9 Dec The good news is that new head coach Brian Kelly knows what type of team he wants and has been relentlessly working towards building it from the moment he arrived. I learned yesterday that one local LSU commit, cornerback Latterance Welch of Acadiana, was ecstatic to receive an introductory phone call from Coach Kelly Monday afternoon just moments after Kelly stepped foot in Baton Rouge 5 Dec 5. In recruiting news, 247Sports reports that one of Coach Kelly’s first in-home visits as LSU head coach will be with 5-star linebacker Harold Perkins. Perkins has named a final three of LSU, Texas and Texas A&M. Both Texas schools will be in Perkins’ house this week before Kelly drops in.
So raymond was making 600k and wanted a promotion of sorts. Why not keep him happy and keep those channels open especially when youve failed to make a visit. Im not sure BK understands recruiting in the south is a completely different level than anywhere else. He will get gutted if he fails to keep up and the disparity gap widens. Our depth chart is void while our rivals are establishing face to face. for 10 mill i wanted to see him passed out on a plane the next day. am i being unreasonable, judgmental and completely unrealistic. you goddamn right Corey has been here a decade and has been nothing but class representing this university and likely just wanted a little bit of recognition for a relatively paltry amount. Florida gave him a raise no sweat yet we didnt see the relevance. Im not sure kelly understands recruiting the deep south. Its just nastier. new sec slogan. BKs gonna have to pull a jay johnson if we have any hope of competing in the sec for years to come.
Of course I know one is a HC and one is an assistant (once again if Raymond is so great why is he still an assistant?). What I meant by "same position" I mean that both have to prove something. Raymond has to prove he can come back to Louisiana and raid this state and Kelly has to prove he can keep it to at least a trickle. Hey I am more worried about Bama, Georgia and A&M raiding our state. Let me ask you this. Can Napier and Raymond keep Kelly and Wilson out of Florida? Should we retain Blake can Napier and Raymond keep Blake out of Florida? Recruiting is a two way street amigo. As I said before in a post first thing Florida needs to do is prove to Louisiana recruits is that they can beat us before they think they can waltz in here and cherry pick our athletes. Lastly Texas and the Midwest has a few players too I am sure you would agree. Will Napier and Raymond be able to compete with Kelly and Cooks and Blake if we keep him in Texas? Will Raymond be able to compete with Kelly and Cooks in the Midwest for offensive lineman etc? Raymond and Napier as much as I like both of em are now enemies and Tiger Bait. Screw em they don't ride for the brand anymore. This is Kelly's team now. FWIW I hope Jones and Blake are retained but I am not privy to how Kelly sees them fitting in with HIS vision. He apparently sees Brad Davis as a fit. I will trust him to fill those spots with quality coaches either way. Hey it's his ass on the line not mine not yours. He fucks this up he's gone in 3 years. One last thing. I haven't heard about one DB of ours entering the portal or bitching about Raymond leaving, have you?
You were against the hire and are probably quick to let anything remotely supportive of your fears become instant justification for your position. That is all fine and good and I always appreciate the eye of a skeptic. I am not sure of the mechanics of all of the contracts for assistants but I am guessing that they are likely to NOT be guaranteed like a head coach's contract is. Admittedly, I am treading water in the deep end of the pool of ignorance here but I'd have to think that for assistants when a head coach's services are no longer retained those coaches are probably either officially out of work at that point are on some kind of severance notice. We don't know that Kelly is firing these guys like Raymond, if these coaches have an offer in hand they are exercising, or if it is a mutual decision for them to move on. I think Raymond left by his own decision because Napier offered him a raise and promotion. Faulk lost his daughter and wanted to take time off for a grieving period so this was probably a mutual decision and I'm guessing Faulk will get hired by LSU in some kind of admin position when he's ready to come back. I think the urgency about the early signing period is a media construct. Over 95% of the class we have so far will end up signing their LOI. These are mostly Louisiana kids that have dreamed of playing for LSU their whole lives. We always have recruits every year that flip or are told to go elsewhere if the coaching staff doesn't see a level of commitment. Kelly just needs to show that he's putting together a solid staff (which he is doing) and that this is not going to be the clown show the program devolved into. Fark the kids that don't want to be here. The good thing about this year is that there are a lot of kids looking for a new program that committed to places like Oklahoma, Miami, Oregon, and others. Kelly and staff will snag some of these before now and Feb and fill holes via the transfer portal.
We sucked over the last 2 years and I am amazed at the number of people that want to retain a large portion of the coaches who gave us a team that sucked.
Has any of you looked at our "list of commitments" we have 11 per tigerbait.com as of last night. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 +1 We have less than a week. We in big trouble
