4-star Miami commit Chris Graves visited by LSU assistant
Four-star Fort Myers (Fla.) Bishop Verot cornerback Chris Graves has been committed to Miami for nearly five months. But it appears Florida and LSU remain potential threats to sway his commitment.
LSU defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator Corey Raymond made his way to south Florida Wednesday morning to see Graves, who posted about it on Twitter.
Chris Graves is the No. 156 prospect in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He ranks as the nation’s No. 21 cornerback and the No. 21 prospect in Florida.
The 6-foot, 175-pounder visited the LSU over the summer, as well as making trips to Florida, South Carolina and Miami before ultimately committing to Manny Diaz and Co. on July 9.
Chris Graves reported on Tuesday that Florida visited him, too.
The Gators have remained in contact, though, and Chris Graves visited Florida in early October.
“I’m just scoping things out,” Chris Graves told On3 Director of Recruiting Chad Simmons of that visit.
Florida recently hired Louisiana head coach Billy Napier to replace Dan Mullen, who was fired after four seasons in Gainesville. LSU hired former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. He plans to keep Raymond on his staff in Baton Rouge.
In his introductory press conference on Wednesday, Kelly touched on his familiarity with both the LSU roster and the recruiting landscape in the state of Louisiana.
“I would be disingenuous to tell you that I know this roster inside and out,” Kelly said. “I know the players, I know what the makeup is, I know some of the areas of concern that we have to address. That’s why I’m standing here. And we’ve got some work to do.”
Since winning a national championship in 2015, LSU is 11-11. This year specifically, the team has been decimated by injuries, having had dozens of players sidelined at some point of the season. Their scoring defense ranks in the bottom half of the SEC, while the offense is the third-worst in the conference.
“We’ll have time to sit down with current members that have been here that have great knowledge of the players, become more educated,” Kelly added. “We’ll make that happen over the next couple of weeks… But we have time, we have time to address those things. We don’t have forever, but we have to address those things in short order.”