Kiffin Hosts MONSTER Weekend 😱 5⭐ OLs, No. 1 CB Visits & Calais Commits to LSU

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A massive recruiting weekend for Lane Kiffin and we are recapping all of it Locked on LSU Here we go. You are Locked on lsu, your daily

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podcast on the LSU Tigers, part of

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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. Lane Kiffin hosted a dozen official visitors this past weekend at lsu, including a handful of five stars, number one players in the country at their position. My goodness, the Portal King might well be making his way as the recruiting king. It's amazing what happens when you're in a talent rich state and you have the brand of LSU behind you as Lane Kiffin does. Now. Going to dive into all of this, including a commitment for LSU, the fourth of the 2027 class, some top tier offensive linemen and the number one cornerback in America. We are going to get into all of that here over the course of this episode, but I thought it was so interesting. Before we go back and talk about the weekend, I want you to hear from Lane Kiffin who on Tuesday after practice when he met with reporters, was asked about recruiting. Now keep in mind, when Lane Kiffin was hired, it was that Sunday that he arrived in baton rouge. Monday, December 1st. He was introduced as the LSU head football coach 48 hours later on that Wednesday. That was the December signing period. Dude had 48 hours to to finish up that class. What guys that had been committed. Would he honor those offers? What guys from Ole Miss did he want to flip? Got a couple of those. Corey Barber, Ryan Morett. What guys weren't going to be in the class? Were there new players that he wanted to target? I mean, it was a whirlwind in 48 hours. Well, now you fast forward from your three days on the job to now being here since January for five months and, and recruiting. And it was so interesting to hear Lane Kiffin's perspective.

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Recruiting after three days here and now recruiting, now it feels completely different. And, you know, I feel like now we're recruiting. I actually just had this conversation with the staff. I feel like now we recap the weekend and we're at full strength. Everybody's here. We know the people in the building. We have all our coaches here. They get to see practice also. So it's like, now you're. Now I'm really feeling the recruiting that full strength and then combining what we do with the branding of LSU and then the response, which has been extremely high level from the recruits and their families, which has been great. You know, when we first got here, we're just really. We're here a couple days. We don't even have a full staff. We're trying to sign the high school class without even having a full staff. And then even going into the Portal and having our coaches, you know, leading up to that, going back and forth and not here and then at the other place, like, that was really challenging. And so a coach said last night, he goes, coach, but remember, you weren't full strength and still sign this number one portal class, you know, of elite talent. So that was pretty exciting to think about. Like, we were able to do that and we weren't even at full strength. We didn't even know the building. And what we were even selling a little bit too, of everything we didn't have a feel for. We could sell our systems. We never feel for Baton Rouge. And now to have the feel for everything and to be able to sell it, it feels. It really feels. Feels great. I walk back in the staff meeting Sunday after all the recruits are gone, and I'm like, for all these parents and players to come in here and say what they said today really just excites me about the combination of LSU and us together.

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Part of what Lane Kiffin has been selling since the literal day that he was introduced, when he talked about selling their system and the logo. Well, the other interesting thing I thought there was Lane Kiffin talking about understanding three days in he was selling their system. But he, he still didn't know if he was leaving football ops. Out of the parking lot, does he turn left or right? I mean, let alone where do students stay and where do you go to register for classes and where do you go to eat and where do you go to hang out and where, where's the weight room? Like, none of that. Well, now he's got a sense of all of that. In addition to the on field football stuff they're selling, as you heard him say there. And Lane elaborated a little bit on Baton Rouge itself.

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Yeah, I actually had a former player today who moved backyard playing the NFL a long time. And he said to me, he's like, okay, we went to six different places actually was here with Saban and then Dolphins was saving. And he's like, we moved back here because the people here. And that does now make sense to me not to use it again. It's different. It's just a different feeling. It's like a, it's a combination. And I will get criticized, I'm sure, for this. It's like the deep south. Nice and caring with a little bit of edge, too. Of an edge, I mean a passion of like wanting to win and how can we help win. And so it's, it's unique. But again, like the recruits feel that like in these Sunday meetings when I sit with them and they're on the couch and the parents and they like, they talk about how much they enjoyed the town and the people and the people at restaurants coming up to them and the diversity and so I'm starting to get it.

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So with all of that as your background. LSU hosted a dozen official visitors this past weekend for the first April official visitor weekend. And they landed a commitment. And my goodness, they also had some high level unofficial visitors for this weekend as well. I want to get into all of that and we'll do it as we continue. Stay here. Don't you move. It's our recruiting episode. 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 sitting open when the pressure is on and you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed. Sponsored 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 the stat that says it all in the minute. Since we've been talking, companies like yours 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. Just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about it and heard about Indeed. I unlocked on lsu indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored

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Dive back into the episode here in just a quick second, but I do want to remind you as always, as much as we appreciate you, remember, you can get Locked on LSU AD free with the Everyday Air Club. That's plus members only Discord Access. So join at the link in the show Notes so every single week here on the show we do visit with Shea Dixon from On3, the Bengal Tiger. Told you about Shea. If you're an LSU fan, you probably know who Shea is. But for my money, the best there is when it comes to covering recruiting at LSU and has been for a very long time. Well, this past weekend LSU hosted a date dozen official visitors remember some. And by the way, some people have asked what's the difference between an official and unofficial visitor? It's good question. I take for granted a lot of times. Maybe people who follow recruiting know that. So an official visit. It used to be that prospects could take five official visits. Now they can take unlimited in this new era. But on an official visit, a school can pay for the recruit's visit. They can pay for their airfare for the recruit and a guest. So a parent or a sibling or whatever may be guardian that you can pay for their lodging, you can pay for their meals. That's an official visit. The an unofficial visit is when the recruit pays their own way. They just they pay for their flight, their travel, whatever, their lodging stay and they're just there on campus. So there were some unofficial visits. Peyton Houston, the quarterback commit for 2027 was an unofficial visit five star number one corner back in the country. Joshua Dobson was an unofficial visitor as well this weekend but our buddy Shay Dixon from on 3, the Bengal Tiger took some time to go through in great detail as you're going to hear. You're going to hear a lot of Shay here. But this was Shay recapping the official visitor weekend where a dozen prospects were official visits to lsu, including some pretty elite level offensive linemen.

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Great, I guess you would say. I mean they at one point were had a 10 plan, then 15 and then it trimmed down to 12 and at the same time you had Peyton Houston back who was not an official but unofficial visit and you had Josh Dobson drop in who is a five star corner. Corey Raymond's number one target this cycle from over in the Carolinas. He just swung through for an unofficial visit. So you put that together with having 12 guys on campus and yes the biggest storyline is you got to commit out of it. Amari Stevens. I think the second biggest storyline or the kind of 1A to 1B would be nearly half 5 of the 12 were O linemen and I think that's one area that Brian Kelly is going to be serious. God, like that slipped right out. Lane Kiffin will be serious about recruiting moving forward because yes you can go to the Portal every year but we're seeing it right now with the D line. I mean Deuce Gerald is making an instant impact in these practices, putting himself in a position to maybe start but certainly contribute. Richard Anderson is in that group. Lamar Brown hasn't even showed up to campus yet. We saw Trenton Henderson make some plays at that edge spot in the spring scrimmage this past Saturday. So just knowing that, hey look, we can't rely every year on getting Jordan Seaton or a guy like Ball and hoping he works out really well and that he stays healthy and maybe even elevates his play from where he's at at Maryland. It's the guys that you can develop much like, like Devin Harper who's been in the mix right at guard. That was a guy they signed at Ole Miss. So I really think they want to shoot for the stars here. Madden and Golly doesn't get any bigger than bringing in an O line group where most of the group was ranked in the top one or two at offensive tackle or interior offensive line.

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Do they make any movement? Shay, as best you could tell with any of the guys that were here,

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yeah, I think they made a big splash. Look, the one in state guy was Simeon and he's got some, some visits ahead. And he said, look, my time with the staff, he called it enlightening. And we've talked about this before, you and I of there's so much more that goes into these visits than checking out the campus and the facilities and nil or any of that. It's for a guy like Albert Simeon. These O linemen, there's new O line coaches, really there's two of them if you're counting Walford and James Craig, a whole new offensive scheme, a new head coach, someone who does things very differently than Brian Kelly did. And Simeon had sort of been entrenched into that. Brian Kelly, hey, this is where my recruitment started feeling and he said these visits for him, Dallas, you are all about getting to know the new staff, what they want out of an offensive, you know, an interior offensive lineman, what they see in him. But look, they brought in the big, big guns. They had Will Campbell down there. He was hanging out with Simeon and a lot of the offensive linemen and he said that was cool to kind of get his view of going through the recruitment as a Louisiana guy and to lsu. And then for that whole group they just talked about picking Campbell's brain about being at LSU and and moving on to the NFL. And look, I'll give you they had border state guys from Kennedy. Brown is a five star in Texas, Kaden Moss who is a four star in Mississippi, number three interior offensive lineman, Simeon being the number two one. So two of the three of top interior offensive linemen in the country, guards and centers were on campus this weekend together. Kennedy, Jackson over in Georgia. All these guys spoke so highly of the visit. But go all the way up to the Pennsylvania guy who visited this weekend and four star offensive lineman Terrence Smith, he's a kid who made his day way down at a Lansdale Catholic in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. He's a top 20 interior offensive lineman. He's got offers from coast to coast. And he said, look, between the relationship I have with Eric Wolford, but then kind of meeting him in person and having a longer weekend time to spend with him than just a quick visit jumped out at me. Said Lane Kiffin is one of those things that stood out about the trip just because of how active he was with the team and around the team on the weekend and with the recruits. And when he said kind of talking to Chad Simmons at Rivals about hey look, you've got all these teams of interest and you've got a handful of officials and this was the first weekend the NCAA allowed official visits. And so for these guys, it was the very first one. And he said, look, LSU set the bar very high. He said it was one of those where I might be from far away. I know I've got Penn State, you know, those Michigan, Ohio State teams like that closer to home recruiting me. But all of the while he said LSU really got that group together and made them feel like a priority on the O line. And for those guys, it was big on development. And I mentioned Will Campbell, but Eric Wolford and James Craig, your 2o line coaches, both of them have coached in the SEC for a while. Both of them have coached in the NFL. So when they're able to kind of pitch to recruits, hey, look, we've had the experience of coaching guys at both of these levels that you're trying to get to and go through. That's a pretty nice one two punch for an O line coach and a quote unquote assistant O line coach who just happened to be your own O line coach last time you you won a national champion.

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Certainly good times on the offensive line. But it wasn't just those prospects shay discussed. There's two other very elite prospects for 2027 that were on campus that LSU is squarely in the mix for. You'll hear about that. You'll hear about LSU's commit and the five star number one corner in the country where LSU stands. That's all as we wrap up next. Locked on LSU at your team every day

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Okay, so we've talked a lot about offensive line and it was a heavy offensive line presence for LLSU for the 2027 class for these official visits this past weekend while also on campus, Kaden Moss, Kennedy Jackson, and I asked Shea where LSU stands and if it's realistic. You're talking about a couple of border state guys here. Kaden Moss from Mississippi. Now, Kennedy Jackson is east Coast. Kennedy Brown is from Texas. They were all on campus this weekend. Is it realistic for LSU to land these prospects?

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It both could be in play here. Look, Kaden Moss is a kid who obviously the Ole Miss staff on offense had recruited him on the offensive line, so they picked that one up. And LSU has a number of guys in the personnel department who have Mississippi connections, so they've been on Kaden Moss for a long time. And that's one where you're trying to prime out of the state. Bama. Other teams are going to be involved that are Border State and trying to get into Mississippi. But I think one thing that he said, something that we've talked about a good bit, obviously, but these recruits are starting to see it and notice it, is he said, hey, look, I've been on a lot of visits already. This was one where it was really run like a pro organization, like from practice to watching film to getting treatment. I mean, he said it was all so nuanced and structured to the point where everything kind of felt like it would if you were a part of a professional football team. He was like, this is how they lined it up for that exact reason. And again, as a border State kid, he's going to look at LSU and put it in his mind and say, look, this isn't going far from home for me. One, I'd keep an eye on Kennedy Jackson, the same. I mean, he was one that really raved about Eric Walford and said, hey, he's a guy just watching him coach that room. He said that he could tell he could develop him and even said, hey, look, this was an exact quote. He showed me in these different ways. I've been through Bama, Kentucky here. He can develop me in ways that other programs are around the SEC can't. And it's kind of just a pitch to him. And love it or hate it, a guy like Kennedy Jackson thought that was a strong pitch. And he's a kid coming out of Georgia that's getting recruited by kind of the who's who in the sec. So when it came to his sit down with Lane Kiffin, Matt, he said, we talked about my recruitment, where it's going, and kind of asked what the feedback or kind of how it felt with Kiff. And his quote was, well, he's very straightforward and he knows what he wants. And I think we can go back to when I asked him about flying around the country to see Levitt and Jordan Seaton after they left campus and had said no. And he says he doesn't take no very well. So I think that's kind of carrying over into high school recruiting at the moment when it comes to one on one meetings with Kiff and it's, you're ready to be in and if it's a no, it's what do we have to do to get you there?

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You know, I keep looking at the offensive line as such a heavy focus for this class for 20, 27. And so sometimes your targets in a recruiting class are, you know, it's going to be sort of predicated on your need in that given season, but also what's available to you. I just can't help but look. And you're looking at someone like Mark Matthews, who's the number six overall player in the country who's visited lsu. We've talked a lot about Albert Simeon, the interior offensive lineman. He's number 14 overall in the country. Kennedy Brown, who we just discussed, number 15 overall in the country, elite level offensive lineman that LSU is in the mix for, who could potentially help, you know, remake that position group for years to come with this elite level coaching staff that LSU has as well. So we're certainly going to keep our eyes there. Now, while the offensive line was the heavy emphasis of this official visitor weekend. And again, it's April. It's April. It's the early official visitor weekend. You'll have more official visitors over the course of the summer and then in December, before the December signing period. So a long, long, long way to go. I'm not trying to be presumptive, but LSU did land a commitment in Braylon Calais, the wide receiver, the athlete out of Cecilia who picked lsu. LSU sees him as a wide receiver. And now remember, we've played for you. On last week's episode, we talked about recruiting. Shay Dixon's prediction was that Braylon Calli would pick lsu. As a matter of fact, the Shape predicted that the, the little tiger emoji that Lane Kiffin tweeted was in relation to this, the, the Calais commitment and certainly came to fruition on Monday. So having talked last week with Shea about Calais as a target, now we could talk to Shay about Calais as a commitment and how LSU pulled it together.

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Yeah, this is another one that it's been kind of a theme with guys. They've certainly been Recruiting. And we saw it with Peyton Houston where they had and not to the same extent, but with their D line commit, Jaden Bryant out of South Carolina. He had a connection to Sterling Lucas, who was hired to be the line coach. A lot of the staff on offense had been recruiting Braylon Tolle, Miss. And whenever they arrived here, he said they made them made him a massive priority. And we saw George McDonald go out to Cecilia in January during the the eval period when coaches could get on the road. And then we saw Kiffin make probably 10, 15 stops at high schools where there were notable guys largely for this class and some for next year. But, but Kali was one for this class. So you toss all that together and then again he goes to Cecilia. I mean, it's kind of tough to pull kids out of that Acadian area. And he's one where I think even the work done by the old staff, all of it was enough for him to realize, hey, LSU is a spot I want to be and picks LSU over Ole Miss and a handful of others that were involved here. But I think at the end of the day, look, he's committing before even doing official visits, much like a Peyton Houston. When you're the second Louisiana guy into the class. Now in Braylon, it's just one of those things where a large part of your recruitment is staying home to play at lsu.

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Some guys are just always going to be LSU leans. It is the benefit of the dirt, as we often say. Some guys are just going to stay home because they'd give their arm to play for LSU. So Braylon Calais, the fourth member of LSU's commitment class for the class of 2027. Now, another guy who Shay mentioned earlier is Joshua Dobson. He's the number nine overall prospect in America, regardless of position. He's the five star number one cornerback in the country. And Joshua Dobson, on a weekend where a dozen prospects paid their own way. I'm sorry, where a dozen prospects were on official visits. Joshua Dobson, the number one corner in America, paid. Paid his own way. Well, Joshua Dobson has listed his top five finalists. LSU is in the mix along with schools like Michigan and Texas A and M and Shay Dixon. I asked him who is the LSU is a prohibitive favorite here, by the way. So in all on. On three arrivals, LSU has an 83.2% chance of landing a commitment to from Joshua Dobson. So I asked Shea, who Really here is LSU's biggest competition right now?

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Look, I'll defer to Wilt Fong here. From a national perspective, he says It's A and M. I'm not at South Carolina. Texas A and M. Michigan and Auburn are the other teams in the final group here. So that are not LSU. I've had my pick on LSU. I think it's going to be LSU. He's already got official visits lined up. LSU's is coming the end of the end of May. It's a little more than a month away, but he's made so many unofficials. I mean, the day prior he was in Michigan, was going to stay a couple days and just left and shows up at lsu, right, and is like hanging out with DJ Pickett before the scrimmage and taking the scrimmage in and all of the things that normal recruit would do. When you're a priority, you kind of get tied to the hip of the position coach. And this reminds me a lot of DJ Pickett. It's hey, look, Corey Raymond has attached himself to one guy. It's a five star. There's a clear reason why he loves him. He's an elite player. And the other guy was John Meredith. There were kind of two of them early on, and I don't even think they're recruiting John Meredith anymore. They've just honed in on Dobson to the point where I'd be very surprised if another team landed in. But look, we're in the NIL era. I don't know him as personal as I do some of these Louisiana kids, but based off everything that he said, said that I've kind of felt and then asked around about, I think that it's clear LSU is the team to beat for Josh Dobson.

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No announcement date has been set, but Dobson does have his final five. It is lsu, South Carolina, Michigan, Auburn and Texas A M. And you heard Shea say there that it looks like A M would be the biggest competition. Dobson, 6 1, 185, he's out of North Carolina. He is a consensus five star, the number nine overall prospect in the country. This is a guy that LSU desperately wants. And you look at Corey Raymond's track record, just from his past tenure at LSU and then currently landing D.J. pickett, the number one corner in the country. Landing Haven Finney, who was the five star number one corner for 2027, who reclassed and now heavily in the mix here in the front runner for Joshua Dobson, five star, number one corner for 2027. And it looks like Corey Raymond, the godfather of DBU, is up to his old tricks, reeling in the best defensive backs in the country, LSU and Lane Kiffin, very squarely staring down another elite level class. We'll be talking about it right here. Unlocked on lsu where we thank you for tuning in to today's podcast. Make sure you subscribe and follow Locked on LSU so you get all the latest episodes. And if you never miss an episode, the Everyday or Club is built for you. You can get locked on LSU AD free members only, discord access and so much more. So head to the link in the show Notes for the Everyday Club. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app Radis. Leave a review if you're on 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 if they love the Tigers. We got you every single day. It's Locked on lsu, your team every day now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home by taking advantage of its national Red Tag

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