Brian Kelly has LSU football in the mix for elite 5-star WR

New LSU football head coach Brian Kelly made a lot of key recruiting connections during his time as the head coach at Notre Dame.

And some of those recruiting connections are helping the Tigers.

For example, Kelly has an existing relationship with 2023 five-star wide receiver Carnell Tate.

Tate, 6-foot-2/185 lbs from Bradenton, FL (IMG Academy), is ranked in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 3 wide receiver in the country and the No. 7 player in Florida. He’s also rated as the No. 21 overall player in the 2023 recruiting class.

Carnell Tate is set to visit LSU football this spring

Tate visited Notre Dame several times when Kelly was still in South Bend.

“I know coach (Brian) Kelly well, like when he was at Notre Dame I had been up there like four or five times, so the relationship is strong,” said Tate to Rivals.com this week.

The talented wide receiver hasn’t visited LSU yet, but he’s planning to check out Baton Rouge soon.

Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Chad Cosgrove noted that Notre Dame was considered an early favorite for Tate before Kelly left the Fighting Irish for LSU. That seems to bode well for the Tigers’ chances of landing Tate.

As you can imagine, pretty much every major program in the nation is hoping to land Tate. That includes Alabama and Georgia.

LSU, however, should be in a pretty good spot here. The presence of Kelly, combined with the presence of wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton, who was previously the wide receivers coach at Georgia, should give the Tigers a good shot at landing the elite wide receiver.

LSU currently has only one commit to their 2023 recruiting class, four-star wide receiver Omarion MIller.