By Charles Hanagriff
Every year, right after the National Championship is decided, it’s popular to put out a “way too early” top 25 for the following season.
College football fans are never lacking in their appetite to consume information, even before all the confetti has been swept up.
I ordinarily give it a quick glance and move on. It’s mostly the usual suspects, and predicting the order of finish a full year before it happens is a crapshoot.
But now we have more information about teams before January expires than ever before.
The early signing period has rendered the late one an afterthought. Sure, there might be some players who sign in February that can help teams next season, but only two of the top 300 in the 24/7 composite rankings remain unsigned this year.
The transfer portal hits warp speed in December. Coaches hate this, and eventually the rule may change, but for now they must put off things like bowl prep in favor of Recruiting 2.0.
Playoff prep too in some cases, but that’s a different topic.
While there is a late portal window, it seems like it will resemble the late signing period in importance.
Joe Burrow committed to LSU in mid-May of 2018. Jayden Daniels in early March of 2022. In the current climate, both would likely have been heavily pursued and locked up well before New Year’s Day.
So now, by the time the groundhog comes out to locate his shadow, the rosters are mostly set.
Looking at LSU’s, it is hard not to be impressed.
Garrett Nussmeier’s return gives LSU the current Heisman favorite at the most critical position in the game. Recently, ESPN predicted the starting quarterbacks for every power conference team next year. Reading the list, there wasn’t one I would definitely trade Nussmeier for.
He may not win the Heisman. He may not be the highest quarterback drafted, and yes, many Tiger fans wish he would take off and run every now and then. But a fifth-year player with his talent, especially one that has been in the same program all five years, is a luxury most teams don’t have.
LSU got themselves an insurance policy with Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren who started eight games for the Bulldogs last season.
If Nussmeier were to sustain a season ending injury, it would be difficult to expect Van Buren to duplicate his production all the way to the playoffs. However, if Nussmeier turned an ankle and missed 2 to 4 games, Van Buren could definitely hold the rope.
Adding the top running back in the class, Harlem Berry, to a room that is led by Caden Durham (753 yards, 5.4/carry) seems like a quality 1-2 punch. Kaleb Jackson, the one big back they have on the roster, is still there too.
If LSU had not hit the transfer portal at wide receiver, it still would have had a good group for 2025. Chris Hilton came on late, Aaron Anderson led the team in catches and Trey’dez Green was just starting to become the matchup nightmare he was predicted to be when the season ended.
But LSU did hit the portal at the position and hit it hard. Nic Anderson was a top option at Oklahoma in 2023 before missing almost all of 2024 with an injury. Barion Brown was a Hilton clone at Kentucky, minus the injuries.
Add in the returning Zavion Thomas, an oft injured but talented Destyn Hill (Florida St), and two highly recruited freshman from New Orleans in TaRon Francis and Phillip Wright, and the Tigers are loaded at the position.
How much Green plays at tight end will be one of the more interesting questions in August. But even if it is only a little, LSU has added the leading receiver from Oklahoma in Bauer Sharp, plus a blocking tight end from Texas A&M in Donovan Green who isn’t a bad receiver either.
The Tigers had eight offensive linemen on the depth chart for the bowl game that are slated to return. DJ Chester was a full-time starter, and Paul Mubenga took over in early November for the injured Garrett Dellinger. Add to that Braelyn Moore, Virginia Tech’s starting center the last two years, and Northwestern’s Josh Thompson, who started games at both guard and tackle, and LSU has a nice pool of talent to choose from.
That doesn’t include four highly recruited freshman. The Tigers are currently slated to start spring ball with 15 scholarship offensive lineman. That’s a really nice number. I’ve seen years where they started the season with nine or 10.
Speaking of numbers, I remember a game in early October of 2017, when LSU beat Florida on a sweltering day in Gainesville by a single point. Greg Gilmore and Christian LaCouture played nearly every snap of the three and a half hour game on the defensive line. By the time it was over, they looked like they had been run through a stampede. Those guys gave the required Herculean effort they needed to win that day.
That shouldn’t be necessary in 2025. Dominick McKinley and Ahmad Breaux both played a lot as true freshman defensive tackles. Jacobian Gillory returns for a sixth season. LSU added Texas DT Sydir Mitchell, who didn’t play much there but is a massive (6’6”, 350-lb) presence, as well as four highly touted freshmen.
Nobody should have to play 70 percent of the snaps, and if Zion Williams or Dilan Battle, both physically developed enough to contribute as true freshman, play even a small portion as much as McKinley and Breaux did last year, LSU will be stacked on the defensive interior.
The Tigers needed edge rushers, and they added three starters from Florida State, Florida and Nebraska to go with the returning Gabriel Reliford. Patrick Payton, the former Seminole, comes in with 31.5 career TFL and 16 sacks. He has All-SEC talent.
At linebacker, LSU returns the Weeks brothers (and gains another), as well as Davhon Keys, who was really coming on late in 2024. They added four freshmen, led by Charles Ross, who was the No. 2 linebacker in the nation by 247Sports.
That’s before you get to Harold Perkins, wherever he may play.
LSU needed help in the secondary, and added Mansoor Delane, a three-year starter at Virginia Tech, to play either corner or safety. They also added North Carolina State’s Tamarcus Cooley, coming off a strong first year there, at safety.
Cornerback JaKeem Jackson was headed for a starting role at Florida before getting injured. The Corey Raymond recruit reunites with his old position coach. Corner DJ Pickett was the top recruit in LSU’s top ten class, and he is joining Aidan Anding, the top corner in Louisiana.
Ashton Stamps, PJ Woodland, Deshawn Spears, Jardin Gilbert and Javien Toviano all return from the full or part time roles they played in 2024.
LSU returns kicker Damian Ramos, kickoff specialist Aeron Burrell, and Thomas, Brown, or Anderson to return kicks. They added Middle Tennessee State punter Grant Chadwick to shore up an underperforming unit that finished last in the SEC. He had a top 30 net punting average in the nation last year.
That, friends, is a lot of talent. Some of it is proven, some of it is developing, and some of it will not pan out, but the days of saying “this isn’t an LSU roster that can win a title” are over for now.
Back to those meaningless rankings. The Tigers are anywhere from No. 5 to 10 in most of them. I’d have them on the high side of that, though I won’t pretend I’ve done a deep dive on every roster in the top 25.
This is the type of roster that Brian Kelly came to Baton Rouge to coach. They will be coached by a staff that is almost completely intact, something else that couldn’t be said in recent years. The pressure is on them to mold a championship squad.
The money has been spent. The team has been assembled. The goal is clear, and it is not just to MAKE the playoffs.
The Clemson game will be here before you know it.
