LSU closing in on a top-10 recruiting after class slew of big commitments

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LSU‘s recruiting class took a big hit earlier this month when five-star edge rusher Jaiden Bryant decommitted from the Tigers and flipped his pledge to Miami.

At the time, they were hovering around the top 10 of the Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings and had both Bryant and five-star tight end Ahmad Hudson committed. Once the former left the class, it plummeted outside the top 25, a place completely unfamiliar for LSU — even in its roughest stretches.

Lane Kiffin and Co. have wasted little time since then getting things back on track. Four days after Bryant flipped his pledge, the Tigers landed a commitment from four-star edge rusher K.J. Green (No. 55 overall) after his official visit to Baton Rouge.

A day later, they landed three more pledges — headlined by Rivals300 wide receiver Cade Cooper. And now a week after that, three more commitments have joined the fold in the past 24 hours. High three-star offensive tackle Amaziah Siale flipped from Cal to the Tigers on Monday, followed by four-star offensive tackle Terrance Smith. Tuesday morning, four-star running back Tre Segarra announced for the Bayou Bengals live on Rivals’ YouTube channel.

The result? LSU now sits just outside the top 10 of the team rankings once again with the nation’s No. 12 class. And solely based off the average rating per commit, they rank No. 4 overall and have the top class in the SEC.

Tigers finding gems outside the state, looking to keep top players at home

What’s even more impressive is that they’ve done all of that with only four in-state commits, a typical hallmark for LSU recruiting. Both of the state’s top two prospects — five-stars Easton Royal (Texas) and Elijah Haven (Alabama) — have committed elsewhere. Meanwhile, five-star offensive lineman Albert Simien has been considered a lean to Texas A&M over the past few months.

According to Rivals’ Steve Wiltfong, the Tigers are making a big charge there.

“Fresh intel says the school that has been surging in the spring is LSU,” writes Wiltfong. “They are closing fast on the Aggies and the Tigers are one to watch down the stretch. They now look like the biggest challenger to Texas A&M.”

As for Royal, the latest intel suggests a three-team battle between LSU, Texas and Florida for the nation’s top wideout.

“It’s tighter than ever,” he told Spiegelman on Monday. “It’s something to definitely lose sleep about.

Even so, the Tigers have pulled the No. 3 players in both Georgia (K.J. Green) and South Carolina (Tre Segarra), as well as No. 7 player in Pennsylvania (Terrance Smith), all in the past 10 days. They’re building some major momentum as we reach the latter half of June, and it would be a shock to not see them in well inside the top-10 by the time summer is out.

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