re: Let’s not jump the gun

I think the ranking services are hit and miss on ranking players alot. I believe they rank some players high just off how many camps they attend, who gives them access to interview them, who family is,and social media farming. I have seen people in Texas say they believe Caden is better than Tatum but they have Tatum higher on services. All we can do is trust the staff evaluation on players not saying you don't.

Years lsu goes 8-9 of 10 for la boys normally is such a solid class. This is the way keep every single la guy in state and pull a few out of states and I’m thinking two years from now it’s10-10 La boys and 5-10 out of state 5 and 4stars

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5*’s increase the number.

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and the top few have some.

and some of them will star in college and play on sundays.

the pool party will say a lot.
and someone will transfer in.
who leaves.
you have to recruit 24 7.

You seem to value a recruiting service and their ratings over the guys Kelly has on his big board.

During media days, Kelly gave an interview where he discussed the under rated quality of Louisiana recruits and also mentioned Ondre Davis and the tackle from North Carolina as guys the recruiting services had criminally under rated.

I say that to say that while the recruiting services have some value, to call them experts would be disingenuous.

If they were so good at identifying top talent, they would be working as some teams director of scouting, and not writing click bait articles to drum up site traffic.

Brian Kelly is playing the long game in recruiting. He isn't paying attention to rankings.

He is doing two things:

1. Getting underrated Louisiana kids (HS and portal) that we might've missed out on in the past due to spending too much time/energy chasing the shiny out of state kids. This will pay dividends for years and years as they all have cousins/brothers/friends that will be big recruits too. It also creates allegiances in these high school programs and smaller towns to the Tigers.

2. He is getting "program kids" that will be positive locker rooms guys and stay until their 4th/5th years and develop in the program. These types create player retention across the board.

He is in year 2. These things above will really bear fruit in years 3, moreso in 4, etc. and beyond. We might not have top 3 classes by the "recruiting services" every year, but the quality from top to bottom will be outstanding when we look back at his classes in hindsight.

ETA:

This isn't to say we shouldn't go after some awesome players across the country, but it isn't going to be all we do. Orgeron liked doing that wayyyy too much.

All valid points and I think spot on. Of course he wants the big fish, but he also wants the right kids that buy in to the program. Find the kids with the talent that can be developed that will stick around. Find the Lloyd Cushenberry types that can be developed. Find the portal players that are hungry.

Build a culture of team first, developing talent and winning and the top players will come.