This spring, the LSU football team had a clear goal: to land starting-caliber defensive tackles. Brian Kelly admitted that this was the objective, and based on the guest calendar this spring, it was clear that Kelly hoped to land some of the nation’s best available defensive tackles.
Despite hosting and offering scholarships to over a dozen different athletes at defensive tackle and other positions, the LSU football club only signed one transfer, Grand Valley State defensive tackle Jay’viar Suggs.
The LSU football program targeted many SEC-caliber players, but they all selected different Power Five and SEC schools. The biggest reason LSU did not land a quality spring transfer class is that Brian Kelly stated that they are not in the market for “buying players.” Many people interpreted Brian Kelly’s statement as implying he did not believe in NIL, but this is incorrect.
Brian Kelly meant to say that he wasn’t looking to buy players of a specific sort. There were other transfers that produced acceptable results, but none of the players were of the top-tier caliber that we saw in the fall. According to rumors, a handful of the players targeted by LSU were asking for around a million dollars from a school willing to take them.
The LSU football team has made the 2025 recruiting class a top priority, boasting the nation’s second-ranked recruiting class. To land a class of LSU football caliber, the new normal will necessitate a significant NIL investment.
The question is whether you would rather spend top bucks on a defensive tackle who will only be useful for one year or on a recruit who may be a valuable asset for several years. Brian Kelly’s decision not to spend heavily on transfers this spring does not imply that he will not buy players, but rather that he is willing to do so if the proper players are available.
Brian Kelly’s approach is the appropriate one.
Brian Kelly’s approach of focusing on normal recruits rather than transfers is the right one, and more teams will follow suit. Bringing in a player for whom the organization paid a large sum of money for a single season may be seen adversely by the locker room. It also makes little sense for a program to put all of its eggs in one basket, paying a large quantity of money for a single season. The final reason is that many of the players LSU was recruiting in the portal were not top-tier players who could immediately improve the defense, and a player like Suggs who wants to stay at LSU to develop is the right option.
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