Tag: Darryus McKinley

LSU’s 2025 class building momentum for elite 2026 class

Louisiana’s 2026 recruiting class gives LSU the chance at another elite group.

LSU’s 2025 recruiting class is shaping up to be the best in Brian Kelly’s career and the best LSU’s had in a long time.

Its led by five-star QB and No. 1 overall recruit [autotag]Bryce Underwood[/autotag]. He’s joined by two more five-stars in CB [autotag]DJ Pickett[/autotag] and RB [autotag]Harlem Berry[/autotag]. Both players are considered the top recruits at their respective positions too.

The 2025 class is far from finished. With just 18 commits, LSU will look to add more. Ensuring the current commits make it past the finish line is critical too.

But it’s never too early to look ahead to 2026 when LSU could assemble a class just as strong. Louisiana is set to have one of its best high school crops ever next year, setting LSU up for another elite haul.

According to On3, 247Sports and Rivals, defensive lineman [autotag]Jahkeem Stewart[/autotag] is the top player in the country. Stewart hails from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, a place that produced the No. 1 overall recruit 10 years ago in [autotag]Leonard Fournette[/autotag].

Stewart gives LSU the chance to land the nation’s top player in back-to-back classes. There’s a long way to go in his recruitment, but the On3 Crystal Ball gives LSU a 90.9% chance of landing Stewart. Underwood and Stewart in consecutive years is the type of core you can build a national title team around.

Stewart isn’t the only Louisiana product in the top 10. Offensive lineman [autotag]Lamar Brown[/autotag] sits at No. 5 overall. Given how strong LSU offensive line coach [autotag]Brad Davis[/autotag] is at recruiting Louisiana, it would be hard to imagine Brown going anywhere else.

Not further down the list, Baton Rouge safety [autotag]Blaine Bradford[/autotag] is on his way to earning a five-star. He’s out of Catholic High School, where LSU has several previous connections.

LSU has three five-stars committed in 2025 and the Tigers may not even leave the state to reach that total in 2026. With Stewart, Brown and Bradford, LSU can land the strongest core the state’s produced in some time.

There’s also OT [autotag]Brysten Martinez[/autotag] and safety [autotag]Aiden Hall[/autotag], two more top 50 recruits in Louisiana.

What might have LSU fans particularly excited is how good the Louisiana defensive tackle group is in 2026. Stewart’s at the top, but [autotag]Richard Anderson[/autotag], [autotag]Dylan Berymon[/autotag] and [autotag]Darryus McKinley[/autotag] are three more top 300 prospects that LSU won’t have to go far to get.

Davis was able to turn around LSU’s offensive line after he capitalized on a strong 2022 Louisiana class that included [autotag]Will Campbell[/autotag] and [autotag]Emery Jones Jr.[/autotag]. The 2026 class can have a similar impact on the defensive side for [autotag]Bo Davis[/autotag].

The 2026 cycle has barely begun, but if LSU seizes on the momentum of 2025, it will be another special group. Kelly landed top 10 classes in 2023 and 2024. He came to LSU to work with this caliber of talent.

But there’s a difference between a top-five class and a top-two or three class. Top-five classes keep you in contention, but top-three classes allow you to compete with Georgia. That’s where Kelly and LSU look to be headed.

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LSU offers 2026 in-state EDGE

One of the first prospects to receive a scholarship at the Bayou Splash was Darryus McKinley.

[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is hosting the biggest weekend of the year in Baton Rouge right now. The Bayou Splash is going on and most of the Tigers’ top prospects are in town checking out the football facilities.

One of the first prospects to receive a scholarship offer at the event was [autotag]Darryus McKinley[/autotag].

McKinley is a 6-foot-3, 255-pound EDGE rusher from Lafayette, Louisiana where he plays for Acadiana High School. The Acadiana Rams finished the 2022 season 8-4 with a loss to Carencro in the second round of the 5A playoffs.

There are currently no Crystal Ball projections at this time, but Texas A&M is a 36% favorite to land him per On3.

Film Analysis: McKinley does a great job using his hands to create separation and get into the backfield.

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Oklahoma trying to land a pair of brothers, offering Dominick and Darryus McKinley this spring

Dominick and Darryus McKinely both have offers from the Oklahoma Sooners. The eldest, Dominic, plans to take an official to Norman in June.

Oklahoma has the chance to have as many as four pairs of brothers on its roster in the coming years. It’s beginning to add a new meaning to the term “brotherhood” that head coach Brent Venables is working to create in Norman.

A true freshman and former five-star safety, Peyton Bowen, was one of the more high-profile signings for this roster in recent years. Peyton’s little brother plays cornerback at Denton Guyer High School. Eli Bowen holds an Oklahoma offer and could be a Sooner when his recruitment ends.

Current Sooner Dasan McCullough was a big get in the transfer portal for Brent Venables. He’ll likely start at cheetah for Oklahoma. They also added his little brother Daeh McCullough, a four-star safety in the 2023 cycle, providing a pair of athletic defenders that were essentially a package deal. They’ll both be on campus together for the first time this summer.

2024 commit Michael Hawkins’ younger brother Maliek plays defensive back and holds an offer from the Sooners. Maliek Hawkins, a 2025 prospect, is a talented, aggressive cornerback out of Frisco Emerson High School. Brent Venables’ ties to the Hawkins family run deep. He coached the brothers’ father, Mike, during his stint with the Sooners in 2002.

That brings us to the possibility another brother duo. 2024 five-star Dominick McKinley holds an offer from Oklahoma and plans to take an official visit to Norman in June. His younger brother Darryus is a 2026 defensive line prospect who also holds an offer from Oklahoma. While neither recruitment is anywhere near over, the possibility of the Sooners having another duo of brothers is incredible.

For the McKinleys, only time will tell.

Dominick is a five-star prospect on the 247Sports composite, and he hails from Louisiana. Pulling an elite defensive line prospect away from the grasp of the LSU Tigers may prove futile, but the Sooners’ defensive coaches aren’t backing down from that challenge. The eldest McKinley holds offers from Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, among others.

McKinley will be in College Station to visit the Aggies the weekend of June 9 through 11. Visits are set for Ohio State on June 2, Oklahoma on June 16, and Texas on June 23.

It will be a busy summer for the five-star prospect, who’s the No. 1 player in the state of Louisiana. Oklahoma will make a strong push as they work to put together a defensive line class that can lead set them up for success with their move to the SEC on the horizon.

The possibilities of the defensive line class the Sooners could land are endless. There’s no turning back now. And if the Sooners were to land the eldest McKinley brother, it would all but put them in a very strong position to land the youngest for the class of 2026.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.