LSU Football: Tigers lose in-state recruit to Texas Longhorns

LSU football lost a key in-state recruit to the Texas Longhorns this week.

In a bit of a surprise, 2022 four-star edge rusher J’mond Tapp announced his commitment to Texas on Monday.

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Texas A&M, along with LSU, were the other teams in the mix to land the Donaldsonville, LA native.

Tapp, 6-foot-3/245 lbs, is ranked in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 9 edge rusher in the country and the No. 9 player in Louisiana. He’s also rated as the No. 134 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class.

Why did LSU football lose J’mond Tapp to Texas?

There were six 247Sports crystal ball predictions that were made for Tapp prior to his commitment to Texas.

And all six of those predictions had LSU landing the talented edge rusher.

So what went wrong?

Apparently, Texas is a “dream school” for Tapp.

The four-star recruit told 247Sports during the summer that he viewed Texas as a dream school, though he qualified that statement with “It’s interest there but it’s not really like that’s where I’m going”.

It’s certainly possible that the recent SEC expansion — which means Texas and Oklahoma will be joining the conference in the coming years — was a major factor in Tapp’s decision.

Losing Tapp is obviously not ideal. The Tigers typically don’t miss on pass rushers from their own backyard.

The good news here, however, is that LSU still has a few months left to flip Tapp. And I’m sure Ed Orgeron and his staff won’t stop pursuing him. The last thing the Tigers want to happen is for Tapp to go on to find major success at Texas while having to hear about how he should’ve been at LSU.

I think Coach O heard enough of that with Travis Etienne at Clemson.