The Problem with LSU's 2015 Recruiting Class
Take a look at the 2015 247Sports team recruiting rankings and you'll see the familiar faces at the top.
Alabama, Florida State, USC and LSU are scattered throughout the top 10 with a week to go before players sign on the dotted line.
That'd be great for LSU, which is coming off of a rather mediocre 8-5 season, right?
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Technically, yes.
Between 5-star cornerback Kevin Toliver, 5-star wide receiver Tyron Johnson, 4-star offensive guard Maea Teuhema and 4-star running back Derrius Guice, there's no shortage of star power headed to Baton Rouge.
Overall, LSU's class leaves a lot to be desired, though.
Specifically, it doesn't fill needs.
It's no secret that LSU's primary problem last season was quarterback. Anthony Jennings completed just 48.9 percent (111 of 227) of his passes last year for 1,611 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Early ineffectiveness cost Jennings his job on the road at Auburn, where true freshman Brandon Harris completed just three of his 14 passes, handing Jennings his job back after 30 minutes on the bench.
While Jennings and Harris can both sling it, they're both dual-threat quarterbacks who are essentially square pegs in the round hole that is offensive coordinator Cam Cameron's system.
Is 3-star dual-threat early enrollee Justin McMillan going to be the answer? Could 4-star athlete/quarterback Torrance Gibson flip from Ohio State?
Maybe, but LSU went down this road before with dual-threat quarterbacks like Jordan Jefferson, and that didn't work out so well.
As Tyler Donohue, Bleacher Report's national recruiting writer, pointed out, Gibson was in Baton Rouge last weekend.
Either LSU needs to adjust what it does offensively to fit what dual-threat quarterbacks bring to the table, or it needs to find more kids like Zach Mettenberger to run the system. LSU can't keep luring dual-threat quarterbacks to Baton Rouge and hoping the system will click, though.
Lingering quarterback issues will undoubtedly steal headlines in Baton Rouge this offseason, and the current recruiting class won't do much to calm those fears. What should be more concerning, though, is the remarkable absence of defensive linemen in the 2015 class.
Once known as "DL U," only one defensive lineman—3-star Isaiah Washington from New Orleans—is committed to head coach Les Miles and the Tigers. That's not great considering the Tigers managed just 19 sacks last year—the second-fewest in the conference. They also finished with 76 tackles for loss, which was ninth in the conference.
Defensive end Danielle Hunter, who was responsible for 1.5 of those sacks and a team-best 13 tackles for loss, declared early for the NFL draft. Fellow defensive end Jermauria Rasco, who contributed 7.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, exhausted his eligibility. LSU's defensive line is in desperate need of a reboot, and as of now, that's not going to happen with this class.
That's not to say things couldn't change.
Maybe 5-star defensive tackle Daylon Mack will fall back in love with LSU. Maybe 5-star defensive end CeCe Jefferson will surprise everybody and spurn Florida and Auburn. Maybe 4-star defensive end Arden Key's strange recruitment will take one final turn toward Baton Rouge.
Some late surprises might have to happen in order for LSU to nail down a class that's both highly ranked and highly effective.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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