LSU feels good about defensive tackle player retention per Brian Kelly

The LSU football team has taken a trio of transfers this offseason, but none of them have been inside at defensive tackle. That’s a spot the Tigers and head coach Brian Kelly have stood pat at.

Kelly explained that he felt like the team’s needs were met after landing one key player.

“The junior college player Shone (Washington), we really kind of satisfied that piece kind of early on before the transfer portal even got busy,” Kelly said. “So we used him as kind of the model. If somebody is of that caliber of a player or better, maybe we’d be interested.”

For now, that’s been a negative. LSU will continue scouring the transfer portal to see if that changes.

And in the meantime, Kelly will wait final word from a handful of potentially draft-eligible guys as they make their final decision on whether to return to LSU next season.

But the head coach is confident.

“We feel good about retention,” Kelly said. “So I think both of those things factored into where we’re at at the defensive tackle position.”

Brian Kelly, LSU capitalize on local loyalty

As LSU and Brian Kelly put the finishing touches on their early signing day haul last week, one thing became pretty readily apparent.

The Tigers capitalized well on the in-state talent. There’s a strong draw for that in-state talent to stay home, and LSU did its part to ensure that remained the case.

“I really do believe that there is a loyalty and a sense of growing up and wanting to play for LSU. I really believe there is that passion,” Kelly said on early signing day. “It’s not just LSU. Even when I was in the midwest at Cincinnati, there was a sense that they wanted to be a Buckeye. They wanted to play for Ohio State. I think that, geographically, this is one of the most passionate states about football. I think that’s clearly here in the state of Louisiana.

“Young boys grow up to be young men that want to play for LSU. I think that’s real. We recognize that. If they possess the traits from a football standpoint and from a character standpoint and an academic standpoint, darn right we’re going to recruit them.”

While Kelly wasn’t able to land Louisiana’s top recruit, five-star defensive lineman Dominick McKinley, Kelly locked up the remaining two top-100 recruits in tight end Trey’Dez Green and safety Dashawn McBryde. Four-stars Tylen Singleton (LB), Gabriel Reliford (DL), Kylan Billiot (WR), Joel Rogers (S), Ju’Juan Johnson (CB) and Kolaj Cobbins (LB) all were in-state commits ranked inside On3’s top 300 recruits in the 2024 cycle.