LSU Football Secures Five 4-Star Transfers From Other P5 Schools,

LSU Football appears to be having absolutely no issue at all in pulling in a good overall recruiting class. On Monday, the Tigers officially enrolled five 4-star transfers, all coming from other P5 teams, according to On3.com,

The players that have enrolled for the Tigers next year are the following:

• 4-Star (90.04 Grade) QB AJ Swann from Vanderbilt
• 4-Star (90.13) WR Zavion Thomas from Mississippi State
• 4-Star (90.59) S Austin Ausberry from Auburn
• 4-Star (91.52) S Jardin Gilbert from Texas A&M
• 4-Star (91.73) Jyaire Brown from Ohio State

Although many of these players had already committed to playing for LSU Football in the days and weeks prior to officially enrolling, with the crazy drama of college football going on the past few days with coaches and players transferring everywhere, nothing was a set deal until these players officially enrolled on January 15th.

It is also worth mentioning the Tigers also added another 4-star receiver CJ Daniels from Liberty although there is no word whether he has officially enrolled.

LSU Football isn’t Heavily Involved in the Transfer Portal

There are some teams that are going all-in on the transfer portal, including teams like Colorado, Ole Miss, Florida State, and Texas A&M. The Colorado Buffaloes have 21 transfer portal commits, while they only have six high school recruits.

LSU Football is doing the exact opposite, only having six transfer players and 29 players out of high school, which is tied for most in the nation with Nebraska. This approach is becoming rare among elite teams as teams are leaning more towards going for proven players at the college level over high school talent that is less proven.

That being said, the players that LSU is bringing in are among some of the best in the nation. The Tigers rank 8th nationally in the average rank of their transfer players.

Transfers Being Brought in Are Expected to Make an Impact

LSU is being very specific and intentional with their transfers. When a team brings in only six players, it sends a message that these six players are being brought in to play. Compare that to Louisville, who is bringing in 24 transfers, and it becomes clear which team is simply bringing in talent and which is being more intentional. That’s not saying anything wrong about Lousiville, just a different perspective.

That isn’t to say that these players coming in for LSU are guaranteed to start. They will still have to earn their playing time, but odds are, most of these players will be team leaders next season, something that can’t be said about many other teams who have more transfers than there are starting spots on a team.

Why is this important? LSU is sending a message both to high school recruits and future transfers. For high school recruits, the message is that they will be given a chance to develop and move up the depth chart. Teams that bring in 20+ players make it really difficult for high school players to get any real chance.

Take BYU for an example. The Cougars have a deep quarterback room, but for the past two years, they have brought in one-year transfer quarterbacks that bury the younger, less experienced guys down the depth chart. That sends a message to future high school recruits.

This also sends a message to future transfers. 99% of transfer portal players are transferring in hopes of finding better playing opportunities. By bringing in a small number of players, those players can be confident they will have a great opportunity to start and get significant playing time. When and if that happens, next year, transfer portal players will be drawn to LSU because they’ll know they will have a great opportunity.