Beginning his sophomore season at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, LSU coach Brian Kelly has revamped the Tigers roster this off-season with a recruitment class that now sits at the top of the 247Sports Transfer Portal team rankings as of Friday morning. The Tigers finished first in Florida State with the signing of a four-star linebacker Omar Speightsformerly Oregon State.
LSU has 11 transfer signings, eight of which have four-star ratings. Partly as a result, the Tigers now sit 4th in 247Sports’ overall team recruitment rankings, which combine transfers and high school commitments. Kelly and co. are poised to sign on a whopping 36 new players, 27 of whom will be classified as either four- or five-star recruits.
Speights led Oregon State’s 83 total tackles in 2022 to an eight-to-lose loss against one of the Pac-12’s toughest defenses as the Beavers only allowed 20 points per game. He is LSU’s only pure linebacker among transfers in 2023. Kelly has primarily used the transfer portal to revamp LSU’s defense — 10 of the Tigers’ 11 transfers are on the defensive side of the ball. Former Alabama wide receiver Aaron Anderson, a four-star transfer, is the sole conscript on offense.
The vast majority of LSU’s No. 1 transfer class consists of talented players who join the Tigers from other Power Five programs. In fact, all 10 of the Tigers’ FBS transfers are from the Power Five level. But LSU also brings in an FCS transfer in the former Southeastern Louisiana cornerback Zy Alexandera four-star transfer who played for the Lions.
The Tigers’ other signings include: former Texas fullback Ovie Oghoufo (unrated), former Ohio State cornerback JK Johnson (Four-Star), former Syracuse cornerback Due chestnut (Four-Star), former West Virginia defenseman Jordan Jefferson (Four-Star), former Texas A&M cornerback DenverHarris (Four-Star), Former Florida Defenseman Jalen Lee (Four-Star), Former Arizona Defenseman Paris Shan (Three-Star) and former Oregon edge defender Bradyne Swinson (three stars).
On the other hand, LSU also lost a handful of talented transfers, including a tight end Jack Bechlinebacker De Mario Tolan and quarterbacks Wanderer Howard. Bech ended up at TCU, Tolan at Auburn, and Howard at Ole Miss. The early preseason rankings make LSU a top-10 team for the 2023 season, due in part to the return of the star quarterback Jayden Daniels. The Tigers went 10-4 in 2022 and defeated Purdue 63-7 in the Citrus Bowl to end their season.
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After No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Florida State, the top 5 in the 247Sports transfer portal team rankings include No. 3 Auburn, No. 4 Colorado and No. 5 USC.