2021 Early Football Enrollees

[LSUDad]

 

LSU gets immediate help with arrival of early-enrollees

• by Shea Dixon
• 5 hours ago

LSU will welcome nine new Tigers to campus this weekend when the early-enrollees from the 2021 class arrive to Baton Rouge.

 

The nine prospects all signed with LSU in December as part of the 20-man signing haul in the Early Signing Period. The Tigers have five open scholarships remaining in the 2021 class, and two players are currently publicly committed to the staff in defensive end Saivion Jones and offensive lineman Kimo Makaneole.

 

For LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, it will be the first time he’s seen the signees face-to-face since at least March 2020. That’s when the NCAA’s dead period went into place as a result of COVID-19 protocols, and the dead period - which bans any in-person contact between college coaches and prospects - remains ongoing for recruits.

 

"Our mid-year freshmen are reporting on Saturday. I get to see their parents on Saturday," Orgeron said this week on 104.5 ESPN Baton Rouge. "Big team meeting on Monday. This is my family. I can't wait to see our guys come back and for us to have a great offseason."

 

Of the nine players who signed with LSU and will move onto campus this weekend, there are three are on offense, five on defense and one on special teams.

 

LSU will add a fourth quarterback to the room in Garrett Nussmeier, a four-star prospect out of Texas who broke records at Marcus High en route to another big season this past fall. Nussmeier joins junior Myles Brennanand freshmen Max Johnson and TJ Finley as the four scholarship quarterbacks on scholarship.

 

The group will also have two new coaches in the room with this week’s additions of offensive coordinator Jake Peetz and passing game coordinator DJ Mangas. On Tuesday, the former Carolina Panthers assistants interviewed for the openings left by Steve Ensminger and Scott Linehan, and by Wednesday the school had announced both hires.

 

LSU wide receivers coach Mickey Joseph will add Top 100 prospect Deion Smith to the room this month. Smith, the No. 1 overall prospect in Mississippi, joins a wide receivers group that has turned over in a big way over the past 12 months. Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Jr. are now all gone from the roster, and the lone name who has separated himself from the pack with his play in 2020 was freshman Kayshon Boutte. Boutte finished as the team’s leader in receiving yards despite not seeing significant action until late in the year, with his biggest moment coming in the regular season finale against Ole Piss when Boutte set the Southeastern Conference’s single-game record for receiving yards (308).

 

The third new arrival on offense is Garrett Dellinger, who is the lone offensive lineman the Tigers have signed this cycle. The Top 100 prospect out of Michigan is set to play offensive tackle, and the Tigers are still awaiting the NFL vs. college decisions from both starting tackles in Dare Rosenthal and Austin Deculus.

 

While the Tigers will add three new signees on offense this month, the defensive line matches that total on its’ own.

 

Five-star Maason Smith, the highest-ranked signee in the class, enrolls in January and will begin workouts with the team. LSU got some big news this week when all four starting defensive linemen from the 2020 team announced they would return again in 2021. With Jaquelin Roy and BJ Ojulari also showing plenty of promise as true freshmen in 2020, the addition of players like Smith gives the Tigers some of the most talented depth they have had in the defensive trenches since Orgeron has been head coach.

 

LSU also adds two more defensive linemen to the team this month with the arrival of four-stars Landon Jackson and Zavier Carter. Jackson, who is coming off a season-ending injury, will certainly be focused on rehabbing this offseason and entering the 2021 season at full strength. Carter’s work will come in the weight room, but Orgeron has tabbed the edge rusher as a similar prospect to former LSU star Arden Key.

 

One of the biggest additions to the early-enrollee group comes at linebacker with the arrival of junior college prospect Navonteque Strong. The Mississippi native flipped from Mississippi State to LSU just ahead of December’s signing period, and now he heads to Baton Rouge with high hopes of seeing plenty of early playing time. He’s ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 1 junior college middle linebacker prospect in the 2021 class. LSU loses linebacker Jabril Cox to the NFL Draft, and while Micah Baskerville passed up Damone Clark in the starting lineup this past season, Baskerville has yet to reveal his decision when it comes to returning to the team in 2021.

 

The lone early-enrollee at defensive back is the nation’s No. 3 safety Derrick Davis Jr. The Pennsylvania standout heads to Baton Rouge as a Top 100 prospect with hopes of seeing the field early, and the Tigers were in search of safety help this cycle. Davis joins Sage Ryan and Matthew Langlois as the three signees at safety, but he will have the chance to compete this spring and gain an early head start through practices and workouts. LSU loses JaCoby Stevens at safety, but return a handful of other scholarship players in Todd Harris, Maurice Hampton, Cameron Lewis and Jordan Toles.

 

On special teams, the early-enrollee decision by Peyton Todd has turned into a well-played one by special teams coordinator Greg McMahon. This past week, LSU punter Zach Von Rosenberg announced he was declaring for the NFL Draft after punting for the Tigers for four seasons. That left McMahon without a scholarship punter, but only for a little more than a week. Todd, the nation’s No. 1 punter, heads to Baton Rouge this weekend and will have plenty of time to get acclimated before the 2021 season begins. The hope is for Todd to win the starting job at punter, then the Tigers return all three other key specialists in kicker Cade York, kickoff specialist Avery Atkins and long snapper Quentin Skinner.