Brian Kelly reveals what has changed on recruiting trail this summer

After getting hired to be LSU’s new football head coach in late November last year, one of the first tasks for Brian Kelly and his new staff had to get their arms around was getting their recruiting rolling. Despite being located in Baton Rouge, in close proximity of oodles of talented high school players both in Louisiana and nearby states, Kelly knew it wasn’t going to be an immediate bonanza.

But after a slow start through the first few months of 2022, when Kelly was mostly getting his staff finalized and those coaches then got out on the trail, things picked up. Since July began, LSU has been on a recruiting heater, reeling in 15 commitments, including 11 four-star recruits in On3’s Consensus player rankings for the class of 2023.

“Yeah, you know, we really didn’t get the opportunity to develop the strong relationships until the February, March recruiting period,” Kelly said. “So we had to make up for lost time. Putting a staff together in January and February and you have a very short period of time to build those relationships. So I just think this is the continuation of those relationships starting to form and I think we did a really good job. You know, JR Belton did a great job, and his staff, of putting together visits in June, which allowed us to really sink those relationships deeper, and I think we’re starting to see that work come out.”

It’s hard to argue with the recent results.

LSU’s 2023 recruiting class currently ranks sixth nationally according to On3’s recruiting team rankings, and is third best in the SEC trailing only Alabama and Georgia. Kelly and co. have secured 21 total commitments, and 17 of those are On3 consensus four-star prospects. And with the Tigers still in the hunt for top 2023 recruits like Nyckoles Harbor, Javien Toviano, Bravion Rogers and Zalance Heard, the hot streak could well continue.