Da Boot Sports Evaluates Brian Kelly’s First Recruiting Class

Photo By: LSU

Da Boot Sports
2/3/2022
By: David Penn


   Baton Rouge - Brian Kelly wrapped up his first recruiting class on Wednesday as the coach of the LSU football program. It would be easy to cast a negative lens over things that didn’t go his way on National Signing Day, but no one wins every recruiting battle, and let’s be honest, Kelly has yet to show during the course of a season what LSU Football will look like under his watch and leadership. There were three big fish in the state of Louisiana that Coach Kelly was hoping to reel in for the 2022 cycle, and he missed on all three with Jacoby Matthews choosing College Station and the Aggies, Trevonte Citizen choosing Miami, and Danny Lewis signing with the Crimson Tide. What did go Coach Kelly’s way was landing the top remaining target in the country when LB Harold Perkins of Cypress Park, TX chose to sign with LSU, giving LSU the highest rated LB in the 2022 cycle. ESPN ranked Perkins as the #4 player in the country.    
   When LSU announced that it would be moving on from Coach Ed Ogeron several recruits reopened their recruiting and the number of players that decommitted dropped LSU’s recruiting ranking to 31st. That is what Brian Kelly inherited when he officially became the coach of LSU. In the early signing period Kelly was able to successfully sign every recruit that remained committed to the Tigers, signing all 13 players that affirmed their desire to play in purple and gold. Kelly then got to work on the transfer portal, signing an additional 12 players with experience from other institutions. 
    
   Coach Kelly was able to go to players from other universities that had ties to Louisiana and recruit for some of the program’s biggest needs. Signing RB Noah Cain away from Penn State, grabbing DL Mekhi Wingo from Mizzou, CB Greg Brooks Jr from Arkansas, OT Miles Frazier from FIU, all of these players project to have immediate impact ability in the fall. More importantly, the mix of transfers in addition to the incoming freshmen gives LSU a composite ranking of 6th nationally according to 247 Sports.
    
   Though National Signing Day is complete, Brian Kelly may not be done recruiting for the upcoming season. LSU could have signed a total of 32 players for the 2022 roster due to players that transferred out, at this point LSU still has five available spots that it can sign talent to. It would not be shocking to see Coach Kelly return to the transfer portal again in search of players he feels may be able to add depth and value to the program. 

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