As we approach the Early National Signing Day period, there have been recruiting flips left and right. The Tigers lost Bryce Underwood to Michigan and Devin Harper to Ole Miss while they're working on flipping Florida State's Solomon Thomas. One of the players who has been on flip watch for LSU is wide receiver commit Derek Meadows. For the third time this month, the recruiting insiders are projecting that Derek Meadows won't be signing with LSU.
Two weeks ago Derek Meadows was projected to flip from LSU to Notre Dame, after Underwood's flip from LSU, the Tigers were expected to lose Derek Meadows this time to Michigan. A week later, its a new SEC team being projected to flip Derek Meadows as the Alabama Crimson Tide have received the Crystal Ball.
My Crystal Ball prediction is in for #Alabama to flip #Top100 receiver and LSU commit Derek Meadows.
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) November 27, 2024
I like the Crimson Tide to get this one done.
VIP Intel on the details behind the pick: https://t.co/qYvORVJMIx@247Sports pic.twitter.com/6P4hUaxlSJ
Meadows hasn't been on a recruiting visit to Baton Rouge since this spring which was before he committed to LSU, and he was at Michigan a few weekends ago. When the Alabama game weekend rolled around, and Meadows was visiting Notre Dame over LSU when everyone was on campus alarms started to go off. We'll likely see Derek Meadows this weekend in Tuscaloosa rather than Baton Rouge which was the original plan.
It was a surprise when Meadows committed to LSU as everyone was expecting he'd land at Notre Dame or Alabama. After Meadows' visit to Notre Dame he was expected to land with the Irish but, Michigan flipping Bryce Underwood and Alabama struggling has truly changed the push these programs are making.
Losing Meadows would deal a blow to this recruiting class as he's a top 100 recruit according to On3's Industry Recruiting rankings. Losing Meadows would drop LSU down to just two wide receiver commits in the class which would mean they'll need to scramble to land one more or they'll need to hunt in the transfer portal. Brian Kelly expressed on Monday that the Tigers will bring in their biggest transfer class yet. so wide receiver is the place to keep an eye on.
The issue with modern day recruiting
Paying players was long overdue as they also deserve their share of the money since everyone is tuning in to see them play. The issue is, the term committed is used too loosely now as recruits commit to 2-3 schools within a year. Meadows has been projected to land at three different schools this month and it would make more sense if he decommitted from LSU rather than dragging this out. In all likelihood, there isn't much LSU could've done here the same as when they lost Bryce Underwood to Michigan but, you'd rather win with players who want to be here.