LSU Football: Tigers appear unlikely to land elite 5-star in-state recruit

LSU football could be missing on one of their top in-state recruiting targets.

2021 five-star safety Sage Ryan is one of LSU football‘s top recruiting targets and he’s from Louisiana.

Should be a slam dunk for the Tigers, right?

As College Gameday’s Lee Corso would say, not so fast.

Ryan, who is rated in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 1 safety in the nation, is scheduled to announce his commitment on Saturday.

And according to Billy Embody, who covers LSU recruiting for 247Sports, it looks like the Tigers are going to miss on Ryan.

That’s because Embody says Alabama is now the perceived favorite to land the Lafayette native.

“Checking in with sources, it seems Bama is the favorite entering Saturday and that source was fairly adamant that’s not expected to change,” wrote Embody.

Losing Sage Ryan would be tough to swallow for LSU football

LSU doesn’t often miss on elite in-state recruits. A player like Ryan is someone who was likely viewed as destined to end up in Baton Rouge.

But with the Tigers’ slow start to the season — specifically on the defensive side of the ball — it’s not exactly shocking that Ryan is expected to shun LSU in favor of Alabama.

While this will obviously be a tough recruiting loss for the Tigers, I don’t think it’s a bad look for Ed Orgeron and his staff.

This is just how it goes in recruiting sometimes. We’ve seen elite players leave the state before under previous head coach Les Miles (DJ Fluker and Landon Collins, for example).

The Tigers still have one of the top 2021 recruiting classes in the nation (currently ranked No. 5 in the nation) and they have several big targets still in their sights (five-star defensive line duo Maason Smith and Korey Foreman being two of the biggest).

LSU is going to be just fine, with or without Sage Ryan.