For National Signing Day on Feb. 7, LSU football put a bow on its 2024 recruiting class.
While the overwhelming majority of its class signed in Early Signing Day in December, the Tigers signed its top-ranked recruit to its incoming recruiting class, Dominick McKinley.
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McKinley is a 6-foot-6, 280-pound defensive lineman from Acadiana High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. According to 247sports, he is ranked as a five-star, the No. 1 recruit in Louisiana, the No. 4 defensive lineman in the country, and the No. 14 overall recruit in the Class of 2024.
“Dom’s upside is unmeasurable,” Brian Kelly said. “He’s only going to get bigger, faster and stronger. He can be as good as he wants to be.”
But it wasn’t easy for the Tigers to keep the top in-state recruit in Louisiana. On Sept. 1, McKinley committed to Texas A&M, and minimally pursued LSU after taking official visits to Oklahoma and Texas along with the Aggies.
Texas A&M’s 2024 class broke open following the firing of its head coach, Jimbo Fisher. The Aggies made a quick hire, bringing in Duke head coach, Mike Elko. But many Aggie commitments still fled ship, McKinley being one of them.
When the clock struck 12 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, McKinley flipped his commitment from Texas A&M to LSU, putting a lock on the state of Louisiana. Of Louisiana top-10 ranked recruits, according to 247sports, LSU signed nine of them.
McKinley was not the only recruit to flip from Texas A&M in the 2024 cycle, however. Of LSU’s 29 signees, four of them, including McKinley, flipped from the Aggies.
The Tigers first stole a recruit out of the state of Texas in four-star offensive lineman, Weston Davis. Davis, however, decommitted from Texas A&M before Fisher was fired. On Oct. 26, the four-star offensive lineman flipped his commitment from the Aggies to LSU, and signed on Early Signing Day.
Gabriel Reliford was LSU’s second in-state recruit to flip from Texas A&M to LSU. After many rumors of other schools attempting to flip Reliford, the recruit from Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana decommitted from the Aggies on Dec. 3. On Dec. 8, Reliford committed to the Tigers over USC and Ole Miss.
Four-star offensive lineman, Coen Echols, signed with LSU two days after Early Signing Day, marking the third former-Texas A&M commitment to flip to LSU. He decommitted from the Aggies on Dec. 8, and took an official visit to LSU a month later. Echols played his high school football at Katy High School in Texas.
However, LSU’s raid of Texas A&M’s 2024 class wasn’t entirely successful. In the 2024 cycle, one of LSU’s most-sought after recruits was four-star athlete, Terry Bussey.
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Bussey, who played high school football at Timpson High School in Texas, has quite the high school football resume. He was an Under Armour All-American, a MaxPreps All-American, and was Mr. Texas Football his junior year.
He won a State Championship his senior year, where he was awarded Offensive Most Valuable Player, and he ended his high school career with a 56-3 record.
The four-star athlete committed to Texas A&M on Sept. 8, but still pursued other schools, including LSU. On Jan. 31, Bussey took an unofficial visit to LSU, just a week before Early Signing Day. At this point, many thought he’d be the fifth Aggie to flip to LSU.
But Bussey stayed firm with Texas A&M, and signed with the Aggies on National Signing Day. LSU’s Class of 2024 was not knocked off balance with this news, but nonetheless, the Tigers missed out on one of the country’s most dynamic and versatile recruits.
LSU’s Class of 2024 was an overall success for the program. According to the 247sports composite rankings, the Tigers ended with the No. 7 overall recruiting class for the 2024 cycle. Of the class’ 29 signees, 18 of them were from Louisiana, and eight more are from bordering states.
Kelly has said that the program revolves around building around freshmen, and that recruiting out of high school is most important for the success of the team.
Now that he and his staff put a lock on Louisiana, and have recruited by the means necessary to potentially be in contention for the SEC West, the only step now is to develop the talent they have.
