by LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
@LonnPhillips
All along the recruiting trail's Zoom-enabled watchtower we scan, smiling as we witness Coach Orgeron, Mickey Joseph, Bill Busch, Corey Raymond, James Cregg etc stealing blue chips left and right...
So what?
Is this another LSU recruiting flex that's about to happen?
No we don't need to show off these muscles, we've got everyone (including your girlfriend) asking to see them, already.
Damn straight, LSU isn't just a pipeline to the NFL for Louisiana kids:
We'll always be Boot first and foremost...the Boys from The Boot always define the work ethic and motivation of our teams...still, we've become a bona fide national brand thanks to the clear, unadulterated fact we baptized ourselves in the blood of every fresh-faced Lincoln Riley or Dabo Swinney (we made Saban go straight up psychotic), laying out the Dexter plastic sheets and surgically researching the innards of nearly every blue blood in college football (we WANTED you too Ohio State...but you didn't want a ring hard enough);
During those historic 15 games, Joe Burrow and company went above and beyond, tailoring our magic perfectly for new recruits on the sidelines, seeing first-hand just what is possible in purple and gold...especially the bountiful playing time "Stevey E" Ensminger's new offensive juggernaut unleashed upon every freshmen:
The extent to which LSU won a national title under our last three coaches (only three coaches since 2001 in total shows significant stability as well: Florida has hired and fired 8 coaches since Spurrier left in 2001, USC with 6, including two guys they canned with national titles on their fingers elsewhere);
There's of course the annual evidence of the Tigers turning 2 star players into 1st Round picks, or how impressively our decades-long team of strength and conditioning coaches ("Mama" Shelley Mullinex and Tommy Moffitt) can revolutionize the bodies of these athletes in such a short timeframe;
The beauty of watching the LSU coaching tree weave its limbs around our stable of Tiger legends (Ensminger, Raymond, future head coach Kevin Faulk etc)....finally, but always most importantly, the communal vibe picked ripe... straight off the family vine:
All of these ingredients culminated in widespread obsession with the program...a lust for purple and gold which finds itself seeping into many podcasts, the jealousy rising like national title-choking steam from every YouTube channel run by angry Clemson, Ohio State or Oklahoma fans (except my boy R.J Young), the befuddled look upon Saban's face as he covets the towering dynasty Ed Orgeron begins to build...
Never again would LSU's future become modeled after or dictated by Saban's adversarial wet fart image... not even the Les Miles pastiche of Nick's Old Testament offensive schemes (favoring his Code of Hammurabi defenses) would survive Orgeron's scorched earth wonder...
..for once we didn't feel indebted to the croaking Sith Lord...there was no longer a need to crown Saban with the titles he didn't win: "this program was built by Saban etc etc yadda yadda yadda" like we had to suffer through and acknowledge during the Les Miles era....
What Coach Orgeron has created, and manifested since 2018, is something new and exciting altogether...
We're now accomplishing things most programs, let alone LSU, would never even dare to wet dream about:
Stripping Harbaugh of two immediate starting O-linemen from Clarkston, Michigan (Dellenger, Spindler), taking more blue chips from Texas, Texas A&M or Oklahoma in madcap receiver Jo Jo Earle and freakish defensive end Landon Jackson, Atlanta's LB/DE hybrid Zavier Carter (hailing from Happeville Charter, same school as Arden Key) and now securing another fantastic quarterback prospect in Garret Nussmeier, a four star out of Texas (who's highly anticipated arrival nearly equaled the transfer of Jabril Cox)...and that's just a week of business in the LSU recruiting room.
This national base has been building ever since Orgeron was given the keys to the kingdom by former AD Joe Alleva, his West Coast, NFL and Florida connections proving to be the tip of the iceberg.
For example, 2020's class alone featured players from 10 different states, an 11th from Washington D.C......what other school is doing anything as eclectic or as eccentrically impossible to dissect and copy as LSU?
All I hear about is Ohio State and Ryan Day's imperious recruiting over and over, then we're constantly barraged by Alabama Orange, aka Clemson... Yet the home run results we've been able to develop from every person on the roster (regardless of the stars next to their name) is the main characteristic of our evolving rhapsody of greatness.
Who will it be next?
One more roster spot remains for 2020, could it be yet another quarterback in J.T Daniels (looking less likely now with Nussmeier's verbal commitment)???
I'll tell you who LSU must zero in on, not simply just for the one guy, but the package deal he brings with him:
If we can sign either #1 DT prospect Maason Smith aka "The Houma Booma" a local destroyer out of Centennial High or his buddy and high school teammate defensive end Korey Foreman (the first Clemson verbal to withdraw his commitment since 2016) then we'll surely grab both:
Maason and Korey are pals and have made it clear they want to play together on the same defensive line at the collegiate level. Also, we have another one of their good buddies, Mater Dei's Raesjon Davis committing to the 2021 class already....
....snagging Maason or Korey alone would be fantastic, however the potential of stealing both from the clutches of Bama, USC, UGA or Clemson would be too beautiful.
With 2021's Maason and Korey joining sophomores B.J Ojulari, Phillip Webb, Jacobian Guillory and Jaquelin Roy (who'll all be sophomores) while T.J McClendon heads into his junior season, LSU's defensive line could be the most talented core of depth in the nation.
We're already there now....
Maason, Korey: we need you...by 2021, spots will be freed up by Tyler Shelvin, Siaki Ika and Glen Logan's NFL pursuit, while a ton of fantastic depth and talent would surround you guys; not to mention you'd be working under Coach Orgeron, Bo Pelini and defensive line master Bill Johnson.
This is a tough decision everyone will tell you, but it really isn't. Bo Pelini makes defensive linemen into dominant NFL-ready specimen: Glenn Dorsey, N'damaukong Suh (the two D-linemen to ever get close to a Heisman...and they played for our guy), Tyson Jackson, Drake Nevis, Lazarious Levingston, Charles Alexander, Al Woods....you could be just as good as these guys.
Reach your full potential and come to LSU.
By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
GEAUX TIGERS
COPYRIGHT 2020 UNINTERRUPTED WRITINGS INC LCC
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