LSU's NEXT 5-Star? Pop Houston Is Taking Over Recruiting

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And they're leading the way to the Disneyland resort for Bluey's best day ever. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and so much more. Because when kids rule summer, you know it's going to be the best day ever. Is Pop Houston poised to land his fifth star? We got a ton of recruiting conversation. It's 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. On today's episode, we had a chance to visit with Brian Smith, the host of Locked on the Portal. Brian's a longtime college football recruiting analyst, scout, and of course covers portal nil and recruiting for us here at Locked On. And I wanted to get Brian's perspective because every week we talk with Shay Dixon, our buddy from on three, the Bengal Tiger. And Shay gives us an LSU centric perspective. Well, Brian has the entire landscape of college football and recruiting covered, and this was a big week. The opening just happened where all the top quarterbacks in the country, including Pop Houston, LSU commitment was there. And I wanted to get Brian's perspective. Not only that, but also the realistic chance LSU as a flipping Easton Royal, Jalen Brewster. And then there's also this fascinating conversation I want to dive into about the blue chip ratio and where LSU sits, because quite honestly, it ain't great. But Brian's perspective on this and what it means for LSU might surprise. We're going to get to that in a minute. But let's start with Pop Houston, who went to the opening, as we talked about in a previous episode, won the the long throw competition. 67 yard pass. Remember, he's a high school junior going into his. He's a rising senior through the ball 67 yards, incredible. Like that's NFL arm strength. And also won the Alpha Dog Award, which is kind of effectively the MVP of the opening. And I asked Brian his perspective on Pop Houston as someone who's seen him a lot because remember this conversation is one that for better or worse, we will have through the duration of their careers with Pop Houston and Elijah Haven. And also remember that the former staff was recruiting Haven Houston and Colton Nussmeier. And then you have guys like Malachi Ziegler, also from the state of Louisiana, kind of a bumper crop at corner quarterback in Louisiana. So ask Brian Smith his thoughts on Pop Houston coming out of the opening.

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I've seen him multiple times, tournaments, rivals, five star under armour camps, etc. Two things stand out. Number one, he doesn't have a good arm at, he has a cannon. So I mean like the one thing I was joking with Andrew Ivins the first time we saw him at future 50 last year down at IMG, take something off of it. Like I'm not, I don't want to be the one that catches his warm up passes. Like he's the guy you got to put the extra padding in if you're the catcher. So that, that's one thing. Like he will never have concern over that. And then number two, I mean the offense that he plays in now up there at the program that's famous for throwing the ball around up in Shreveport, I don't know if he's going to be used in the same way that Wayne will use him. And I heard your podcast talking about, hey look, most guys don't make it at LSU at quarterbacks, it's hard. They take transfers, so does everybody else. This kid fits what Wayne does. And I know he's going to get compared to a certain guy that's still in Oxford, Mississippi, which not fair, but they're the same kind of size. He's 5 10, 200 pounds and rocked up. So he's a guy that can run. He's a guy that can do all the things that Lane wants. I think he can be a star and to be honest, he's a better fit for Kiffin's offense then Elijah. And I like Elijah was at the same thing. Like I've seen Elijah, he fits the profile. He's £230 or so now. He's a big dude. But I think Lane's offense works better with a mobile guy. So I don't have any problem with it.

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We have, we've dissected this conversation an awful lot and Elijah Haven ran for nearly a thousand yards a year ago at Dunham. So he is a big quarterback who can run. May maybe not that dissimilar from Austin Simmons who was the Ole Miss starter a year ago until he got injured and then got Wally pipped by the quarterback Brian was referring to there, which is Trinidad Chambliss. And I actually tend to agree when you look at Matt Corral, when you look at Jackson Dart, who's a little bit bigger, Trinidad Chambliss, you're talking about guys who are around 6ft tall. Austin Simmons was the outlier. I'll continue to maintain though. The most interesting part about, about Pop Houston will be the same as literally any high school quarterback. And that's what Brian was referring to. There is we just exist in an era now where statistically it's proven that high school quarterbacks don't finish their career at the place where they sign initially. Sam Levitt, I mean Sam Levitt started at Michigan State, then went to Arizona State and now is at lsu. He's on his third school. We know about Daniels from Arizona State to lsu, Joe Burrow, Ohio State to lsu, Danny Etling, Purdue to lsu, Zach Mettenberger, Georgia to lsu, lsu, Georgia to JUCO to lsu. It's just the nature of it. In, in this era, guys typically don't stay. But it would be phenomenal to see what it would look like if Pop Houston does in fact stay throughout his career. But I think the most encouraging thing is when you start to hear more and more people hype up Pop Houston. And there are actually a lot of analysts right now who are projecting that Peyton Houston will eventually get his fifth star. Now I say it often, I'm far less concerned with star ratings and rankings and all that stuff and I'm more concerned with who is recruiting you. And when you look at Peyton Houston, he had a long list of giant offers from LSU in Oklahoma, Texas, Clemson, Southern Cal, lots of big time prospects. But when you look at Houston right now in the rivals industry ranking, he's the number 102 overall prospect in the eighth best quarterback. So could you realistically see that kind of a jump? Well, maybe with a massive season that Houston might have in his senior year and you heard Brian Smith also mention that program in Shreveport that's known for throwing the ball. Well, he's talking about Evangel, as we well know. And Evangel has a long history from Josh Booty and Brock Berlin and Brent Rawls and throughout the years of spread and out, throw and sling the football and Hat tip to Preston guy who posted this on social media that if you look at the career passing yardage leader in in LHSAA history, it is Brock Berlin from Evangel who was the starting quarterback from 96 through 99 and Brock Berlin threw for 13, 902 yards. So that was his total passing yardage in during his career at Evangel. Peyton Houston could surpass that number with 4,430 yards. So actually that would allow him to overtake Juwan Johnson's total yardage record in high school football which is at 14,475. So Peyton Houston could very well polish off a record set a Louisiana high school record setting career with a strong senior season at Evangelist as he heads his way to LSU for the fall of 2027. But not before he continues being LSU's staunchest recruiter. As we've seen, if you follow social media, Peyton Houston has been the Pied Piper, the guy encouraging players to commit, congratulating them when they do. He's been here on unofficial visits to accompany guys on their official visits and there's two massive prospects, one literally massive that LSU is still targeting and it's five star wide receiver Easton Royal and five star defensive tackle Jalen Brewster. Well, we've gotten a lot of local perspectives on the possibility of flipping those guys. You're going to hear what Brian Smith has to say about LSU's opportunity to flip Brewster and Royal when we continue locked on lsu. It's your team every day. The biggest stage in world soccer is here and every match feels like it has the potential for a memorable moment. One goal can completely change the energy of a game, shift momentum and alter the outcome in an instant. That's what makes tournament soccer so exciting. From the opening whistle to the final kick. And now Fanduel is giving fans another reason to stay locked into every match with every goal pays. It's simple. Bet on a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored in that match. More goals means more bonus bets. All you have to do is turn on your token, y'. All. The United States has advanced the knockout stage. We know they're going to face Bosnia. 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We'll dive back into this conversation with Brian Smith in just a second. But remember, you can get your daily LSU fix completely ad free by joining the Everyday club today. Start your 7 day free trial right now and get closer to your team without the interruptions. Click the link in the show notes to claim your free trial. So we've talked plenty about the quarterbacks. There are two other major prospects that LSU is working hard to flip. Texas commit wide receiver Easton Royal and Texas Tech commit five star number one player in the country defensive tackle Jalen Brewster. Well, I asked Brian Smith what he thinks about LSU's realistic chances of flipping those two players.

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I know Brewster a little bit, but I've been around Easton more and I've had conversations with him numerous times about this stuff and he's like one of the fastest kids I've ever seen. I watched him run a 429, got it on film like he's, he's legit NFL player. Great kid too. He told me that when he committed to Texas he liked the staff and all that stuff and they didn't even offer him the most. So whoever gets him, whether it's LSU or whoever, they're going to have to impress him on and off the field. So this one is hands in the air. I don't know because he's never going to have the phone stop ringing if you're kiffin. It shouldn't be a real heart sell, but then again, the kid lives in Slidell and goes to brother Martin down in New Orleans. You know, he's familiarized with LSU to the umpteenth degree. Heck, he drives through Baton Rouge when he goes to Texas for unofficial like literally. So I I don't know what to tell you on that one, but something tells me that recruitment will not be over until signing day. Brewster, on the other hand, now that Ed O. Is a part of the program, have you ever seen a guy that wants to recruit D. Wyman more than Ed? No, I haven't either. I followed recruiting my whole life. That one has a chance to be very interesting. And it's amazing how LSU Matt was all of a sudden in the building with him as soon as Big Ed got on campus. Not that they weren't recruiting, but like they made serious headway. I don't put that as anything other than just obvious. Ed matters. He's one of the best recruiters I've ever seen. He's put a lot of guys in the NFL at that spot. So I wouldn't be surprised if they flipped him.

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How about that? There's Brian Smith saying I wouldn't be surprised if they flip Jalen Brewster, the number one player in the country. I'm going to reiterate something I've said before and if you're an everyday or you've heard me as we've talked about these, I'm going to say it again as I understand it and talking to people within this program. There are two players, primarily two positions I should say primarily where LSU is willing to remaining in this class where LSU is willing to spend on high school elite prospects. Remember, we've been through this a ton. LSU is not going to spend money on players to come in as true freshmen and situations. If you are going to, if they're going to spend money to get a player to campus, you are going to contribute. It's like the NFL where every player that's on the active roster on game day plays in some capacity. It might be the backup quarterback holding on field goals and pats. Whatever it is, everyone who is active on a game day plays. Now I'm not saying everyone that's dressed on a college football Saturday is going to play, but my point is if you are going to spend money to get an elite level prospect from high school to sign with you, you are going to play them. Because it makes no sense to spend money to get a player to campus to have them red shirt and then leave. They're going to contribute. So Ella, this staff is looking at where will they have opportunity in 2027 for guys to immediately get on campus and play? Actions speak louder than words they just spent on Richard Anderson and Deuce Geralds and Lamar Brown. Look at the at the defensive line. So they will spend on Jalen Brewster now. So will Texas Tech. I have no doubt Cody Campbell is going to do what he feels like he has to do to keep Brewster committed. So it feels like a bit of an uphill climb there because you have a billionaire booster who's going to do what he has to do to make sure Brewster stays committed. But but will if the money is the same or comparable, will LSU Ed Ogeron be the difference maker to flip Brewster into The LSU class. Maybe, maybe it's the allure of playing in the SEC in front of 100,000 people and all of that sort of stuff that could get Brewster. But it's interesting to hear Smith say he would not be surprised if LSU flips Jalen Brewster, the number one player in the country. Now Royal is interesting as well because it's not just that they're recruiting Royal as we've talked about. They also are recruiting Monchin Sales, another five star receiver for from Indiana and he was on campus for an official visit. But it feels like an either or. If they can flip Easton Royal, they will. But if they can't get Royal and pry him away from Texas, they'll take that bag they have committed for Royal and they'll turn it to Monch and Sales. It's pretty clear that they will spend on an elite level receiver. Now they did not do that in the transfer portal this year. Remember this was Lane Kiffin talking about his approach at receiver.

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You know, we kind of look at that room where maybe you don't, you

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know, we try to balance the room more.

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If you think of it as like

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here's your cap number for a room,

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you know, instead of being really top

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heavy with 1 and 2 and then

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not having depth, I think when we've

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been our best, it's because we've had, you know, four to five to six receivers that can all play really well.

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And so that's what I we're striving for here. I think we have a chance.

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So keep in mind, it may seem like it's counterintuitive to spend that money when he's saying think about your cap and you don't be top heavy. But there's a big difference between what you would pay the elite transfer like Coleman from Auburn who went to Texas, Cam Coleman. And would you pay a five star freshman? Yes. Easton Royal is going to command a big dollar amount for what it's worth. The on three valuation for Easton Royal

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is,

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is five hundred and seven thousand dollars. The buzz on Coleman was that his asking the starting price was $3 million was a dramatic gap. Even if you double that number for Easton Royal and pay him a million bucks. I'm not saying they are, but if you did, you're still at a third of the price you'd be paying for an elite transfer. So what if you can go get that elite level top end guy for half a million dollars as a freshman? Yeah, you do that immediately, especially if you think he can be an impact guy. So it makes sense there. So we'll keep an eye on those two as those are the two premier elite level top tier guys LSU is still willing to spend on a receiver and Royal or Sales and a defensive tackle, namely in Jalen Brewster. Now that's not the only part of the conversation because there's a lot still remaining on June 1st it's or seen on July 1st it's what they're calling summer signing day. And so a lot of prospects are going to make their commitments known, including Jaden Anding, a safety from Louisiana. We're going to wrap up our conversation with Brian Smith talking about anding the blue chip ratio where LSU stands. And because LSU isn't ranked as highly as you might think, are they falling behind in high school recruiting? You're going to hear all of that conversation as we continue and wrap up next. It's locked on lsu, your team every day.

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A few more things we need to hit on here with Brian Smith from locked on the Portal. One of them is Jaden Anding. Now Anding is one of those prospects who's announced he will make his commitment coming up on July 1st. And that's exactly the kind of prospect Brian Smith says Lane Kiffin and LSU have got to make a central focus of this program.

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You can't lose that kind of recruit. Historically, if you're LSU and feel good about it, I assume they put their best foot forward. But that's the kind of kid that LSU that I grew up watching. 80s 90s, early 2000s. That's the kid that red shirts. Then his second year plays something. His third year you're starting free safety or whatever. And Louisiana is full of those kids. So that's the first thing. But I'm also looking at one other thing I don't know who it is. You probably know this answer better than I do, Matt. That state again is loaded. The 18th best player in the state of Louisiana, whoever it is, is probably better than the fifth best player than most states. It's not fair, but that's, it's just loaded. And I know you like it as you guys, but it's not all for you.

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I'm here for it.

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There's probably one or two guys that are on their board that like you and I have a phone conversation. We may not even know and it's still only late June, early July. There's going to be a couple more guys pop up that came to their camp that will play well this fall. They're playing their their hand pretty close to the best because you know Wayne's experience at the Portal. Don't be surprised they add a few more high school kids this summer. Don't be surprised they add a few more in the fall. But next year is the class that we'll talk more. I expect LSU to have a top three class in the nation next year because they won't need to use the Portal beyond that this upcoming year very much. Wayne should have his roster where he needs and if they're taking a whole bunch of kids more this summer, that would actually kind of concern me.

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So it is pretty fascinating to look at this as a test case because LSU did take 42 players in this Portal class. But as we've talked about, some of what they did was add guys for depth in 26 with the idea that they stay and start in 27. I've given you some of those examples. William Satterwhite at center, Darren Stray, one of the offensive linemen came in from Kentucky. You added nine Portal wide receivers. Not all of them are going to play in in 2026. Hopefully some of them stay and turn over in 27. Fahim Delaney at safety, Mansour's brother came in this year not with an eye to play with Tamarcus Cooley back and the investment in in Thai Benefield and then a five star freshman, you know, coming in from, from New Orleans as well. You're talking about a, you're talking about a guy who knows he's coming to sit and and wait his turn. But what's interesting though is you know, you heard Brian Smith say that's the guy historically guy in Jaden Anding the Aiden hall, by the way, is the player from New Worlds I was talking about. But what we talked about historically that's true. But does it really matter anymore is my question, and I don't have the answer to that. Like, only time will tell as we build a larger sample size. But it is very clear that Lane Kiffin is building his roster in a different way. And they're not going to go all in to get players from Louisiana if they're not going to help them right away if they want money. So the thing with Jaden Anding, of course, his brother is Aiden anding, who's on LSU's roster, unfortunately just suffered the Achilles injury in spring. But Jaden's one of those guys who likely lands at lsu. I think we all understand. But what if another school makes Jaden Anding a priority, will pay him like their top safety target and will provide a quicker path to the field? Well, I don't think you compromise what you want in your roster and how you structure it to get that guy to come and sit that. That's the thing. That's the unknown as of this point that will only reveal itself as time goes on further. Now, we did talk about the blue chip ratio and this is what Brian said to me that he sent me this text that I thought was fascinating because it's a list of all of the Power 4 and it's the blue chip recruits for 26 and 27 combined. So the 26 class, which is signed in 27, which are currently committ and blue chip recruits are four or five star recruits. So for example, Notre Dame is 38, Miami and Texas A&M 34, Southern Calist 31, Ohio State 30. There's Florida at 29, Texas, Georgia and Oregon at 28, Michigan at 24, Oklahoma 22. And then there's LSU tied with Oklahoma at 22. But that feels like a big gap between Notre Dame at 38 and LSU at 22. So I asked Brian what his takeaway was, looking at those numbers.

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Well, money is king. You can devise a roster however you want, but if you don't have money, you're not in the game. Everybody does their rosters differently. Lsu, honestly, it's ironic that you texted me today to come on the show because they are the most difficult team to kind of figure out because Lane is Lane, he's going to find guys differently. So he's not down the center. He finds guys. Obviously, Trinidad going to Ole Miss after being, what was he, Division 2. Yeah, like he finds guys all over, so he's harder to follow. But the money is the bottom line. Look at the teams at the top of that list and you go, okay, well, these schools got cash like Oregon. They got the greatest booster in the history of college football. In case you don't know. Owning Nike is profitable. So it just, it really, it's profitable. I don't know if you've heard about that, but it, it's, it's straightforward now and there's no putting the genie back in the bottle, although that will be a complete failure. That's not going to happen. But I think it's not really surprising and I don't think anybody's. Look, if you look at the teams down at the bottom of that, what do you see, Matt? Big 12 and ACC all over the place. Like teams with less than 10 commits that are four and five star guys, that's like some of them are zero. Like the Gap is widening and it's, it's massive. So the LSU's, the Notre Dame's, the Oregons, the Miami teams that got money, whether Porter or high school, the gap is, is definitely getting bigger.

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So the gap is widening from the top to the bottom. And that's undeniable, right? Like you look at the bottom of this list, as Brian was saying, Virginia, South Florida, Iowa State, Boston College, Boise State have zero, Washington State, Utah, Pitt, Oklahoma State, Northwestern, Cincinnati have one. Wake Forest, Central Florida, Rutgers, Purdue, Maryland, two tcu, Syracuse, North Carolina State, Kansas State, Kansas, Duke, Arkansas, Michigan State have three. Right. So like that's undeniable, that giant gap. But I'm less concerned with those teams that are never going to compete. I'm more concerned with is LSU falling behind? Notre Dame, Miami, Texas A M, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Florida, Texas, Georgia. That was my question. So I asked Brian that like is LSU falling behind?

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I don't think they're falling behind. I think they're choosing to spend their money a little differently. They're the most, I think moving forward I could be wrong on this, the most balanced mat between portal in high school because as you know, you've lived in Louisiana, you throw a rock, you're going to hit a kid that's at least a three star. So it's not very difficult in that state. It's the best in some years per capita. The NFL based on draft class and it's always top 10. So Wayne has already had the advantage of recruiting Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, because he was at Ole Miss. Now he just goes. I mean it's why Saban told him to take the job in Baton Rouge. It's not that hard. So you'll see that number go up. But he had to go and change the roster this year. So I don't put a lot of stock in the LSU number being lower. Talk to me in two years. Now if he divulges that he just wants to do Portal, I'll be the first guy to come on your show and say bad things because that's a terrible idea and that's that you don't have to try hard. You just got to keep the local kids home. And we know which ones. We're talking like the Richard Anderson's of the world. If you keep those kids home, you'll be fine. You should take 12 to 14 kids minimum out of the state of Louisiana a year and probably 8 to 10 of those are going to be blue chips minimum and you'll be fine in a couple years. That number for two year will be 29 to 32. But they had to change the roster with the Portal, so it's.

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We'll see. I just don't know that I agree because for what it would take financially to get those top tier guys. Do you want to play freshman? I mean look at the top of the class in Louisiana, Easton, Royals committed to Texas. Elijah Haven's committed to Alabama, Albert Simeon's committed to Notre Dame. Then there's Ahmad Hudson, Pop Houston trademark and Braylon Calais, LSU guys. But then Miguel Whitley, Ole Miss, Caston Lewis, Texas Tech, Malachi Ziegler, smu. I mean you can go down the list and you can see a lot of guys committed to out of state programs because this, this staff is choosing to build their roster differently. And that Brian and I agree with. But time will tell if it's the right way to go about doing it. You know we talking about it here. Unlocked on lsu. Hey, do me a favor. If you're on podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, Radius. Leave a review YouTube, smash the 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. I checked all day first and saved hundreds on my car insurance. Really smart.

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Thank you for making Locked on your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the Locked on SEC podcast host Chris Gordy blends the local coverage you love with the Confidence Conference wide view of where your favorite team stands. Find Locked on sec on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Locked On Podcast network. Your team every day.

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