Brian Kelly, LSU Dish Out Major Transfer Portal Offer To Position Of Need

Tigers clearly looking to add players via the NCAA Transfer Portal, gain depth at the offensive line position.

LSU offered Maryland graduate transfer offensive lineman Mason Lunsford on Wednesday, he announced via Twitter. After the Tigers lost a majority of their linemen depth this offseason, it’s clear they're still looking to stack bodies for the 2023 season.

Lunsford entered the transfer portal just five days ago and has already received offers from the likes of Arkansas, Houston, Louisville and more.

With two seasons of eligibility remaining, it gives Head Coach Brian Kelly and his staff an even greater reason to make a heavy push for the dynamic offensive lineman. Kelly has stated that they’d like to avoid one-year rentals, but aren’t opposed to it, as seen last season.

Lunsford started all 13 games in 2021 for the Terps and 12 of 13 games in 2022 after switching over to left guard.

Blessed to receive an offer from LSU! @WillRedmond_LSU pic.twitter.com/Ym7SRG8jz1

— Mason Lunsford (@lunsford_mason) February 22, 2023

The Announcement

“Dear Terps, I want to thank the University of Maryland and the entire Maryland community for giving me a shot to play football at my dream school,” Lunsford said in a tweet. “I want to thank the endless amount of people that helped me get here and anyone that has helped me throughout these past 4 years.

“With that being said I will be entering the transfer portal as a grad transfer with two years of eligibility left! Thank you Maryland!”

Brian Kelly’s Transfer Portal Message:

“They have got to be the right fit first,” Kelly said. “They have to recognize the value of an education from LSU. They have to have the right traits. We are not just open for business. We’re not just putting a sign up saying, hey, we are going to take whoever. They have to be the right fit. I prefer that they are from the state of Louisiana if we can find them. And then we are going to address needs based upon how that freshman class marries into it by the particular needs by position class.

“So we are not going to overload a particular position group. In other words, if we have got three or four wide receivers that are freshmen coming in, you may not see a heavy influence in the portal in that position.

“We are going to develop based upon our freshman class, too. So we are doing this at the same time, and also allowing our program to be younger, too. We want to bring both of these along. We don’t always want to be a turn-it-over program where we are bringing in transfers and turning the program over.”