How LSU football has the best recruiting tool in the nation during shutdown
By Zach Ragan
LSU football is set to have a big week at the 2020 NFL Draft.
LSU football, along with every other program in the nation, is using the coronavirus shutdown to focus on recruiting.
Visits are a no go for recruits through at least May 31, but coaches can still talk to prospects via phone/text message/video chat. And you can best believe that every coaching staff in the country is taking advantage of the downtime to communicate as often as possible with recruits, which can make it tough for a program to gain an edge in recruiting.
Unless that program happens to be LSU.
The Tigers are going to be able deploy the best recruiting tool in the nation this week….and they won’t have to make a single phone call to do it.
That’s because the 2020 NFL Draft starts on Thursday and LSU is going to dominate it.
Recent mock drafts have five LSU players going in the first round (Joe Burrow, K’Lavon Chaisson, Justin Jefferson, Patrick Queen and Kristian Fulton).
There could be an additional four LSU players selected in the second round (Grant Delpit, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Lloyd Cushenberry, Damien Lewis).
If the Tigers have nine players selected in the first two rounds, it would mean 14 percent of the players selected in the first two rounds would be former LSU players.
And those aren’t the only former Tigers expected to be drafted, either.
Rashard Lawrence, Saahdiq Charles, Thaddeus Moss, Jacob Phillips, Blake Ferguson, Michael Divinity and Stephen Sullivan should also hear their names called at some point during the draft.
In all, it’s expected that 16 former LSU players will be drafted. That would shatter the previous record of SEC players from one program being selected in the same draft (Alabama set the current SEC record with 12 selections in 2018). It would also break the overall record of 14, which is currently held by Ohio State (set in 2004).
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There’s going to be a lot of attention on LSU during the draft. And that will absolutely help with recruiting.
Not only will it show recruits that LSU can get them to the next level, it will also signal that there are some early playing time opportunities in Baton Rouge if they choose to sign with the defending national champions.