GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Before there was Name, Image & Likeness and the immediate NCAA Transfer Portal with no more sitting out a season, which each began in 2021 in college football, recruiting was about long term courtships.
It still is when it comes to high school sweethearts, but in the world of the portal, it’s closer to one-night stands.
SEC COMMISSIONER GREG SANKEY FINALLY GOES TO 9-GAME SCHEDULE
“In high school recruiting, some of these guys, their courtship is two years, maybe longer,” LSU general manager Austin Thomas said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. “With the transfer portal, that’s obviously like speed dating. You don’t have a lot of time to get to know the people that you’re working with.”
Since the end of the 2024 season through much of last spring, LSU coach Brian Kelly, Thomas, whose official title is associate athletic director for football administration, and other staff members were the best speed daters in the nation. They ended up with the No. 1-ranked portal class in the nation, according to 247sports.com.
It also helped how much money LSU’s collective and various resources, including the $13 million from the federal court settlement ruling in favor of revenue sharing early this year, paid for the new roster additions of college transfers, high school signees and any raises to returning veterans, such as quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr. and linebacker Harold Perkins, among others.
“We’re going to be at just about at $18 million,” Kelly said of the total spent on the current roster on his first radio show of the season on Thursday night. Since the first year of NIL payments concluded in 2022 and in ’23 and ’24, LSU and its collective resourses never got close to doling out double digits for a roster and totaled just $11 million combined.
So, was it LSU love at first sight, or close to it, for the transfers, in particular?
“We tried to do a lot of due diligence there,” Thomas said.
But Thomas insists LSU was not just trying to buy dates.
“If it’s driven by financials, in my opinion, that’s a house built on sand,” Thomas said. “A lot of times those crumble. Financials are a part of the conversation. That’s the reality of the world we live in. But at the end of the day, that can’t be the driver for us, or we feel like that’s in vain. But what we try to do first is evaluate each other. We want them to get to know us, and we want to get to know them.”
But there is precious little time for romance.
LSU’s “Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire” staff is also concerned with who else their targets may be dating, so to speak. They’d also like to meet their parents and/or mentors. All this must happen fast.
“We want to know who’s around them, and who’s helping them in their decision-making process,” Thomas said. “From there, you can start having the conversations about the fit, and who they are, and what they bring to our organization. Because at the end of the day, this is all about building a team. It’s not just about collecting talent.”
And at the end of the day, or night, it’s also about saying, “And they won happily ever after.”
Be the first to comment