Everything’s crumbling
Right around quittin’ time yesterday, LSU’s prized 2025 class dramatically changed for the worst.
Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 player in the class of 2025, announced he would be flipping his commitment to Michigan. The news was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter (a Michigan alum: coincidence? I THINK NOT) and later confirmed by Underwood on his social media saying simply “I’m home.”
Then the news started rolling out that Underwood’s getting a staggering $12 million in NIL to spurn LSU and stay with the in-state Wolverines. It was gleefully confirmed by Barstool founder Dave Portnoy in a tweet I can’t stand to look at but just know he’s got a crown and scepter.
The vibes around the LSU program is about as bad as I can ever remember. The Tigers haven’t won a game in over a month, they got blown out at home by Alabama, they won every statistical category except the whole “final score” thing against Florida…but all that could have been stomached because you had—past tense—one of the best recruiting classes in the country.
Now though? You lost what’s supposedly the best high school quarterback prospect since Trevor Lawrence; Devin Harper, the top interior offensive linemen in Louisiana, flipped his commitment from LSU to Ole Miss, and there’s a whole lotta smoke that Derek Meadows, the highest ranked receiver in the class, is also about to flip to Michigan. Though to be fair to LSU, there’ve been whispers about Harper and Meadows defecting for a while now. As for the Underwood side of things? The kid wanted to be at LSU…Michigan just kept upping the number they were willing to offer until he couldn’t say no. Welcome to the new world of college sports.
So what does LSU do now? Well, they need to do everything in their power to hold onto what you currently have in this 2025 class (cough cough DJ Pickett) and you’d better hope Garrett Nussmeier comes back for another year because you could be in a whole lot of trouble if your 2025 QB room is Rickie Collins, Colin Hurley, and AJ Swann.
It’s also fair to wonder what Brian Kelly does with Joe Sloan. Right or wrong, one big reason why Sloan got promoted to offensive coordinator was because he was going to be the guy to deliver Bryce Underwood. Is it Sloan’s fault Michigan offered Underwood an amount of money he couldn’t refuse? Of course not, and Sloan did pretty much everything right in recruiting Underwood, But LSU’s offense has been clunky at best, and flat out bad at worst this season, and now Sloan’s lost his trump card.
Things are about to get real uncomfortable around here. Brian Kelly’s getting paid $100 million to figure these things out, and now it’s time to earn that money. Maybe that money should have gone toward fielding a more competitive roster.