Why the sudden decommits?

If you followed this board and recruiting you’d know they haven’t been sudden

As long as we keep Chester I think we’re in a good place with all the recent rumors

Basically this. Nothing major, no issues, and LSU is doing great things overall on the recruiting trail. Just happens to the best of them. Michigan just stole a few Ohio recruits visiting Columbus last Saturday, Alabama might have a few four and five star recruits flip elsewhere. Nature of the game. Still have Toviano, Ricks, Harbor, Akana, Washington, Hall, and a few other recruits LSU are either favored for or in the running with.

They're staying much closer to home, just the risk you run when recruiting nationally. You're going to lose some kids late every year who end up wanting to stay closer to home.

Yeah, LSU seems to be gaining major traction in upcoming classes in Louisiana and Texas, which is what has always been the key. Regarding in-state, if you looked at my post above, you’d see how Michigan took from Ohio State, apparently Ohio recruits feel State is prioritizing out of state recruiting and it’s affecting them some. As you can see with LSU, it’s the opposite, Kelly and staff are rebuilding the bridges, they’re locking down and prioritizing some elite upcoming talent, early, like a Harlem Berry or Keylan Moses.

On 24/7, they are projected to land seven of the top ten, ALREADY, in 2024, two of which are borderline five to five star recruits (Singleton/Green). Not to mention the pipelines being developed in Georgia (Grayson) and Texas (Duncanville), filled with top talent, that are also early locks. These few forgoing their commitment and going elsewhere will not be the norm with LSU at an alarming rate. It’s simply the timing of the Auburn turmoil turned redemption and Mickens wanting to visit for “The Game”. So timing was a coincidence, but expect some major commits upcoming. Future is bright.

First one (Reed) was NIL-related. He's a good recruit but not a great one, so I presume we figured that he wasn't worth a bidding war and that our money was better spent elsewhere. FWIW (not much, i know), I tend to agree with this line of thinking--it really shouldn't be that hard to fill that spot with a guy who is at least comparable. The gap between Reed and a random no-name high-3* DT is largely negligible, especially if that random no-name high-3* is from LA, where he's likely to have been under-evaluated by recruiting services. What Auburn is really paying for here, more than the actual caliber of prospect, is the hype/momentum that comes with flipping a kid with 4* status. Even if taking a slightly lesser player would be more cost-effective in a vacuum, AU is in a position where it makes sense to spend the $ to build hype--bc they NEED the hype/momentum. The cost-benefit analysis is different for LSU, because we DONT need it.


And the second one (Mickens) is a matter of a late offer from the school he probably wanted to attend all along. Closer to home, family, etc. Imo, this one is a bigger deal in terms of the actual caliber of prospect lost... but it's the type of flip that you really can't do much about. Probably not much we could've done to avoid this one.

Signing day is just around the corner and teams are making final pushes for commits. For most it probably does not change much but I am sure some kids get a better pitch put their way and I dont just mean money. It is east for a competing coach to make someone a higher priority than the school they are committed to.