It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. just no ads. There's also a members only group chat for fans of your team. Plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the everyday or club link in the show notes. Rivals updates. It's 2027 prospect rankings, and there are a ton of LSU and Louisiana prospects. We have to talk about 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 we're free available wherever you get great podcast of course on youtube as well so please subscribe and as always one of the fastest ways to help us grow is by leaving your comments below so thank you sincerely for that thank you for helping make the locked on podcast network the number one sports podcast network today's episode is brought to you by fan duel use your profit boost on an nba future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the nba finals play your game with fan duel the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Well, LSU has recently polished off its 2026 high school class and portal class, but it's never too early to start looking at the 2027 every week. As you know, if you're an everyday or in shout out, thank you. We visit with our buddy, Shea Dixon from on three, the Bengal tiger, which of course now is acquired rivals. So rivals handles the recruiting component of things and rivals has updated their star rankings and their prospect rankings for the 2027 class. Now, of course, the primary prospect, the headliner everybody here mostly wants to talk about is five-star quarterback Elijah Haven from Baton Rouge, who's the number one quarterback in the country and is thought to be an Alabama lean. But that's only one prospect from Louisiana who's got a heavy LSU lean interest or is even committed. We talked to Shea Dixon about several of these guys, and the one that we wanted to start with is Easton Royal. Now, Easton Royal is from Brother Martin in New Orleans, and he is a guy that is currently committed to Texas, but that may not last, says Shea. Let's start with Easton, because he's the number one wide receiver in the country, and obviously with the riches that LSU has benefited from in Louisiana at wide receiver, even out of the New Orleans area, more specifically. Not a shock to see a kid be ranked a five-star or even winded up the number one receiver in the country. But that's what Royal is. But he's been committed to Texas since November. And Matt, I'll give you the date. November 29th. So less than 24 hours before Kiffin was announced as LSU's coach. Texas pushed, popped him, and have had him committed since. But he's going to make visits. And this is one that I think we're living in the NIL world, even in a high school NIL world where it's not legal in the Living Star State, but it is in Louisiana. It's a Louisiana prospect. So you deal with all that. You navigate those waters. I think that by December, the combination of what this LSU team will look like with Lane Kiffin's offense and recruitment that they'll continue to push on him. And we've seen how they close with portal guys. We saw they closed with two five-star D linemen in three days who were talking about delaying their decision in December all the way to February. And Richard Anderson and Lamar Brown, both those guys signed. So I haven't seen them this step yet, Matt. So I would think that in year one, a first full recruiting cycle for Lane Kiffin and the staff that prioritizing a guy who is ranked and considered the best receiver out there, 60 miles down the road at Brother Martin. No matter where he's committed, you are on him until the very end. And I feel good about LSU's chances. One of the things that I do find interesting about what Shea said is about LSU and the staff and their ability to close. And that is true. But another thing that we've talked a good bit about here is sort of the transactional nature of how Lane Kiffin and his staff recruits. It's very much like an NFL roster and less like how things have traditionally been done in college. That's to say, it's not about sitting on a couch in the living room and convincing a mom or a dad that you're going to take great care of their child and help them grow and develop and become a man and graduate college. This is far more transactional. It's here's how we see you fitting in what we do. Here's how we think we can prepare you for the next level. Here's what we're willing to pay you. Well, when you look at LSU financially, they just inked the number one transfer portal class ever. A giant part of that was out of necessity. I mean, you lost a ton of players from your roster, so you needed to add a ton of players. And they did that with 40 players via the transfer portal. The question, though, is whether or not that's sustainable. Can you do that again? Will you spend the same amount of money next year? and my goodness you know the two programs in the sec maybe nationally who could compete with or exceed what lsu is doing and do it consistently are the texas schools with texas texas a and then maybe throw texas tech in there as well so easton royal is currently committed to the university of texas and remember one of his primary recruiters is alan clark and alan clark is from baton rouge louisiana he's the texas defensive line coach but he started his collegiate career at northwestern state in Natchitoches, then transferred to Grambling, where he was a two-year letter winner. And he was a guy who has bounced around some major college programs, including Ohio State, before heading to Texas. So a guy with Louisiana ties who's recruiting Eastern Royal to Austin. I'm just not so sure that this is one that really you zone in on the relational or Louisiana aspect of this. It really feels more like this is one of those transactional components. You're just going to have to make the money work and I not so sure that LSU is going to outbid Texas It a matter of maybe combining how you see him and present that in the future with what you can do financially I very much agree that LSU will be in the mix for Eastern Royal to the very end. But I'll remind you also that LSU had a shot to go after Cam Coleman in this transfer portal cycle from Auburn. By far the best receiver in the portal cycle. But Cam Coleman wanted $3.5 million. And LSU said, we can spend that $3.5 million elsewhere and get better value and so they didn't attempt to get cam coleman you know who did texas so not saying it's over for eastern royal by any stretch but it may not be as simplistic as saying go recruit the hometown louisiana kid to the home state school that that certainly is a component but i don't think it's going to be the component well eastern royal is one of two five-star prospects for 2027 in Louisiana, at least now. And that number will change between now and signing day, just looking at the composite here. The other is an interior offensive lineman out of Southwest Louisiana in Albert Simeon, who Shea talked about. Yeah, he's one who's not committed, which makes, I think, the number two interior lineman. So Easton Rose, the number five overall prospect on rivals, no matter what position. Albert Simeon's number 10. So these are two top 10 guys, no matter position. And when you're uncommitted, you get even more attention. So he has had everybody from Notre Dame to LSU to you name it. They're on him. And he's lined up a bunch of visits coming up here soon. I mean, Tennessee, Auburn, Miami, Florida, Ole Miss, Nebraska, you name it. But A&M is one we're really watching. I think if LSU would have to consider a team as kind of the main competition right now, it would be Texas A&M. Yes, Nebraska's in it. He's really intrigued by Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman came all the way down to Lake Charles to see him in January when they had the open contact period. Lane Kiffin went over there and saw him when he was at a basketball practice, and they'd tweet out a picture of him together. So when you send head coaches, they're usually for guys like this. and look, Louisiana native, but at the same time, he's getting to experience everything right now as an uncommitted prospect as LSU goes through a coaching change. So we'll have to see what his relationship with Eric Wolford, the new O-line coach, is like. And I don't think he's in such a rush to make a decision that you have to worry kind of about where you stand right now. You just want to be in that lead group that locks in official visits and LSU is easily in that group. Albert Simeon for what it's worth when you look at the prospect ranking he's 6'3 275 as we mentioned he's a five star and he has offers from everybody we mentioned LSU and Texas A&M who Shea talked about but Nebraska Alabama Oklahoma Notre Dame Houston Florida Florida State Ole Miss Tennessee North Carolina TCU Auburn West Virginia SMU down the list I mean everybody wants him He's a big interior offensive lineman, a top 10 player in the country. And I think this year is going to be fascinating for the LSU offensive line because the last two years have been subpar for this unit. Well, you went and remade the unit. You got a new coach, as Shay mentioned, and Eric Wolford. You brought in James Craig, as well as an assistant offensive line coach who was the offensive line coach when LSU won the national championship in the Joe Moore Award in 2019. Can you get more productivity out of that offensive line in 2026? And if so, is that maybe more of an appeal for how you can get guys to the next level in addition to what you're willing to spend in NIL and true rev share. So Easton Royal, Albert Simeon on the new 24, excuse me, the new Rivals prospect rankings for 2027. A couple of guys who are there from Louisiana in the top 10, five stars here in the early going will certainly follow that. Now, a couple of guys who are flirting with a five-star ranking from Louisiana. I want to talk about next, and you'll hear Shea Dixon's opinion on those two as we continue Locked on LSU, your team every day. Ever wanted to experience the NBA Finals live and in person? Well, FanDuel is giving you the chance to turn that dream into a reality with their NBA sweepstakes. 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With TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done for you by a trusted local expert start to finish without stress or guesswork. Instead of spending hours trying to figure out forms, you can meet with a local TurboTax expert in person or you can connect online. Upload your documents, go about your day and get updates right in the TurboTax app. It's a huge time saver. It gives real peace of mind knowing an expert is handling it. And for a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 all in if a TurboTax expert didn't file for you last year. Just file by February 28th. Take taxes off your plate and get back to your life. Visit TurboTax.com slash local to book your appointment today. That's TurboTax.com slash local. I want to get back into what our conversation is with Shea Dixon. But remember, you can get Locked on LSU ad-free with the Everyday Air Club, plus members-only Discord access. So join today at the link in the show notes. As we continue talking about the updated rivals rankings from On3 and rivals, the recruiting component of On3, in our conversation with Shea Dixon, there's two more prospects from Louisiana who are kind of knocking on the door of being five-star prospects. Ahmad Hudson and Miguel Whitley, both of whom Shea kind of gave us a little thumbnail opinion of. In my opinion, the best tight end in the country. I also haven't watched all the tight ends in the country. I just know that he is 6'6", 230, and he came to LSU camp, and Matt I will tell you he put on a throw Jarvis Odell Jefferson all those guys and he put on the top 10 performance Nobody can guard him And that Trey Des Green So this is your heir apparent. And just like Trey Des, he's got basketball offers. I think right now is a little bit further along in his football career than Trey Des was at this stage. So very, very highly coveted guy. And we've talked a ton about Elijah Haven, obviously, at Dunham. He remains uncommitted. They have their quarterback in Peyton Houston. Those guys are the number five and six players in the state, so right there with each other. But a guy we haven't talked about a ton is Miguel Whitley. And stop me if you've heard this before. St. Aug has a high-level player getting offered by everybody. Right at about 6'1", 185 receiver. And Rival's husband right now is the number four player in Louisiana. So right behind Royale Sumian Hudson, there's Whitley and that makes him easily knocking on the door of top 50 regardless of position and the number 11 receiver. So, I mean, you could be looking at a situation with strong seasons and all seasons coming up that Louisiana offers up to the top 10 receivers in the country with Eastern Royal and Miguel Whitley. And Whitley is a guy who the Ole Miss staff that is now at LSU was already recruiting to Ole Miss. So I feel good about where things stand there as LSU recruits at New Orleans area into the 2027 cycle. He's setting up some visits. He's not like Simeon where he's going to be all over the country seeing everybody, but he'll hone in on a few teams. But it's always tough. It's going to be tough for anyone to pry away a St. Odd kid who LSU wants and that's got an offer and has always been high on LSU. Well, let's talk about both Hudson and Whitley individually. Now, Hudson's a guy who spent plenty of time at LSU. Again, he's uncommitted 6'6", 230. He's the number one tight end in the country and a guy that has offers from everyone that everyone wants. In these industry rankings, by the way, he's the number 12 overall prospect, one spot behind Elijah Haven. And by the way, when you look at, when you just look at the Louisiana kids, it's kind of crazy. Now, Joshua Dobson, who we're going to talk about in a minute, is from North Carolina, but he's thought to be a very heavy LSU lean. But you were just talking about kids from Louisiana. This is the overall rankings, regardless of position. Easton Royal out of New Orleans is number nine. Elijah Haven out of Baton Rouge is number 11. Ahmad Hudson out of Ruston is number 12. Albert Simeon out of Lake Charles is number 14. And then one spot later at number 15 is Iron Forstall, who's playing presently at IMG Academy, but previously was a Jesuit in New Orleans. So when you look at the top 15 in the country, you have number nine, 11, 12, 14, and 15. That's five of the top 15 in the country that are from Louisiana for the class of 2027. For those who are wondering, will Lane Kiffin sort of pivot off of his idea of being so heavy in the transfer portal and maybe lean more heavily on high school recruiting, my goodness, 2027 in Louisiana would sure stand to be a good reason when five of the top 15 players in the country are from Louisiana. Now, Hudson, we've talked a lot about. Miguel Whitley is interesting because that's a name that we really need to get to know. So he's a receiver out of St. Aug, who you heard Shea talk about. He's 5'11 1⁄2", 185 pounds, so a smaller receiver. in rivals industry. So in the composite, he's the number 179 overall prospect, the 25th best receiver. But if you look just at rivals, like the rivals only ranking, he's the number 65 prospect, the 11th best receiver. Now 24-7 doesn't have a national ranking on him, and ESPN has him number 230. So going into his senior season, there's still a lot of differing opinions right now on Miguel Whitley. But I do think it's interesting with LSU giving the offer, He right now in the on three projection, they're leaning toward Ole Miss. Now, the Damian Washington and Pete Golding are his primary recruiters. And remember, Pete Golding is from Hammond, so heavy ties to Louisiana. And obviously, the new running backs coach at Ole Miss is Frank Wilson. That's St. Aug alum Frank Wilson, who has great ties to the New Orleans area. So you start to think, look, Easton Royal is committed to Texas, and LSU is going to be in the mix. But specifically with Whitley, this is a kid who Ole Miss was already recruiting with the now head coach Pete Golding, and now Frank Wilson from New Orleans, St. Aug, is at Ole Miss. One worth watching to see if LSU can fight for elbow room at the table for Miguel Whitley, or if this is a situation where Ole Miss sort of puts a stranglehold on it. It's something worth watching with both Hudson and Whitley. Hudson feels like a heavier LSU lean. Whitley may be one that you're going to have to sweat out between now and signing day coming up in December. A couple of other prospects that made their presence felt here on the 2027 Rivals Industry Rankings. One, a player that LSU is targeting and feels like they're a pretty heavy favorite for, and another that's committed who's already popped up on these rankings. We'll tell you about the both of them when we continue here. It is Locked on LSU, your team every day. 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Indeed.com slash podcast. terms and conditions apply need to hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs a couple more prospects i want to discuss here with shea dixon from on three the bengal tiger one of them is the top cornerback in the country joshua dobson out of north carolina feels like he's a pretty heavy lsu lean right now corey raymond is so good at this a year ago i remember these guys emerging and all of these guys we're talking about will be seniors in the fall right and then they'll sign in december and then they'll be on campus this time next year well a year ago they were coming off sophomore seasons and both of them were kind of playing for the first time and the two guys i'm going to talk about and he had circled john meredith and josh dobson is the two guys he liked the most and i don't even know if they were ranked at the time matt now you look up or they're the only two cornerbacks who are ranked as five stars out of these 12 guys who got five-star rankings on rivals so uh i think old uh one of the founders him ron cooper right of uh dbu has a has an eye for talent and john meredith is kid over in fort worth and just seems like he's going to stay in state and i think raymond saw that early on and pivoted and look josh dobson is in north carolina but he's made no secret of it that i've got offers from every school in the country and i am very intrigued at playing at lsu playing for cory raymond and let's not pretend that signing the number one corner in dj pickett and having him play right away and how they did it right like look at the snap count him and pj woodland were about dead even and they just brought him along each game each game and by season's end i think it was playing the most football he had all season and you could tell it wasn't overwhelming for him and now he's going to be a a multi-year starter and probably another first round draft pick for LSU at corner. And that's what they're selling Dobson on. So he'll be back next month. He'll watch practice. And then he'll come back for an official visit. And he's already made visits. He's already talked to Kiffin and the new staff a ton. But I think this is where you start to look at recruiting wise, at least keeping that staff in place on defense is, this is key, right? because we're seeing a lot of it on offense where they're picking up on guys they were recruiting at Ole Miss if they aren't Louisiana guys. The defense is just continuing to recruit the guys they've been recruiting, and Raymond and Dobson have had a relationship for well over a year now. So if there is a corner to watch outside the state when you swing for the fences, you want another DJ pick it, that's Joshua Dobson. Dobson, as you heard Shay say there, is a five-star in the composite. that he's the number seven overall prospect, not the number seven corner, the number seven overall prospect. And it's worth noting that for 2027, you should have DJ Pickett and PJ Woodland back. If Woodland comes back for his senior season and Pickett would be back for his junior season. So those two guys would be in place. But in theory, Dobson, if he picks the Tigers, could be sort of that third cornerback, that nickel, so to speak, in 2027, not that dissimilar from the role DJ Pickett played in 2025 when you had Montser Delane and PJ Woodland and Pickett was that third corner. They could sell Dobson to say, hey, just what DJ Pickett just did as a freshman, was a freshman All-America. That's you in 2027. And then 2029, you're a starter. You're an All-American. And then you're off to the NFL. That sales pitch makes a lot of sense. And one more is a guy who's currently committed to LSU, another guy out of the Carolinas. It's Edge Jaden Bryant. Yeah, look, we have 32 at the end of it. We're only at 12, five stars right now. he's number 14 overall uh so right there and if he stays there he will be a five star whichever is in you will be uh number two edge rusher in the country and he committed south carolina because they made that hire of sterling lucas right i mean you make a big splash like that then all of a sudden you've got a guy like bryant suddenly even more interested he got on board and i think that the big storyline here is something that doesn't happen often And certainly not for a team that I can't even count the years anymore of having to turn over a new D-line coach every year. At least now Kevin Peoples has been here a couple of years. But Richard Anderson, Lamar Brown, both Louisiana kids, both five stars, number one and two D-line men in America. They signed in December. And if this holds, Matt, then next December, 12 months later, you'll sign another five-star D-line man who's ranked either number one or two. So those are the type of guys that are few and far between, right? Like when you go to the portal and you go D-line hunting, there was, what, one or two guys out there that were considered like the elite of the elite. So if you can get these guys in high school and develop them when they already have that level of talent, you're sitting in a pretty good spot. So not too bad of a start to have an Angels quarterback on board and then a guy at D-line is knocking on the door being a five-star. Shea Dixon from on three, the Bengal tiger talking about the 2027 rivals recruiting rankings. Great start for LSU. Okay. That'll do it for us here on today's podcast. Do me a favor. If you are on podcast, please subscribe on your favorite podcast at radio sleeve review YouTube smash that like button, subscribe to the channel, hit the bell. So you're notified whenever we post a new video and let a friend know that if they love the tigers, we got you here every single day for locked on LSU. 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