re: Fong on LSU recruiting

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Bama is showing no letdown in recruiting post-Saban.

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Let it play out

They’ll ride Saban coattails for a few years

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I mentioned Daniels coming in the Portal. Burrow wasn't in the portal, he was a graduate transfer, and his only other offer was Cincinnati. He wanted to go to Nebraska, but they wouldn't take him.

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A little off topic, but I think this whole “Burrow didn’t come from the portal” thing is silly. The only reason he didn’t come from the portal is that it didn’t exist yet when he transferred. Once the transfer portal was implemented, graduate transfers used the portal just like undergrad transfers.

Case in point: Jayden Daniels was also a graduate transfer. So it seems a little silly to count Daniels but not count Burrow. There were others as well (Jarrick Bernard-Converse comes to mind, likely several more).

Well, we all presume these kids are committing to Oregon because of money, and perhaps they are. But Oregon has always had a lot of money; what they didn't have was Dan Lanning. Kids seem to love him and Oregon right now.

It's hard to deny the money in recruiting right now, but how did LSU get the commitment of Underwood if they don't have the money to bid on recruits?

I'm sure there is a lot of money being spread around, but I don't think that's the sole reason when LSU's recruiting class will (potentially) have commitments from out-of-state guys like Underwood and Shanklin.

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I think alot of staffs will continue to recruit players they really want to add to class regardless if they know they will not land them. Some players will be in portal after 1 year and most likely will end up with staff that came in 2nd place and kept a good relationship with.

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I think this is going to be a huge part of the recruiting game moving forward. We’ll continue to see kids who leave after a year or two because of coaching changes, they don’t feel like they’re getting enough playing time, NIL issues, homesick, etc…

Obviously you’d rather sign a player than come in second (a bird in the hand and whatnot) but the relationships will still pay off for some of them that you lose, a year or two later.

I disagree. Oregon is always talked during the recruiting season. Players are always visiting and have them high on their list. Then after signing day Oregon is typically on outside looking in.

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True enough. We did get Burrow. He had one other offer...Cincinnati. If Nebraska would have taken him, he would have gone there.

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I know this has been said a lot over the years and I assume it’s true. That being said, I don’t think there’s any way it’s the whole story. I find it impossible to believe that there weren’t other P5 programs interested in a former 4-star QB who was stuck behind Haskins at Ohio State. Seems more likely to me that he had a handful of contacts he was willing to entertain offers from (Busch obviously being one of them) when he decided to transfer, and that was that. But maybe I’m wrong.

As you said though, it’s certainly a different world today with the publicity around the portal and with the NIL aspect. No argument there.

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We keep hearing, "they can just address it in the portal." Didn't work too well last year.

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Last year could be the exception rather than the rule, though. The 2022 transfer class was nothing short of stellar.

Even last year’s transfer class had some wins. Diggs was great. Jefferson was good. I think Speights was a much better player than folks around here think, and that he (like the rest of the defense) suffered under House’s scheme.

We whiffed at DB, but Zy Alexander was shaping up to be a good player before his injury. The only real problems in last year’s transfer class, IMO, were Harris and Chestnut. We knew Harris was a risk and the hope was that he would turn it around. He obviously didn’t, and I think that was likely a learning experience for BK. Chestnut still puzzles me.. everything I read about him said he was a high-character guy.

Anyhow, the point is that I don’t think we should make too many judgements about long term viability of portal targets at LSU based on last year. Not yet. I do think Kelly has the right approach overall of trying to build the majority of the team through HS recruiting and supplement with the portal, rather than trying to reinvent your roster every year. I don’t think the Ole Miss approach will prove to be sustainable over the long term. Time will tell though.

I agree. The Ole Miss approach just seems unlikely to pan out over the long haul. Of course, I think their view is "now or never," but they will have to do it all over every year to have any hope at sustained success. I just don't think it's a process that can work long term.

But if it hits big this year, maybe Kiffin will be in Gainesville in 2025 anyway.

We are literally beating Ohio st an Bama for Shanklin

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Really starting to feel like Woodward isn’t the guy for this job. Don’t see his long term vision for making us more competitive in NIL. Hire the best coaches you can and hope the kids take a discount to play for them seems to be our strategy. But the schools we are competing against also have good coaches

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See what I mean from my other post ? Breathtakingly stupid takes. When it's all said and done and Woodward retires as AD at LSU, he will go down as the greatest AD in the history at LSU, and this fricking guy isn't sure he's the right man for the job.

It takes hard work to ignore all the other success Woody has had and hyper-focus in 1 aspect of the football program, albeit an important one, and cast aspersions on his ability to administer the entire Athletic Program.

Even if you did judge Woodward's competency based off of strictly recruiting, he's done a pretty damn good job hiring good people and allowing them to do their job.

So I just gotta ask, what in the frick is wrong with your brain ? Are you drunk or retarded or something ? fricking dumbass.

Woody is overrated.