Lavar Edwards Commits

The commitment of Lavar Edwards, a 3-star defensive lineman from Desire Street Academy in Baton Rouge actually happened on Saturday, but given the rest of the action on Saturday, I chose to save it until today.

Edwards has all the tools. He's big at 6'4" and 300 pounds. He's quick and athletic, and with his 27 inch vertical jump, I'm sure he can easily dunk a basketball, which is an impressive feat for so large a man. He played many positions for his small high school team, including defensive end, defensive tackle, offensive line, tight end, and running back. Yes, running back.

What he is not is accomplished. No one who has watched Desire Street games has returned singing Edwards' praises. People say he takes plays off a lot and leaves observers unimpressed.

So, he's really really athletic, but has some bad habits. That makes him a project. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If he gets to LSU and gets motivated, he could end up an All-SEC calibre player. Remember, Tyson Jackson was a 3-star too.

His high school coach was recently quoted as saying he'll make a better college player than high school player. The explanation was that in high school, he had to learn to play many different positions as disparate as defensive tackle and running back. In college, he'll get to focus on one position and excel at it.

But what position is that? Well, we can be sure he isn't a running back. However, his size at 6'4" and 300 pounds would suggest to me that he's an offensive guard. He's a little taller than you usually see at defensive tackle, and a little heavier than you usually see at defensive end. The Rivals database lists him as a defensive end. We shall see, but if he's a defensive end, I feel he'll have to drop 10-15 pounds while still getting stronger.

If I was laying money, I would say that Edwards, if he makes it into a starting lineup, will make it as a an offensive guard, but we shall see.

Recruiting is winding down. We have 25 commitments if you count DeAngelo Benton. Every year at this time, things start really coming into focus. Players who have been flirting with us for months end up either coming here or telling us they won't come here. We know we will sign a couple more players, perhaps as many as 4 more. It looks like Terrelle Pryor is a longshot, but if he wants to come, we will certainly make room.

Other players still on the radar include DeAndre Brown (5-star wide receiver, and the highest player left on the board, Mississippi), Corey Liuget (4-star defensive end, Florida), Jermaine Thomas (3-star running back, Florida), Antoine McClain (4-star offensive lineman, Alabama), Greg Shaw (star offensive lineman, Florida), TJ Bryant (4-star cornerback, Florida). Of all of those, I believe Brown, Liuget, Thomas, McClain, and Bryant are definite takes if they want to come. We'd find room for all of them, but it's unlikely they'll all want to commit to us. Shaw is a take if McClain tells us he's going elsewhere.

LSU Lands In-State Big Fish

Rayville wide receiver Chris Tolliver finally ended the suspense of his commitment yesterday and committed to LSU. Tolliver is listed at 6'1" and 180# with a 4.4 second 40 yard dash. He is listed on Rivals as a high 4-star, the #10 ranked wide receiver in the country this year.

He was one of the most important recruits left on the board, and his recruitment was touch and go for a while. Early in the recruiting cycle, Tolliver was considered a dead lock for committing to LSU, but lately he had been talking up Bama in his interviews, and Nick Saban had made him a high priority.

The last week or so gave us some signals that his interest in Bama had cooled. First, there was the commitment of Robby Green to Bama, which I thought signaled that Bama did not sit well with other Louisiana recruits. Then, in the last two days, Saban took a commitment from another wide receiver, Chris Jackson, giving him five in the current class, with a spot certainly left open for 5-star Julio Jones. It was hard to believe that they would really get 7 wide receivers.

So, the signals proved true, or at least pointed us in the right direction, even if only coincidentally.

As for Tolliver, he is a speed guy with good hands. He's not particularly big, but he's an excellent athlete. He is very reminiscent of Demetrius Byrd, and stands to be Byrd's heir apparent as a speed receiver. He will make an excellent compliment to the tall, rangy young receivers we have on the roster, like Terrance Tolliver (no relation), DeAngelo Benton, and DeAndre Brown (if Ole Miss doesn't convince him to go there instead).

He also is a return man on his high school team, but it's unknown if he has to tools for that role at the next level. Frankly, for a speed guy with hands, you'd be worried if he WASN'T returning kicks in high school.

Tolliver is a guy who everyone says is going to struggle to qualify. At the beginning of the season, he reportedly had a long way to go. We won't know where he stands until he either makes it to Fall camp or enrolls in JUCO/prep school. This has been a problem in our wide receiver recruiting the last two years. We recruited 4 wide receivers last year, and NONE of them were safe qualifiers. Two ended up having to go another route. This year, we have verbal commitments from 4 players who project as wide receivers right now, and perhaps one of them is a safe qualifier (DeAngelo Peterson). The other two big uncommitted wide receivers on our board are also not safe qualifiers.

This is why we are recruiting so many wide receivers right now. We need to sign six or seven, hoping that 4 or 5 will qualify.

New 2008 Commitments - Kyle Prater and Derrick Bryant

LSU picked up two commitments for the 2008 signing class yesterday, but so far only one is confirmed to have been accepted. LSU accepted a commitment from linebacker Kyle Prater of Kerryville Highschool in Tivy, TX. Apparently, Kerryville's mascot is the Antlers, which is just about the strangest mascot I've ever heard of.

But that's neither here nor there. Prater, I think, makes an interesting combination with yesterday's commitment Ryan Baker. Baker plays linebacker like Barry Sanders played running back. He waits for a space to develop between him and the ball, stays low, and hits that space like a missile. Prater is more aggressive in getting to the ball and taking on blocks, but is not as quick to the ball once he spots it. At least, that's the impression I get from his videos.

Prater is listed at 6'2" and 215# with 4.5 speed and a 35" vertical, which is roughly the same as Baker, but their videos are strikingly different. Baker looks like the sexier commit because his videos show him to be so quick and athletic, looking to deliver a big hit. Prater's videos show him to be more of a traditional linebacker, taking on blockers and searching for the ball. He plays bigger than Baker, but not as fast, and looks like he'll put on a good bit of weight and end up a rather big linebacker. He compares favorably to Darry Beckwith at this point, while Baker compares more to Ali Highsmith.

Prater is a good student, so there are no worries about him qualifying academically. He's also a baseball player on traveling teams, though I do not know if he is also considered a baseball prospect. He chose LSU over Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas Tech, and others.

This is Derrick Bryant, 6'1" 186#, 4.55 second 40 time, 3-star cornerback out of Suwanee High School in Peachtree Ridge, GA. He gave his commitment to LSU at a press conference last night, but as of press time none of the recruiting services were able to confirm that his commitment was accepted. He's been talking about committing for quite some time, however, and I sincerely doubt he would have gone through the trouble of a press conference if he did not know it would be accepted.

Not a lot is known about him by the recruiting press. His videos are short, with little information. I know he has been to camps at LSU and has been high on the coaching staff for a while. He's a good size for a CB, but I hope that 4.55 second 40 time was on a bad field.

But what do we know? From his videos, though scant, we know that he is a corner who is not afraid to hit and provide run support, which I really like in a cornerback. We know he picked us over offers from Bama, Auburn, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.

One thing this means is that LSU is officially a force in Georgia recruiting now, which bodes well for the future. LSU picked up a couple of linebacker recruits out of Georgia two years ago: Kelvin Sheppard and Perry Riley. This year we've gotten commitments from Bryant and Cordian Hagans out of Georgia.

Bryant is kind of an unknown quantity, at least to us. If his commitment is accepted, I'm looking forward to hearing more about him as the season goes on.

The off-season is coming to a close, as Fall Practice will be starting on Friday. Tomorrow, we will profile the last of the 2007 class, wide receiver Terrance Toliver. After that, we will focus a lot less on recruiting and a lot more on the upcoming season.

Another 2008 Commitment - Ryan Baker

LSU picked up a surprise commitment yesterday from a Florida linebacker whose stock is rapidly rising. I say "surprise" because frankly I had never heard of Ryan Baker until yesterday evening. He is a 3-star (but that's going up) linebacker out of Blountstown, Florida, 6'0" 210#. His 40 time is listed at 4.55, but he looks faster than that on his videos.

Speaking of videos, his videos are darn impressive. He is definitely a little small to be a linebacker, but he plays like a Trev Faulk or a Buster Davis, who were also small linebackers. He patiently waits until there is a lane between him and the ball-carrier, and then he explodes to the ball, always bringing down his man. He is both patient and aggressive, not to mention a sure tackler. If he's really a 4.55 or 4. guy, he gets to top speed very very quickly. He's explosive.

For what it's worth, he also looks like a very solid fullback on the offensive side of the ball, but he says he's being recruited as a linebacker.

One thing that you have to be concerned about with him is his ability to fight off blocks. He's pretty small right now, and I doubt he'll ever be a 260 pound bruising linebacker. He'll have linemen and bigger fullbacks trying to block him. The difference between him being a star and him being "depth" is his ability to fight off blocks. If he has to rely on defensive linemen to occupy blockers for him, we may not be able to really rely on him as an every-down linebacker. If he's going to be able to fight off or avoid blockers, he could be a special player.

To me, he looks a lot like the kind of player Auburn has had a lot of success with in the last few years: undersized for his position, but quick and athletic. At the very least, with his sure and explosive tackling, he looks like he'll very quickly be making contributions to the kick/punt coverage teams, much like Harry Coleman did.

Immediately before his commitment, Rivals labeled him a "Stock Up" player, suggesting they are going to be increasing his rather low rating at their next update period.

Rumor also has it that we received a commitment from Texas linebacker Kyle Prater, but that is unconfirmed.

New 2008 Commitment - Tim Molton

At this rate, I'm never going to be able to complete my profiles of 2007 recruits. Every day, something important is happening that must delay planned posts. Yesterday Tim Molton, wide receiver, 6'3" 185#, 3-star, from Destrehan High School became the next Tiger commitment at LSU's annual July camp where he shined. He runs a very speedy 4.45 second 40 with a 36" vertical. Those numbers are impressive, as is his high school video, which shows good ability to move in space. There are also rumors swirling that QB/WR Darron Thomas committed as well, but there appears to be an issue or two holding that up.

Tim Molton said, upon his commitment, "I always wanted to stay home and play at LSU, and now I can." You have to like a kid who says he always wanted to play at LSU and that he was just waiting for an offer.

And what an interesting offer it was. LSU is in on a lot of very highly regarded wide receivers, people like Julio Jones, DeAndre Brown, Chris Tolliver, Corey Surrency, Jeff Fuller, and Brice Butler, who are all national-level recruit who are 4- or 5-star recruits, and yet this is the second 3-star local wide receiver who has committed to LSU (with the other re-opening his recruitment two days ago). It suggests that the long-standing rumors that Louisiana's high school talent is down this year may not be true. The chatter on the message boards is that the coaches believe the talent-level in Louisiana is just fine, and I would trust their judgment on this. They've proven they know talent.

Mlton's offer also suggests that LSU is either going to take quite a few receivers this year, or DeAngelo Peterson may have lost his scholarship slot. LSU hopes to add recently-prep-school-bound DeAngelo Benton to next year's class, hopes to add all-world receiver Julio Jones to this class (that will be a long recruitment though), strongly believes in-state talent Chris Tolliver (the highest rated player in the state at any position according to the services), and DeAndre Brown (the highest rated player in Mississippi and a strong lean to LSU)to the 2008 wide receiver corps. Early commitment Jhyryn Taylor also projects as a wide receiver. Is LSU going to take 7 wide receivers this year? That sounds like an awful lot. I can't see Les Miles shutting any of those guys out to take Peterson or Molton.

Congratulations to Tim Molton. He is definitely a very good athlete, and I look forward to hearing more from him.

Of course, rumors also swirl that Jhyryn Taylor is unlikely to qualify due to grades, and that Tolliver, Molton, and Brown all have work to do to get qualified as well. We may be taking 6-7 wide receiver commits this year hoping that 4 will qualify. We took 4 pure wide receiver recruits and came rather close to having NONE of them qualify. So far, two have been confirmed not to qualify and we're still waiting on Demetrius Byrd's results. Molton was allegedly told months ago that he'd need to get his academics improved in order to get an offer, and it has been reported he did well in some summer school classes which will pull his GPA up considerably, leading to his offer. He still has to improve his ACT, however, but word is that he is within striking distance of qualifying.

So this may be the most interesting of LSU's commitments so far, because of what it tells us about:

• the coaches' opinion of Louisiana's talent level,
• the coaches' approach to wide receivers this year, which is to take a lot of them, and
  
• suggests that Molton's academics may be close to being in order.
  

New 2008 Commitment - Cordian Hagans

Sometimes you write an article that is more timely than you could possibly have imagined. On Sunday, I wrote and published an entry on Ron Brooks where I said:

Always take a risk that a superior athlete will find a way to contribute. This applies if the great athlete isn't the proper size for any particular position, or if he has only been playing football for short period of time, or if he has not been well-coached to this point in his career.

[original emphasis removed, new emphasis added, endnote removed]. Later that day, Les Miles accepted a commitment from Cordian Hagans, a 3-star defensive lineman/offensive lineman out of Duluth, Georgia who has only played one year of organized football.

Hagans is a complete mystery to me and to most people who don't pay a lot of attention to the state of Georgia. There is no film of him readily available. He hasn't given a ton of interviews. What little we know of him is this:

• He came to and LSU camp this weekend and impressed enough that Miles asked for his commitment and got it
• He was being heavily recruited by, among others, Auburn and South Carolina
• He claims to be 6'5" 285# with an eye-popping 4.9 second 40 time, which is excellent for such a big man
• He was not, at this time, being recruited by the in-state schools UGA and Georgia Tech
  

He's listed as a defensive tackle, but considering so little is known about him, it is entirely possible he could become a defensive end or an offensive lineman. It's discouraging that he was not being recruited by UGA, but as I've said before, Tommy Tuberville has a track record of uncovering diamonds in the rough. With both Tuberville and Spurrier wanting the guy bad, any worries I may have about his unimpressive star-rating is alleviated.

With a kid like this, we simply have to keep an eye on him in his senior year. We also have to be mindful that he is still very much learning the basics of football. At this time last year, he had literally never played a down of organized football except maybe at a Pee-Wee level. Just judging from that, expect a long understudy period at LSU, with a redshirt year in the offing when he gets to campus. I would be surprised if the kid sees the field in a meaningful situation before 2010, but you never quite know.