LSU Football Recruiting: 4-Star DE Commit Shows Tigers Still Have It

Alabama may be the defending national champions, and Florida and Georgia may be having great recruiting classes so far, but LSU still has that "it" factor that draws in big-time prospects.

Their latest, according to Gary Laney of ESPN, is 4-star defensive end Lewis Neal out Hunt High School in North Carolina:

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Neal, a 4-star prospect ranked No. 38 among the nation's defensive ends by ESPN, picked LSU over SEC rivals Tennessee, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky and also had offers from Ohio State, Clemson, North Carolina State and East Carolina.

The 6-foot-1, 230-pounder committed to Ohio State after attending the Buckeyes' spring game in April, but decommitted just a week later.

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College football recruiting is a competitive endeavor, and every program out there is trying to gain an advantage over the other, especially in the SEC. If you have a weakness, it will be used against you by other programs—even if it's just a perceived weakness.

While LSU is undoubtedly one of the most prolific college football programs in the nation, it could be argued that right now the Tigers aren't 100 percent on top of their game. Especially after their brutal loss in the national championship game.

You can point out that Alabama has a commit from Reuben Foster, the No. 1-ranked middle linebacker in the nation and No. 2 overall player according to Rivals, and arguably the best college football coach in the country in Nick Saban.

Meanwhile, Florida and Georgia are ranked five and seven respectively by Rivals as far as overall 2013 recruiting class rankings are concerned.

LSU detractors could easily make the case that they won't be an SEC powerhouse anymore. They could say that the demoralizing loss in the championship game will set them back years and that other SEC programs are quickly catching up.

They could say that LSU doesn't have that "it" factor anymore. Alabama stole it from them, and they may not ever get it back.

The addition of Laney proves that point wrong though, as does the Tigers' whole 2013 class. Now including Laney, LSU is at 19 commits, which is huge.

Even more impressive though is that 13 of those commits are 4-star players, so the Tigers have a ton of talent to build around.

Alabama may be on top of the college football world for now, and the SEC is certainly getting better every year—I didn't even mention South Carolina or Auburn—but LSU still has that "it" factor that will allow them to compete year in and year out.

Don't doubt "it."