Tag: Greg Brooks Jr

Five remaining questions for LSU’s football team heading into fall camp

We have some more clarity as we emerge from the spring, but there’s a lot more to be learned as LSU heads into the summer.

LSU had its spring game on Saturday, marking the end of the first spring practice with coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] at the helm.

The quarterbacks have been the biggest discussion point all spring and that won’t change as we move toward the fall. There are also some areas where we have more clarity now, such as the offensive line and linebacker rooms.

In the secondary, it looks like [autotag]Greg Brooks Jr.[/autotag] and [autotag]Joe Foucha[/autotag], both Louisiana natives who transferred from Arkansas, are emerging as leaders.

However, there are plenty of questions that remain as Kelly has only been on the job for a few months. Much of spring practice was about solidifying the transition and installing the new playbooks.

On top of that, there could still be some players yet to come and go. After spring, players could have a better idea of their situation at a given school and elect to transfer. That could kick off a second round of transfers, and LSU still has a couple of roster spots left to use.

It’ll be a long time until we see LSU out on the field again, which means a lot can change before LSU takes the field against Florida State in New Orleans. Here are some remaining questions as it gears up for the break during the summer.

BREAKING: Four-star safety commits to LSU

LSU picked up its fourth commitment in the 2023 cycle on Friday morning.

The Tigers have added another piece to their currently small 2023 class.

[autotag]Ryan Yaites[/autotag], a six-foot-one, 175-pound four-star safety from Denton, Texas, announced his commitment to play for coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and LSU via his Twitter account on Friday morning.

Yaites becomes the fourth commit from the class of 2023 and the second safety to commit. The other one is Michael Daugherty, a safety from Loganville, Georgia, who committed earlier this week. According to Rivals.com, Yaites was ranked as the No. 73 player in the country, the No. 11 safety, and the No. 8 player in the State of Texas.

Yaites was a Texas District 5-6A first-team selection at cornerback as a junior; as he helped Guyer reach the Class 6A-Division II state title game.

For the 2022 recruiting class, Kelly looked to the transfer portal and plucked away some of the best defensive backs available in [autotag]Jarrick Bernard-Converse[/autotag], [autotag]Greg Brooks Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Mekhi Garner[/autotag], and [autotag]Joe Foucha[/autotag].

For the class of 2023, so far he has put more of an emphasis on prep talent to add to a secondary that is full of elite players. LSU’s class currently ranks No. 24 in the nation, per the 247Sports Composite.

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How the Tigers fared in bringing in blue-chip talent in the 2022 class

How did Brian Kelly fare in bringing in the blue chippers?

Going into the 2021 campaign, the LSU Tigers were tied for the fifth-most blue-chip players on their roster. Essentially the number of players that were made up of four and five-star players. The Bayou Bengals were tied with the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma Sooners, and Florida Gators at 66%.

Ironically enough, three of the four schools mentioned here had changed their head coach this cycle and Texas is going into year two with Steve Sarkisian. Brian Kelly had plenty of work to do to salvage the 2022 cycle after being named head coach just a couple of weeks prior to the early signing period.

Looking back at the 2022 class, Kelly was able to secure a class that ranked in the top 12, and top six once you factor in the litany of college transfers. A total of 28 players with 15 coming by way of high schools. All told, the Tigers added 47% blue-chip players of the 15 signed. The class is led by former Texas A&M pledge Harold Perkins.

What 247Sports Says…

Harold Perkins
(Photo: Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District)

The Tigers signed 15 prospects on National Signing Day, and seven are blue-chips. The top signee is five-star linebacker Harold Perkins, who 247Sports’ Gabe Brooks compared to Myles Jack athletically. Keeping QB Walker Howard in the fold was also big. LSU did not choose to load up on high school prospects in the short time that new coach Brian Kelly has been on campus, a strategy I agree with. Attacking the portal heavily and saving scholarships for the 2023 class makes a lot of sense.

In the transfer portal, LSU added several blue-chip transfers. Jarrick Bernard-Converse (Oklahoma State), Mekhi Wingo (Missouri), Greg Brooks Jr (Arkansas), and Miles Frazier (Florida International). New running back Noah Cain was rated as a four-star running back coming out of high school but downgraded to a three-star transfer in the cycle.

Cain didn’t necessarily lose a step but injuries did slow him down a bit with the Penn State Nittany Lions. He will have ample opportunities to get back to that level with LSU. Cain will likely serve as RB2 to the returning John Emery Jr.

Overall, if you factor in the blue-chip transfers, it would give LSU a ratio of 39.2%. Not exactly a fantastic number but as we all know, recruiting rankings aren’t the gospel but more of a guide. Players develop and sometimes you just flat out miss on evaluation.

For Brian Kelly and this staff, the 2022 cycle was a good building block. They just need to hammer it home in the 2023 cycle.

LSU adds Jarrick Bernard-Converse to the 2022 roster

The defense gets another experience cornerback

The transfers just keep rolling in as the LSU Tigers add yet another cornerback to the 2022 roster. The team announced that former Oklahoma State cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse will play his final year of college in his home state. The Shreveport native returns to the Boot after four years with the Cowboys.

Bernard-Converse appeared in 49 games for Oklahoma State in his four seasons. He tallied 195 total tackles, 7.5 TFLs, four sacks, two interceptions, 24 passes defended, and one forced fumble.

After LSU lost Derek Stingley Jr, Eli Ricks, Cordale Flott, and Dwight McGlothern, the team went to work in the portal. The Tigers added Bernard-Converse, Greg Brooks Jr, and Mekhi Garner at the cornerback position. The team also signed four-star cornerback Laterrance Welch in the 2022 recruiting class.

A young position group has suddenly become a veteran group with the three cornerbacks added to the room. Bernard-Converse and Garner will likely look to take the boundary spots while Brooks is viewed as the nickel cornerback for this defense.

Bernard-Converse brings more size to the position and he brings physicality as well. He was rated as a three-star prospect in the 2018 recruiting class out of Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport. Another solid addition to the 2022 team that is now up to 12 transfers and 13 high school commits.

The Tigers have just seven spots left to fill.

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Mekhi Garner listed as a sleeper pick among top returning cornerbacks

This cornerback could make an impact for LSU

Outside of who will start on the offensive line, there is no bigger question mark than who will make up the secondary for the LSU Tigers in 2022.

With knowledge of a mass exodus at the position, Brian Kelly and company went to the transfer portal to make an instant impact. One of those additions came from right down the road in Lafayette, Louisiana.

After three seasons with the UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns, cornerback Mekhi Garner made the move to jump into the SEC. He has an opportunity to improve his game against some of the best wide receivers in the country. Filling the void left by Derek Stingley Jr and Eli Ricks won’t be an easy task but Garner should be up to it.

In their annual series of top returning talent, newcomer Mekhi Garner was pegged as the sleeper at cornerback for this class by Pro Football Focus.

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What PFF Says…

Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports

Garner has been one of the best cornerbacks at the Group of Five level over the last couple of seasons at Louisiana and now is taking the leap to the Power Five to join Brian Kelly’s LSU Tigers. He has earned an 83.5 coverage grade since 2020 with zero catches allowed in 10 of his games played. The 6-foot-2, 212-point cornerback has racked up 15 pass breakups and three interceptions in that span. He plays in control and isn’t going to lose at the catch point with his physical frame. How Garner holds up against some of the more athletic receivers in the SEC will be something to monitor.

Garner is definitely a physical cornerback that brings size to the position for the LSU defense. Standing in at 6’2″ will allow the new Tigers cornerback to avoid bigger wide receivers from going up over him. He has shown the ability to climb the ladder to take the ball away. While Garner didn’t create any turnovers with interceptions in 2021, he did add a forced fumble with eight passes defended.

Garner along with Damarius McGhee and potentially Jarrick Bernard could be a solid trio of cornerbacks that see a good amount of playing time in 2022. Greg Brooks Jr will likely hold down the nickel cornerback spot, which will allow Matt House to move some secondary pieces around to create good matchups.

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Transfer Portal Tracker: LSU’s additions to the 2022 roster

The running list of incoming players from the transfer portal for LSU.

The LSU Tigers have been looking to rebuild their roster after back-to-back disastrous seasons by their standards. Over the two-year stretch following the national championship the team finished 11-12.

The team signed a total of 13 high school recruits in the early signing period, which was headlined by a pair of five-star recruits. The next two targets on their list are Jacoby Mathews and TreVonte Citizen. Both were originally committed to LSU but after a coaching change was made they backed off their decisions.

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With plenty of roster spots available due to the losses in the transfer portal, the team is having to look to build from the portal as well. Head coach Brian Kelly understood that there would be a mass exodus of talent and he has shown that he can bring talent through the portal.

We break down each player that commits to LSU from the college football free agency pool or the transfer portal as it is called.

LSU add second Arkansas transfer with Greg Brooks Jr’s commitment

Another Arkansas defender is heading to the Bayou.

The LSU Tigers have added yet another Arkansas defensive back with Greg Brooks Jr.

Brooks appeared in 33 games over three seasons with the Razorbacks. He accumulated 111 total tackles, 5.5 TFLs, four interceptions, eight passes defended, two forced fumbles, and one defensive touchdown. Brooks will join his Arkansas teammate Joe Foucha, who committed to LSU earlier this week.

Head coach Brian Kelly continues to look to replace departing talents through the transfer portal. This would make cornerback No. 2 for the week with Mekhi Garner of Louisiana-Lafayette also choosing to wear Purple and Gold in 2022.

The Tigers needed to replace four cornerbacks from the roster after Derek Stingley Jr, Eli Ricks, Cordale Flott, and Dwight McGlothern departed. Brooks is a Louisiana native from Harvey. He signed with Arkansas in the 2019 recruiting class as a four-star prospect. Brooks, Foucha, and Garner will join an incoming class along with Laterrance Welch and Jordan Allen in the secondary.

The defense will continue to look for contributing pieces through the transfer portal at all three levels. The team is also awaiting the decision by their top in-state target remaining on the board, Jacoby Mathews. The team is currently hosting a few other talented defenders, such as Mekhi Wingo of Missouri.

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