Brian Kelly blasts the current state of College Football recruiting on Signing Day

The LSU Football team has signed the majority of its recruits as they're only waiting on announcements from Derek Meadows and target Solomon Thomas. As the recruiting cycle comes to a close, Brian Kelly held his press conference where he talked about the day. While Brian Kelly spoke a ton about the class he just signed one message was made loud and clear.

"It's not just about finding the right fit. It's about the most money I can get. That's unfortunate, but it's the world we live in."

- Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly didn’t name names but, it’s easy to read between the lines and figure out who he’s talking about.

Bryce Underwood was committed to LSU from January until late November and the messaging was always the same that LSU was the best fit for his development. Everything changed when Larry Ellison got involved offering Underwood $12 million to stay home. Once the NIL offer was on the table the ties to Joe Sloan no longer mattered nor did the development and it was further shown when Michigan fired its offensive coordinator.

Kade Phillips reported that his recruitment was shutdown until the day before signing day when Texas swooped in at the last minute getting him back on board.

As LSU found itself in battles late they likely needed to up their NIL offers which isn't always the easiest thing to do.

"Your brand has to be backed up by dollars. If you wanna be able to close some of these. We have to have participation from a donor base"

- Brian Kelly

Kelly has long taken the stance that LSU isn't in the market of buying players but, that doesn't mean they don't pay players. There is a difference between buying players and paying players, offering a player a massive sum of money at the last minute is buying players, paying a three year starter like Will Campbell is paying players.

At the end of the day, its the way College Football is right now and LSU has two options either stand firm in their stance like Dabo Swinney has against the transfer portal and risk being left behind or they can start to throw serious sums of money at recruits they feel they need.

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