiting years of taking 7 CBs and maybe one linebacker who has to start as a freshman. Additionally, this year's TE haul is insane and I have no clue why people aren't talking about it more. Gilbert and Taylor are going to wreck shop and will both probably see time as freshman (Gilbert more so than Taylor, but he's a huge get too). Turning to the OL class, this is solid as well. If LSU didn't close out on Dumerville then THAT would have been an issue but they did and appear to be closer than ever to prying Van Pran away from UGA. Still interested to see what they do with Van Pran and other OL commits, but this OL class is a solid one, if not an elite one.

Looking forward, the only real miss today (in my perspective) was screwing up the Clowney deal. There's 6-ish spots left to grab some more talent. Lots to be excited about.