LSU recruiting outreach

In one of the most talent rich classes in the history of Louisiana prep football, LSU has landed commitments from top players from in-state, and from across the country.

In the 2013 recruiting class LSU signed 26 players, and the fruits of playing in big games helped nationwide as 12 highly-rated high school players from other states and two signees from junior college, that were not from Louisiana, signed on with the Tigers.

In 2013 the Tigers landed three players from Florida, two players each from Georgia and North Carolina and one each from New Jersey, Illinois, California, Tennessee, Nebraska and two junior college players in wide receiver Quantavious Leslie, who grew up in Georgia and tight end Logan Stokes, who grew up in Alabama.

In the 2014 recruiting class LSU has commitments from 12 high school athletes and seven of them are from out of state.

Already the Tigers have commitments from wide receiver Tony Upchurch from Dawson High School in Texas, cornerback Chris Hardeman from Alief Taylor High School in Texas and safety Ed Paris from Timberview High School in Texas. Along with the three prep commitments from Texas the Tigers also landed outside linebacker/defensive end Sharieff Rhaheed from Fort Prince Central High School in Florida and wide receiver/strong safety Devin Voorhies from Wilkinson County High School in Mississippi.

This past week the Tigers landed the top-rated overall player in Oklahoma in defensive end Deondre Clark. The 6-feet 3-inch, 235-pound pass rush specialist from Douglass High School in Oklahoma City selected the Tigers over Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Clemson and USC.

LSU also got a verbal commitment from one of the top cornerback/safety prospects in Florida in John Battle. The 6-2, 180 pound Battle had over 30 scholarship offers and the Hallandale High School product selected LSU over USC, South Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina State.

There is a motto in the Southeastern Conference that holds true today, if you don’t land top prospects in recruiting you better be prepared to play against him.

For LSU, which has built its core unit mainly on Louisiana players, the ability to reach out for some of the top players from across the country is happening in a big way.