Wednesday's LSU Recruiting Tidbits
The LSU football staff is still sitting on 25 verbal commitments and a Top 5 recruiting class for the 2023 cycle.
With just two games remaining in the regular season ahead of LSU’s trip to the SEC Championship, the Tigers are beginning to put together the list of visitors from the stretch after the SEC title game and ahead of the Early Signing Period – which runs from December 21-23.
Here are some tidbits to get Wednesday rolling…
*** LSU linebacker commitment Christian Brathwaite has locked in his official visit for the weekend of December 9-11. The one-time Baylor commitment flipped into LSU’s class in October and hasn’t wavered. Expectations are that Brathwaite makes the official visit with his family, then inks with the Tigers in December during the Early Signing Period. Brathwaite gives LSU two linebacker commitments for the 2023 class, and his official visit will check a final name off the list as the Tigers will have hosted all 15 out-of-state commitments for an official visit.
*** A big target on the defensive side who is also locked in for a December official visit is Mississippi four-star safety Isaac Smith. I had Smith in my most recent “Class Prediction Piece”, and I feel like LSU has done a really good job of making inroads here with a Mississippi target that both Ole Miss and Mississippi State want to keep home. He’s a guy the LSU staff really has grown to like both on and off the field. He was courted early on by Vanderbilt, and he even took an official visit to Nashville. The staff in Baton Rouge feels like he would be a really good fit for what they’re trying to build under Brian Kelly. With official visits already made to both Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, Smith has three visits remaining. But, he told On3 this week that he’s only locked in one school for a spot among the final three official visits, and that’s his LSU trip next month. We will see if the Rebels or Bulldogs are able to secure an official visit as well, but the plan right now is set for Smith when it comes to a decision timeline. He will announce during the Early Signing Period in December, then enroll in a college for January. LSU has a big lead on the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine as he closes out his senior year at Itawamba High, but this upcoming official visit – as well as the press from the in-state teams – will hold a lot of weight moving forward.
*** Again, with Christian Brathwaite’s official visit locked in for December, all 15 of the out-of-state commitments will have already made their official visit to LSU. So, every domino there is accounted for and will have been knocked down. That leaves the 10 in-state commitments, and I would expect those official visits to come in December or January (the staff could choose to spread things out given you can sign in December and still make an official visit in January if you don’t enroll until the summer). The in-state commitments who are set to be early-enrollees are Rickie Collins and Trey Holly, and Collins has already locked in an official visit date of December 16-18. We will keep you updated on that front as the staff continues to work through the calendar following SEC Championship weekend.
