Tenntig

Russell Shepard -- According to 247 Sports, he was the second highest ranked player in LSU history behind Leonard Fournette but never really panned out as a BW or WR.

Sam Leavitt comes to LSU as a transfer junior -- just as Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels had done. Leavitt did not have the benefit of participating in Spring practice and will have to come out firing on all cylinder with a starting schedule of Clemson, Louisiana Tech, at Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Some may forget that Burrow and Daniels had very tough times getting settle in the first four games of their LSU experiences. After four games in 2018, Joe had completed just 49% of his passes for 183 yards a game. Jayden completed 72% in the early games but for only 209 yards a game and tended to break out of the pocket early to the consternation of his receivers.

It will be interesting to see if Leavitt will be able to quickly sync with on an offense loaded with transfers who have not worked with one another in the past.

Could it be that the reason there are so few Americans in the top ranks of professional tennis is because our college programs have abandoned our own players. Spend those resources on recruiting top U.S. high school players and developing their skills to the same extend as we are now catering to Serbian, French or German athletes, and the results might be different.

LSU is gaming the system. An attendee of 2,000 is reported at 14,000.

Kiffin can't win a national title at LSU? For crying out loud, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron did it. I've got high hopes for Lane.

Are these actual numbers of those who were in the seats?
LSU's baseball reports attendances of more than 11,000 virtually every home game when the place is less than half full. Is that the case for gymnastics>

Here are a few things to consider:
* Last year LSU had the best transfer class in the country and Brian Kelly said he was ready to compete for championships. The Tigers were ranked eighth in the preseason poll and third after the Clemson win. They lost six of their last nine games and finished well outside of the Top 25.

* Fourteen of the 18 players in that transfer class will not be back for a second season in Baton Rouge. A total of 60 players off the 2025 roster are gone.

The transfer portal and NIL have fragmented college football. Most transfers are disgruntled where they are or are chasing the money. Will we have a new cast of strangers take the field each season?

A great coaching staff can pull together the pieces and succeed. Indiana has just seven four-star and no five-star players and is dominating the power houses of college football. It can be done but Kelly and crew certainly were unable to come close. Maybe Kiffin and his staff can pull it off.

Just after Brian Kelly was named to the LSU job, a Notre Dame fan noticed my LSU cap and thanked LSU for taking Kelly off his hands. I asked him why he felt that way since Kelly had been quite successful the three previous seasons in South Bend. He said Kelly was arrogant and nobody liked him.

I recall Kelly bragged that by coming to LSU, he'd never had to get on a plane again to recruit. On his first day in Baton Rouge his schedule was to have some family photos taken while Nick Saban (the morning after winning the SEC title game) was in Shreveport for an in-hme visit with Kendrick Law. (Bama signed him). I've also read an episodes of assistant coaches handing a phone to Kelly asking him talk to an important prospect and having Kelly refuse, saying, "tell him to make an appointment." In fact, I don't recall a time in four years when I've read that Kelly was on a trip for an in-house visit with a key player. (I'm sure he must have).

But the most serious of his many mistakes may be his treatment of strength coach Tommy Moffitt. Moffitt helped make John Curtis High School a national powerhouse, joined an 8-4 University of Tennessee team that went 45-5 over the next four teams and won a national title, joined a 9-4 Miami team that went 22-2 the following two years and, of course, contributed to the LSU team that went to the national championship game four times and won three.

Now at Texas A&M, he helped take a team that was 8-5 in 2024 to 8-0 now. It must have been sweet revenge for Moffitt to watch his Aggies humiliate Kelly and lead to his firing.

Moffitt was the first LSU staffer fired by Kelly when he arrived and he was replace by three "Player Development" coaches. Several former LSU players said the LSU team is now "soft" and Matt Flynn, who led LSU to a national title, said Tommy Moffitt was the most respected member of the athletic department in the view of the players. After two decades with LSU, I don't know if Moffitt would consider returning after what Kelly did to him, but I hope whoever comes in as the next head coach will make every effort to get him back.

LSU defeated seven TopTen teams during the 2019 championship season.

Certainly not most but more than his share. Within a week of taking the Alabama job he flipped LSU commit Luther Davis and after that first season, LSU never outranked him in recruiting. He went on to take about two dozen players ranked among the ten best in the state. The problem with that is LSU did almost nothing in recruiting leading Alabama players to balance the scales. In fact, since Saban arrived there, LSU has landed just one top-ten Alabama player -- Kwon Alexander, who was ranked sixth in the state in 2012.