The only thing unanimous about LSU’s 2010 football recruiting class is the number of commitments.The three main college recruiting Web sites — Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPNU.com — agree to disagree on the ranking of the 2010 class.The 22 recruits in the class are ranked in the top six by the three sites. Rivals ranks LSU’s class No. 2 in the country, while Scout has the Tigers’ class at No. 5. ESPNU lands it at No. 6.”On paper it could potentially be a top-five or top-10 class,” said Rene Nadeau, college football analyst for ESPN and TigerVision. “But there are going to be a couple of surprises, good and bad.”The Tigers only have one Scout five-star recruit — wide receiver Mike Davis. The 6-foot-1-inch, 175-pound Dallas native caught 58 passes for 1,138 yards and 16 touchdowns his junior season. But LSU has 10 Scout four-stars, headlined by safety Eric Reid, running back Spencer Ware and defensive end Jordan Allen. Reid racked up 47 tackles and four interceptions his junior season at Dutchtown High School. Ware is a quarterback for Princeton High School in Ohio, but the 5-foot-11-inch athlete is projected as a running back in college. Allen is a Class 5A All-State selection and Scout’s No. 10 defensive end in the nation. The West Monroe native logged 70 tackles and nine sacks his junior season. Sonny Shipp, recruiting analyst for Scout, said LSU’s 2010 class is deep but does not have the top-level recruits of past classes.Many blue-chip recruits still have LSU on their radar. Running back Lache Seastrunk, wide receiver Trovon Reed and middle linebacker Jeff Luc are all considering LSU. Shipp said Seastrunk and Reed are leaning to the Tigers, while Luc is a long-shot.LSU, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia lead the Southeastern Conference in the 2010 rankings. At least four SEC teams are in the top 10 of each site’s rankings.The Gators continue recruiting for speed, clinching Scout five-star recruits safety Matt Elam and running back Mack Brown. Both players run a 40-yard dash in less than 4.5 seconds.Alabama coach Nick Saban is continuing the tide of top recruiting classes in Tuscaloosa. Alabama has a commitment from Phillip Sims, Scout’s No. 5 quarterback in the nation, and Millbrook, Ala., native Demarcus Milliner, Scout’s No. 1 cornerback.Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin’s 2010 class is beginning to fill up with the Volunteers clinching three recruits Sunday. Wide receiver Demarco Cobbs and defensive tackle Brandon Willis are Scout five-star recruits, while defensive end Corey Miller is a Scout four-star prospect.Georgia’s class is led by two Scout five-star defensive stalwarts in safety Alec Ogletree and defensive tackle Garrison Smith.Nadeau said rankings from the three sites are hard to gauge less than five months before National Signing Day on Feb. 3. “The numbers are based on spring practice and camps,” Nadeau said. “It’s sexy to put numbers up there, but the guys haven’t finished their senior season. Some kids will blossom their senior season, and they aren’t even on the radar yet.”Shipp said it’s hard to evaluate talent at the high school level.”Evaluating high school players isn’t an exact science,” Shipp said. “Seventeen-year-old kids still have a ways to develop physically and mentally.”Although recruiting rankings are not guaranteed to translate to on-the-field success, fans still flock to the Internet to see where their team stacks up.”Recruiting gives all teams something to look forward to down the road,” Nadeau said. “Its easy to digest and access. It gives everybody a little hope.” –Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]
Football: LSU’s 2010 recruiting class among top six in nation
September 16, 2009