With elite recruits and high-end transfers, LSU has big opportunity

LSU coach Brian Kelly huddled with general manager Austin Thomas as the brain trust of the program built out the recruiting department with highly-capable and highly-credentialed staffers this off-season.

Assistant general manager Kelvin Bolden came from Ole Miss and has relationships with recruits and coaches across the country.

Director of player personnel Jeff Martin is a former LSU Tiger who keeps the staff on the cutting edge from an innovation and technology perspective. 

Director of scouting/personnel strategy Sam Petitto has worked at Ohio State, Georgia and other stops but is best known for his extensive work at Alabama under Nick Saban.

To build a team, sometimes you have to build your team first and that’s what Thomas, who returned to LSU after a stint at Ole Miss, and Kelly have done to get things kickstarted in recruiting even more.

“When you get people from the outside, sometimes they have the ability to show you a different way,” Thomas said during a recent media interview in Baton Rouge. “We want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be holistically as an organization so from that standpoint having Sam here who’s done it at the highest level whether that’s at Georgia or Alabama or Ohio State, he’s a guy who has a lot of experience and knows what it looks like and we lean into that. We welcome that.

“Kelvin is one of my best friends in the world, one of my first hires when I got to Oxford. He’s so smart, so talented, he’s a relationship-builder and a guy who’s going to help in that space tremendously.

“Jeff Martin is a former Tiger. Bleeds purple and gold. Really, really dynamic as far as his ability to build relationships, think on his feet, to keep us on the cutting edge from a technology and innovation standpoint.”

Recruiting has gone incredibly well since Kelly got to Baton Rouge. In all of his full recruiting classes, Kelly has never had one outside the top 10. The Tigers currently sit eighth nationally in 2026 led by five-stars Lamar Brown and Tristen Keys.

There is still a palpable sting from losing five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood to Michigan last recruiting cycle, followed by a plea from Kelly for NIL donations to compete for elite players, followed by Kelly saying this year’s roster will cost about $18 million.

This is part of a thoughtful, diligent plan put together by Kelly, Thomas and staff to make the Tigers national championship contenders again.

After winning 10 games in each of his first two seasons, LSU went 9-4 last year with a sluggish defeat to USC in the season opener (which saw Kelly pound the table and almost upset a water bottle in frustration) and then LSU had a rough stretch late in the year with three-straight losses to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida, that win maybe saving coach Billy Napier’s job.

Since beating Baylor on New Year’s Eve in the Texas Bowl, Kelly and his front-office people have gone to work to turn things around.

“We’ve been working on this since January,” Kelly said. “After our Baylor win in the bowl game, we went to work on our roster, our process in developing this football team, so that when we get to these moments it’s having a team that is confident, that plays the game the right way, in a hostile environment, many would say composure, maturity, and they have to play with great competitiveness, each and every play is going to be important.

“When you’re putting together the DNA of a football team it’s not just about talent acquisition. It’s making sure you have the pieces necessary to compete in those moments. When there’s a turnover, when there’s sudden change, when the momentum is not going your way, what’s the makeup of your team? I like the makeup.”

All of those months grinding to put together another top-10 recruiting class, to focus on the transfer portal and finish with the second-best class in those rankings, comes to a head Saturday evening at Clemson.

Both teams have a probable first-round NFL quarterback in LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier and Clemson’s Cade Klubnik. Both places are called Death Valley. Both have a legitimate chance at making a run to the national championship.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has two rings. Kelly has none. But the additions to the recruiting staff, the alignment between Kelly and Thomas, the elite recruiting classes that are now being developed in Baton Rouge and what’s to come in the future, LSU has a real chance to get back to the mountaintop with a mix of high-end high school players and more transfers coming in.

“Building a program unfortunately takes some time,” Kelly said. “The time element, nobody wants to hear about. I get it. I understand everybody wants to win a national championship this year. I want to win it as well.

“But the reality of it is we had some work to do. That work was building a foundational piece in this program that was built on consistency and high standards on a day-to-day basis. That takes some time.”

LSU’s time is now.