LSU Football to Welcome 15 Unofficial Visits to Campus To Kick Off Crazy Month of Recruiting
Ed Orgeron has been waiting for over a year for this day. As a college coach, it's one of the times of year he looks forward to most but it carries extra weight in 2021 when the recruiting world was put on pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the first time in 15 months, LSU will welcome recruits from the 2022 class on campus with their families to check out the school and the football program. While making his regularly scheduled appearance on local radio show Off the Bench, Orgeron talked about the excitement of campus buzzing again with high school recruits thinking of playing college ball at LSU.
"Today we have 15 unofficial visitors with their parents coming up," Orgeron said. "Campus tour, talk football, watch our football school, meet with me in my office. We have a great group of young men coming and I can't wait to see them. I spent all day preparing yesterday. I came in the office ready, there's a lot of things that go along with these visits and we have a tremendous staff and I'm excited. There's a lot of energy around this building today."
Among the 2022 prospects who will be in attendance include safety JaCoby Mathews, offensive lineman Lucas Taylor and defensive back Laterrance Welch, all of whom are LSU commits. In addition to the 15 unofficial visits on June 1, the Tigers are set to host eight official visits this week from out of state prospects.
A couple of the top recruits who figure to be on campus over the next several weeks include edge rusher Shemar Stewart, cornerback Denver Harris, offensive lineman Kelvin Banks, offensive lineman Julian Armella and defensive tackle Walter Nolen.
"Everybody is a assigned a group of young men so that the first thing they do is come in and visit with me, then they go on to academics and on tour, then they go to football school and then practice so it's very well organized," Orgeron said of the process.
It's a big ordeal as all the while, the program will also be hosting it's recruiting camps this week, with the offensive line, defensive line, kickers and skills position players from all over the state working out in front of the LSU staff and neighboring schools. Those camps are important because it's another avenue of grading the high school talent and dissect which players fit the program best outside of just game tape.
But most important, Orgeron says there's a revived energy around the football ops facility, one that didn't exist this time a year ago with everything starting to get back to normal.
"There's excitement to get people on our campus. One of the things you enjoy as a college coach is recruiting and that's the lifeblood of your program," Orgeron said. "So to get the people to campus, get them to camps, get them evaluated."
