LSU 5-star WR commit Shelton Sampson looks the part as a senior
LSU five-star wide receiver commitment Shelton Sampson Jr. remained a five-star recruit in the most recent update to the On3 Top 300.
Sampson is ranked by On3 Sports as the No. 20 overall recruit in the country, the No. 4 wide receiver prospect in the class and the No. 3 prospect in Louisiana. On the On3 Consensus rankings, Sampson is ranked as the No. 33 overall recruit, No. 5 wide receiver and No. 3 prospect in Louisiana.
This past weekend, Sampson set the Catholic High (Baton Rouge, La.) career receiving yards record with an 11-catch, 138-yard and one touchdown performance in a 49-28 win over St. Thomas More.
A new name at No. 1 in the Catholic High record books
Sampson broke the school’s receiving record by passing up Kevin Ainsworth’s mark in 1992 of 1,750 receiving yards. With two months of regular season games and playoffs still to come, Sampson will certainly put some distance on the rest of the field as he sits atop the CHS record books.
On the season, Sampson has totaled 31 catches for 417 yards and six touchdowns in four games.
In an opening game loss against Our Lady Good Counsel, Sampson had nine catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns. In an eight-point win over Warren Easton the following week, Sampson managed to find the end zone with two catches for 38 yards and a touchdown on a night when the Bears completed just eight passes.
The senior then bounced back for a big game in week three’s win over University High, logging nine catches for 159 yards and two touchdowns. The fast start put Sampson at 20 catches for 279 yards and five touchdowns across three games, which he tacked on to with the week four record-setting showing when he logged 11 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown.
The On3 Rankings Outlook for LSU’s 5-star WR commitment
The lone wide receivers Sampson is ranked behind on the On3 Rankings are Southern Cal commit Zachariah Branch, Oregon commit Jurrion Dickey and Ohio State commit Noah Rogers.
On3 Sports Director of Scouting and Rankings Charles Power recently weighed in with his thoughts on what LSU’s getting in one of the nation’s best prospects.
“We’ve had Shelton Sampson as a five-star really since the initial rankings release around this time last year,” Power said. “A lot of that was due to his combination of size and game breaking ability. He’s one of the bigger top receivers in the class, measured over 6-3, 185 or 190 pounds. Has phenomenal play speed. You watch his ability to stretch the field as a vertical threat and then also with the ball in his hands. At that size, he’s able to out run defensive backs pretty consistently. He’s shown over the last couple years the ability to high point and win in a contested situation as well.
“I think the combination of the size, his athletic ability both in separating in his routes and after the catch along with the ability at the catch point stood out early on and continues to stack up pretty well amid the receiver group. He’s also younger for the class. It seems like a lot of our top receivers this cycle do tend to be a little younger. He turned 17 in April. He probably still has some physical development to go.”
CHS still has local matchups with Liberty Magnet, Central, Woodlawn, Scotlandville and Zachary remaining on the 2022 schedule.
