Tigers fill needs with 2012 class
The recruiting class that LSU assembled Wednesday didn’t include every player coach Les Miles wanted.
Recruiting services ranked the Tigers’ class in the lower part of the top 10 or upper part of the second 10 nationally.
And it’s easy to focus on the ones that got away, especially amid the BCS National Championship that got away in the 21-0 loss to Alabama on Jan. 9. but every recruiting class should be kept in perspective.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re 15th or fifth,” CBS Sports/Maxpreps recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said, “you’ve still got talent and you’re doing well.”
Miles went straight to the bottom line when talking about his class.
“Any time you get involved in a recruiting effort, the most important piece is to address the needs that your team has,” he said. “This is a class that answers our needs.”
LSU’s biggest area of need was linebacker because it lost three senior linebackers from last year’s team, and the Tigers signed six linebackers — “the best linebacker class I have seen,” Miles said.
The secondary was also an important area because of the loss of All-America cornerback Morris Claiborne, starting strong safety Brandon Taylor and versatile cornerback Ron Brooks.
The Tigers landed five defensive backs. The key player was safety Corey Thompson, who turned his back on Texas A&M earlier in the week. He takes a spot that would have gone to Dutchtown’s Landon Collins, if the state’s top prospect hadn’t chosen Bama over LSU.
“We had to have him,” Miles said of Thompson.
Another marquee loss was Indiana quarterback Gunner Kiel, who was ranked No. 1 or No. 2 at his position by all the major recruiting services. He committed to the Tigers in December, then enrolled at Notre Dame in January.
So instead of Kiel, LSU got Jeremy Liggins, a 6-foot-3, 270-ish quarterback from Oxford, Miss.
No one knows who will be the better college safety — Collins or Thompson. No one knows who will be the better college quarterback — Kiel or Liggins.
Three years ago Miles landed a ballyhooed class, headed by Russell Shepard, the top national recruit. Shepard has been a good player, a team leader for sure, but not someone who has had the kind of impact that was expected on signing day 2009.
That same year, Claiborne signed on as a three-star recruit who could have played wide receiver but wound up playing cornerback, in part because the Tigers had a greater need there.
Two years ago no one was projecting four-star recruit Tyrann Mathieu to be a Heisman Trophy finalist as a sophomore defensive back, but that’s what he was last season.
Those are examples of why Lemming said of rankings: “Take it as fun, but never as gospel.”
The only grade that can reasonably be given on the first day of the national signing period is a pass/fail, and the Tigers easily earned a passing grade.
Any more specific grade should be years in the making.