LSU SHOCKER: No. 1 LB Suddenly LEANING TIGERS?!

Foreign. Every day now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home

0:00

by taking advantage of its national Red

0:13

Tag sales event going on right now through Sunday, May 3rd. Stop by any of its participating communities and find select red tag homes at Incredible Pricing. So whether you're buying your first home or looking for an upgrade, you don't want to miss the red Tag sales event going on right now. Discover the Dr. Horton difference. Tap your screen now or visit Dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton America's builder and equal Housing Opportunity Builder when you manage procurement

0:15

for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products and fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Is LSU about to land the number one linebacker in the country? We're going to talk about it. Locked on lsu Here we go. You are Locked on lsu, your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers, part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day. Okay, let's get it. It is Locked on lsu. Your team every day. I'm your host, Matt Moscona. Thanks so much for making us your first listen. Every week here on the show we take one episode and we visit with our buddy Shay Dixon from on 3, the Bengal Tiger to talk recruiting. And I understand in the Portal era, recruiting to some may feel muted. I do think, however, that Kiffin, as the self described portal king, is going to continue winning there. But I also think as we go along as normal start to settle in college football, that we're going to see some bit of a revert to what was and you're going to see teams because it's a way to stabilize your program financially, try to build and develop where you can through the high school ranks. So I'm not saying, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we're going to go back to the days where you're signing 35 guys out of the high school ranks and maybe a handful of transfers. I don't think that's going to happen, but I don't think what we saw this past year of LSU signing 42 Portal players and maybe, you know, 15 out of the high school ranks. I don't think that's going to happen again. I think you're going to find a. A middle ground there. And we visited this week with Shay Dixon from On3, the Bengal Tiger. And there was a lot to talk. Easton Royal, the number one receiver in the country, made another visit to lsu. Some of the really significant offensive line dominoes nationally have started the fall, and LSU is in the mix in all of it. But maybe the most significant news is about Kaden Henderson. And if you're not familiar, Kaden Henderson is a five star, the number one linebacker in America. And about six weeks ago, Kaden Henderson put out his final five schools and LSU wasn't one of them. And then last week, Kaden Henderson pops up at LSU on an official visit during the midweek. So I asked Shay Dixon, hey, man, this guy is the. The number one linebacker in the country out of Tampa. He listed his final five. LSU wasn't on the list. And now all of a sudden, he's popping up on an oval. What's going on?

0:41

Yeah. Then in between that, that span where LSU is not even in the lead group, which Hayes Fawcett had put out, a couple of weeks later, Hayes just put out a tweet and an article saying LSU is not only now in Kaden Henderson's top group, but they're surging up the list. And he had given them a midweek official visit. He came with his mom. This is a kid who's a five star, number one linebacker coming out of Tampa Jesuit, and everybody has an offer out to him. So they went to Notre Dame this past weekend, I guess it was, or a weekend ago. And then this past week spent a few days on campus on an official visit. And it was all hands on deck because he was the only official visitor on campus during the middle of the week. So got to watch practice, got to hang out with Lane and the staff, got to spend a lot of time around Blake Baker and the defensive coaches. And that was kind of right in the middle of the draft. So you're flying for Baker, up there for Mansour Delaine, and then back down for Kaden Henderson. But you do it when it's a five star like this. And the reviews that he gave Chad Simmons here at Rivals, I mean, he said, look, LSU set the bar pretty high here moving forward, and there was a thought Miami might be the leader. A and M had really put themselves into that conversation. Notre Dame was writing this, like, visit high of, hey, look, all of a sudden we're in the race. And then it kind of felt like LSU really put themselves probably into the number one spot. I mean, he said, look, they've been a contender. They're definitely one now. And really talked extensively about what him and Baker talked about relative to the linebacker role, what he's expected to do, developing. He's like, look, I mean, he went as far as to say, we sat down and said, here's where you fit into the rotation as a freshman. If you develop along these lines, you're putting yourself in a spot to be a starter as a sophomore. And he said, that's not happening for me at other schools. And it sort of showed how much they're prioritizing me. So it's kind of interesting to see right now this staff is certainly in the portal. Was swinging for the fences, but also went for quantity. I mean, they signed more than 40 guys out of need. We've talked a lot about this class, Matt. I think they sign around 20 guys, but they're just. I mean, it's five star after five star and rankings don't mean everything. I'm not trying to say that. But the guys who are the who's who out there, especially if they're in the Southeast, this staff is all over them right now.

3:52

Okay? LSU surging for Kaden Henderson, might even be in the lead and talk to him about being a starter potentially as a sophomore. So let's, let's go through this here for a second. Okay? So Kaden Henderson, as shay disclosed there, 6, 2, 2, 20 out of Tampa, Jesuit. Tampa, the number 23 overall prospect in the country. He's a five star, the number one linebacker. And he's got offers from everybody. Miami, Ohio State, Florida, Notre Dame, Clemson, Southern Cal, I mean, coast to coast. Tennessee, Bama, Florida State, Oklahoma, lsu, Texas, smu, Oregon, Georgia, like everybody say, three pages of offers. He's that dude. He's the best linebacker in the country that everybody wants. Everybody's offered. He listed his final five and then LSU wasn't in it. Then they pop up now as the leader. Now, here's what I think is interesting, okay? When you look at the LSU linebacker, room for 20, 26 this coming season, LSU, it's the one spot with the coaching change where nobody left. Whit Weeks came back. Devon Keys came back. Tyland single can. Tylen Singleton came back. Cj, Jim Coen, cj, Jim Coy, Jaden Breaker, Keelan, Moses, everybody, they all came back. They didn't lose a single life. Now they lost West Weeks to graduation, but they didn't lose anybody to the portal. But when you look at 20, 27, right? Okay, you bring in TJ Daughtery, this year? Well, he's a fifth year senior. He's done. Obviously Whit Weeks is a senior, so he'll be done. Devon Keys could return for his senior season, which I would assume that likely he would at, at this point. And then you've got all the other guys we just mentioned, Breaker Singleton, Charles Ross, Jim Coily, Moses, Zach Weeks, all these guys will be back. So you have a really crowded room in 2027 of players that when in theory Kaden Henderson would be a freshman if he signs with lsu of a bunch of guys that maybe been around a while but haven't played a ton because of wit. And then bringing in TJ Daughtery this year, now barring injury, that could change. So that's really interesting. But to say as a sophomore he'd be in line to start, you're talking about 2028. I don't know why he couldn't get on the field in 2027. And I'm not trying to accelerate a freshman linebacker to the field. But like we saw that with Whit Weeks in his freshman season, it was very obvious, four weeks in 2023, that when he was on the field LSU was better. And it was just like you got to play the kid because when he's out there, the defense is better. So play him. And maybe that's the truth with Kaden Henderson as well. Long way to go until he signs in December and certainly a long way to go until he plays in 27. Or as you heard Shea say there, LSU is pitching him being a starter in 28. But I don't know why there isn't a path for him to be a real contributor in 2027 as a true freshman if he is the high level talent that everyone is making him out to be. And when you look at the exodus that's coming at that room after the 2026 season, in theory, Devon Keys and Tylen Singleton would be back as sort of veteran players. But man, everybody else would just be guys that are climbing and growing and you're going to have attrition because guys leave you the portal. But it would be open for an opportunity there in 2027, potentially for Kaden Henderson. Five star number one linebacker in the country, one to watch as LSU moves throughout this cycle. Now, another guy that we've been keeping a close eye on every week is the number one receiver in the country and that's Easton Royal. And my goodness, he was back on LSU's campus. Shea has the details. It's locked on LSU, your team, every day. Workplace chaos. Deadlines stacking up, inbox overflowing. And the one position you have to fill is still sitting open when the pressure is on and you need the right hire. This is a job for Sponsored Jobs. Indeed Sponsor Jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for. Skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's the stat that says it all. You in the minute we've been talking, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed. That's according to Indeed Data Worldwide. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching, more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes with Indeed Sponsor Jobs and listeners of locked on LSU will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast. So just go to Indeed Indeed.com podcast right now and support Locked On LSU by saying you heard about Indeed on Locked On LSU Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed. Sponsored Jobs. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. That's it. That's the ad. No bells and whistles? No guys. I said no bells and whistles. No trombones are fine. Visit libertymutual.com and make the switch today. Get back to the show here in just a quick sec. But I do want to remind you, you can get Locked on LSU ad free with the Everydayer Club plus Members Only Discord Access. You can join at the link in the show Notes so we talked about Kaden Henderson, the number one linebacker in the country that LSU is apparently leading for now. Well, we also know that Easton Royal, out of New Orleans, is the number one wide receiver in the country that is currently committed to Texas. Now remember, Easton Royal committed to L. Excuse me. Committed to Texas just a couple of days before, before Lane Kiffin became the LSU head coach. Now he stayed committed, but he has continued to visit lsu. And this past week Royal was back on campus. And Shay Dixon has the latest.

6:23

Yeah, obviously being committed to Texas and still making visits which went beyond lsu. He had done a handful of SEC visits. I think it was in the month of March really, but now twice in April. In the span of a few weeks he was back on campus. And this time, which he has been before, but he made the trip over with his mom. And this is one of those things where right now coaches can be on the road. If you're done with spring ball, you can get out and start doing spring evaluations and the Texas staff was at Brother Martin, you know, during the day. And by late afternoon, Easton and his mom have made their way over to Baton Rouge and got to watch that final spring scrimmage, he said, and really just continue to get to spend more time around the staff because obviously with LSU's transition to Lane Kiffin, it comes with Charlie Weiss's OC, a new wide receivers coach, and George McDonald. So he's getting to know all these guys. But he gave us his quote, which I thought was telling. He said, kind of the highlight of going to spring football and seeing two scrimmages. He said, we're sitting in the meetings with them before and after. And he called him maniacs about the game of football. And then he said, seeing kind of what they've done with this offense in a short amount of times, he said the way they use receivers and he was talking about everybody, just the weapons. He said a psycho as he looked at it. So you've got a psycho in there, you've got some maniacs in there. And mind you, he's committed to Sark. So whatever Elaine Kiffin and this staff Charlie Weiss have done have certainly caught the attention of Easton Royal, who's not just the number one prospect in Louisiana, but a five star and the number one receiver in the country right now in Rivals.

12:52

It is going to be, I think, really hard for Texas to hang on to Easton Royal. I don't have any intel, I haven't spoken to Easton Royal, but you can read the tea leaves. He committed to Texas before Lane Kiffin was the coach. Lane Kiffin's the coach. He's been on LSU's campus a handful of times already pops up all the time in Baton Rouge. LSU is going to prioritize Easton Royal in this class as a five star number one in the country. And then you look at what receivers have been able to do in Lane Kiffin's offense. If you missed the previous episode, if you're an everydayer, shout out, thank you. But go back and listen to the previous where we talked about Lane Kiffin building this receiver room with nine guys via the portal, looking for, you know, a handful, four, five, six that can emerge and be real contributors in a given season. Which tells you that Easton Royal, the second he shows up on campus, is going to be fed the football and will continue throughout his time. I mean, that's just what Lane Kiffin's offense does. It just makes too much sense. But here's the other part that I think is fascinating. You know, we we did an episode and again shout out to the everyday who who maybe heard it or or watched it go please go back and check it if you missed it. But we talked about Lane Kiffin at post spring, looking at the depth at cornerback and at receiver and cornerback is very top heavy and they don't have great depth. Receiver lacks the top tier talent but has great depth and so they're looking for four, five, six guys that can emerge in that group. So it's a different way of building the receiver room as opposed to the corner back room. Well, I asked Shay how they might look at building receiver in the high school ranks considering they've only got four commits as of this moment and two of them are receivers. Braylon Calais out of Cecilia and Amari Stevens out of Fort Lauderdale. So four commits, two already receivers. Like how many receivers do you want to take in the high school class?

14:49

I think that applies mostly to the Portal. And look, Kiffin and this staff we saw with Winnie Watkins, they'll go into Florida, get a three star receiver, not highly ranked and he immediately plays year one at Ole Miss this past season and then he looks like the best receiver out there this spring and it's because he fits that specific role in Kiffin's offense. And there's obviously a few different roles in there that they recruit to. But then I pause and I say let's don't overthink this. Right? Like if you've got two receivers committed and you already went to Florida for one of them, Braylon Colley out of Sicilia gives you two he recently committed. We just talked about Easton Royal out of Brother Martin in New Orleans. And then you don't have to scroll down far in the national rankings, Matt, to get to another New Orleans kid who is right there in the top 10 nationally. Miguel Whitley at St. OG and he'd been recruited heavily by this staff while they were at Ole Miss. Now with Frank Wilson and them at Ole Miss now they're obviously still recruiting him pretty heavily to the Rebels, but LSU has hosted him a number of times. They' an official visit. So if you're imagining, okay, they'll probably sign four, maybe five receivers. Well why not just keep going right here in Louisiana? And look outside of hosting an East Texas kid and a Texas Tech commitment, Benny Easter two weekends ago, it seems like they have put a good amount of focus. And hey, how can we get Kali committed Royal on campus as much as possible. And the same for Miguel Whitley over at Oggy.

16:48

I think it is something we have to talk about looking ahead to the 2027 high school class because you do have a lot. Although you recruited a lot of guys in the Portal in the receiver class with a lot of different classifications, you did recruit a lot of upperclassmen. Okay, Jace Brown is a senior. Trey Brown is a red shirt junior. Trey Wilson's a redshirt junior. Jackson Harris is a redshirt junior. Roman Mothershed, Tyree Holloway, Malik Elzy, all redshirt juniors. I mean, they're fourth year players. So you've got a lot of dudes that are fourth and fifth year players that may very well turn over after the 2026 season in Baton Rouge. So you may need to go numbers again, but do you go numbers in the Portal or high school ranks? Likely a blend, but Shay's kind of giving you a little bit of insight there into how this staff may do it. Now the other spot that's been super intriguing has been on the offensive line, and that's obviously been a real weak link for LLSU the last two years, and that has been an incredible focus for this staff in the high school ranks with quite literally the highest ranked players on the offensive line rolling through LSU's campus over the last month. Well, some of those dominoes are starting to fall. We're going to get to that next. It's Locked on lsu, your team, every day. If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by grainger for the ones who get it done. Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcast network. If your group chat's been a little quiet lately, I want to invite you to come and join ours. If you sign up for the Everydayer Club, you get access to the members only group chats for your favorite teams, plus national chats for every sport. Personally, I love watching folks talk a little smack in the NFC South Trash Talk chat. You also get an ad free version of your favorite Locked on show and a whole lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everyday Club link in the show notes. Okay, so it's no surprise that no secret that over the last two years LSU's offensive line has been a liability. Now two years ago you look at Will Campbell and Emory Jones and Garrett Dellinger and Miles Frazier had four dudes that were drafted, okay? And they were outstanding in pass protection, but they were not very good in run blocking. Story that's been told. In 2025, the offensive line was your biggest liability on the entire team. They were atrocious. You rotated a lot of guys. You had some injuries, you went portal to fortify with Braylon Moore, Josh Thompson both played those. The Portal guys were your most steady guys. But Weston Davis at right tackle, you had a revolving door at left tackle with Tyree Adams and DJ Chester. And we all know the story by now. Cohen, Echols and the all these guys are in the Portal. They're gone. Okay? You, you've remade that room and, and you went into the Portal. You look, you retained Braylen Moore and you went into the Portal to add Aluba and Jordan Seaton to get a couple of proven starters. That should solidify you for a year gone. But when you're thinking about how you're going to build this thing in the long term, you hope that some of the guys you brought in, you know, Bryson Martinez could certainly be that. Devin Harper, a young guy just one year at old Miss, could be a multi year starter. You went and got young transfers from the SEC, from Darren Stray and William Satterwhite. So you got guys, right? I mean, you've got some, some young depth there as well. But after 2026, you're going to lose it. You're going to lose probably four of your five starters, depending on who ends up starting. Borderline, if Bordelon ends up starting, you're gonna lose four of your five starters after 2026. So 27 is going to be a fascinating test case for the future. And so LSU is recruiting all of the biggest names on the offensive line in the country. Interior and tackles, they've had them on campus as well. One of those who was on campus just about a week ago was Kennedy Brown out of the Houston area. Well, that domino has fallen because he's committed to Texas A and M. And Shay Dixon talked about what that means not only for that spot and who else else she was targeting.

18:26

Yeah, so Kennedy Brown is ranked as one of the top three interior offensive linemen in the country. One is committed to Florida and Maxwell Hyler and now Kennedy Brown, kid out of, as you said, Houston area. Kingwood committed to A and M. They've been on him so long. So I think coming out of that LSU official visit, it's almost like LSU would do for an in state kid of what do we have to do to get this done? And they were able to get it done. But I mentioned top three interior offensive linemen. The one guy in the middle of those two ranked number two is Albert Simeon and he's your other five star interior offensive lineman. And if you know the name, it's because we've talked about it a lot. He's a Lake Charles kid. He's an in state, you know, right after Eastern Royal, the highest ranked prospect and what's turning into a pretty impressive 2027 recruiting class here in Louisiana. And LSU's made him a priority and so much so that when they brought all of those guys in and you mentioned they've been in the mix with these top offensive tackles, both, or I should say offensive linemen, but both at tackle and interior line, I think they had five guys in one weekend, two weekends ago. Simeon was one of them. And that's not the norm for Louisiana. Guys usually save those visits for later, but I think with a new staff they kind of wanted to set the tone there, knowing you had visits to come and also put a bunch of those guys around each other and see if you couldn't start to make some momentum. And I think that if we're moving forward or watching Simeon, watch another Border state kid and Kaden Moss, who's ranked right behind these three guys as a top five interior offensive lineman and then another guy out of Georgia State. LSU recruits plenty. Kennedy Jackson is a top 10 offensive tackle on Rivals and he had pretty glowing reviews of the trip and basically told Chad Simmons, LSU just set the bar. Everyone else is going to have to catch up from here. He had been on Georgia Tech and LSU visits. He's got a bunch of SEC visits left. But again, it goes with the theme of what I was saying a minute ago. It's like no matter who we're talking about here, far more often than not I can bring up the rankings on rivals and I don't even have to scroll once to get to the guys we're talking about because they're recruiting kind of the who's who of, of national prospects and certainly those top guys in the Southeast.

22:50

Okay, so Kennedy Brown, who Shay mentioned there, is now committed to Texas A and M. He did take a visit to lsu. So if you just look at the offensive tackle recruits, Mark Matthews, the number one offensive tackle in the country out of Lauderdale, he took a visit to LSU. He is 95% A&M, 2% Miami. It is very likely he's Going to end up an Aggie, which would would sting that Matthews and Kennedy Brown, two guys that you're in on, would both land there. So which means you're looking for offensive tackle help in the high school ranks on the interior of the offensive line. Albert Simeon is the number two interior offensive line prospect in the country and he's a 65% lean on the rivals ranking to A and M. But most think that he's probably going to end up at lsu. Maxwell Hiller, the number one interior offensive lineman is committed to Florida. And then we just talked about Kennedy Brown who's committed to Texas A M. So if you're able to get Albert Simeon, you get a five star. The number two interior offensive lineman in the country from Louisiana. You keep Albert Simeon. Kaden Moss will be an interesting one to watch. You heard Shay talk about him. Cade Moss is the number five interior offensive lineman in the country, the number 41 overall prospect. He is thought to be a heavy lean to Ole Miss. He's out of Jackson and he is a really great athlete. He's actually an elite level basketball player, plays on the AAU circuit. So you talk about an interior lineman to do with that size who also plays basketball. Good hands, good feet like you tend to be a dynamic athlete at that size if you can do those things. Caden Moss thought to be a real heavy lean toward Ole Miss, but maybe LSU can get in the mix. But I look at LSU's future on the offensive line like we know what 2026 is. 2026 is. You committed so much to Braylon Moore at center. You went and got Aluba From Maryland, a two year starter who is a top 100 overall prospect when he signed with Georgia Ida High School. He's your right guard. You went got Jordan Seaton which if you missed it, there's some like way Too early number one overall pick odds for the 2027 draft and it's a lot of quarterbacks and Jordan Seaton because the left tackle could potentially go number one overall. The point being Seaton is that kind of guy. But all three of those guys are going to be gone after this coming season. And then you know you've got Weston Davis at right tackle. We'll see if he can hold that job. And then you know, left guard is very much up in the air. Devin Harper started spring running with the first team and then after that it was Bo Bordelon who kind of took the lead at left guard. But he's a fifth year senior so he'll be gone after this season as well. So in theory, after 2026 you could lose four of your five starters on the offensive line with only Weston Davis returning. That's provided Weston Davis starts and comes back. So it is going to be imperative that through via the portal or this, this high school class that this staff builds, rebuilds depth and a foundation of that offensive line room. Because I think they're going to be much better in 2026. It would be hard to be worse, especially with all of the investment financially that you made in this offensive line. Retaining Braylon Moore, bringing in Bod and Seaton. You're going to be better. The question is how much better. And then when you know 80% of this line is gone after, after 2026, what then? That's where you get to put your faith in Eric Wolford, James Craig, their ability to recruit and develop, Lane Kiffin to and Billy Glasscock to identify the investment in the offensive line and how to do that. But I feel confident in the o line for 2026 because of the investment and the caliber of player. Long term they got a long way to go and that's why this 2027 class is going to be a massive part of that long term success. Okay, there's our recruiting update. That'll do it for us here Today Unlocked on LSU. Subscribe on podcast YouTube and let a friend know if they love the Tigers. We got you every single day. It's locked on lsu, your team, every day. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. That's it. That's the ad. No bells and whistles. No, guys, I said no bells and whistles. No. Trombones are fine. Visit libertymutual.com and make the switch today.

25:14

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

30:01