LSU Football: Louisiana native explains why he committed to Alabama

One of LSU football‘s top 2022 recruiting targets committed to Alabama on Friday night.

Four-star wide receiver Aaron Anderson, 5-foot-9/185 lbs from New Orleans, announced after his game on Friday that he’s planning to play for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.

Anderson is rated in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 16 wide receiver in the country and the No. 115 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class.

The Louisiana native originally committed to LSU last December. He decommitted from the Tigers after LSU announced that Ed Orgeron wouldn’t return as the program’s head coach in 2022.

Why Aaron Anderson picked Alabama over LSU football

After Anderson committed to Alabama on Friday, he explained his decision to commit to the Tide over LSU.

Anderson said his decision was based on Orgeron’s departure from LSU. The talented wide receiver said he told Orgeron that if the embattled head coach left LSU, then he would switch his commitment to Alabama.

Here are his full comments (via Twitter):

"“I made my decision based off my relationship with Coach Orgeron at LSU. We had an agreement on if he leave, you know, I would take my talents to Alabama. We all, as a LSU staff, made that commitment and that’s what it was. I had this in my mind for a little while. … I know y’all (LSU fans) disappointed, but I had to make the best decision for me. Roll Tide, baby.”"

There’s no doubt that LSU’s new staff — whoever that ends up being — will work hard to get Anderson back in the commit column for the Tigers.

But I don’t have a lot of confidence that Anderson will end up in Baton Rouge (at least not as a member of the 2022 recruiting class…who knows what happens down the road with the transfer portal).

Whoever is hired at LSU won’t have much time to build a relationship with Anderson and sell him on playing for the Tigers. It feels like Saban and Alabama have won this battle.

LSU’s 2022 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 12 in the nation.