The Class Ranking: LSU gets hot, remain in race for No. 1 class

The LSU football staff landed three commits in a two-day span to jump Georgia and inch back up in the Top 5 of the On3 Industry 2025 Football Team Recruiting Rankings.

With the addition of a trio of 4-star prospects in Top 100 EDGE rusher Damien Shanklin and defensive tackles Zion Williams and Brandon Brown, LSU now has 15 commitments for the 2025 cycle.

The Tigers jumped Georgia on Friday evening following Shanklin’s college reveal, putting LSU behind Oregon by a narrow margin for the No. 3 class. The On3 Industry Football Team Rankings use a running average of total commits to determine a class score and ranking. The cutoff is currently the 14 highest-ranked prospects in each program’s class.

Here’s the rundown on LSU’s recruiting class, which kicked off the January 2024 at No. 1 and have not been ranked outside the Top 5 since.

The Tigers battling CFB’s best for the No. 1 class

Alabama moved up to No. 2 overall after landing 13 commitments over the past month, and LSU entered the month of July with the No. 3 class – the first time the Tigers had dropped below the No. 2 class this offseason.

With a handful of Top 100 commits over the past week, including two 5-stars in wide receiver Dakorien Moore and cornerback Dorian Brew, Oregon surged up the rankings into the No. 3 spot. With Georgia also adding new commits over the past week, the Bulldogs slid into the No. 4 spot.

Then, LSU countered with a big run in the trenches.

After adding a Top 100 EDGE prospect in Jesse Harrold to close out the month of June, the Tigers reeled in a second Top 100 EDGE prospect with a commitment from 4-star Damien Shanklin on Friday, July 5.

The commitment from Shanklin came just hours after LSU pulled off an SEC flip when the Tigers landed 4-star defensive tackle Brandon Brown, who had previously been committed to Texas. It was the second defensive tackle addition in a 24-hour span for LSU defensive line coach Bo Davis after the Tigers got a commitment from Texas 4-star prospect Zion Williams on July 4.

With the trio of commitson the defensive line, LSU jumped Georgia to take over the No. 4 class and inch closer to moving past Oregon to get back into the Top 3 of the recruiting rankings.

LSU tied for the best “Blue-Chip” ratio in the country

LSU is tied with Oregon for the best “Blue-Chip” ratio (93.33%) among all college football recruiting classes for the 2025 cycle. Both LSU and Oregon have 15 commits, and 14 of the commits for both programs are ranked as either 5-star or 4-star prospects.

The Tigers (92.29) and Ducks (92.52) also have the two highest “average rating” for current commits among all FBS programs with more than 10 commits.

LSU and Georgia are the lone teams in the Top 10 of the On3 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings with an average distance of fewer than 300 miles from a commitment’s hometown to the program’s campus.

LSU’s 5-star commits for the 2025 class

LSU landed a pair of commitments in a three-day span in January that helped catapult the Tigers into the No. 1 spot in the class rankings to kick off the New Year.

First came a commitment from New Orleans 5-star Harlem Berry, Louisiana’s No. 1 overall prospect and the No. 1 running back in America.

Then came a verbal pledge from Michigan 5-star+ quarterback Bryce Underwood, which meant LSU won out for the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 class.

Both Underwood and Berry have remained firmly committed to the Tigers and have not visited any other college campuses in a recruiting capacity since getting on board with LSU’s 2025 class.