For the LSU football team, the spring transfer portal has not been kind to them.
Three key players were targeted by the Tigers: cornerback DaShawn Jones, defensive tackles Damonic Williams and Simeon Barrow Jr. Since then, all three have made other commitments.
On a defense that finished as one of the worst in the SEC last year and lost several starters, LSU has some significant holes to fill. It appears unlikely that those issues will be much resolved this offseason.
In a recent exclusive interview, Coach Brian Kelly addressed such worries with WAFB’s Jacques Doucet. Although he acknowledged that the Tigers had experienced some problems with the site, he suggested that those problems were caused by a mismatch.
Kelly specifically stated that LSU does not intend to “buy players” through the transfer portal.
“I believe I was quite explicit in several of my press conferences about our desire to recruit defensive linemen through the transfer portal,” Kelly stated. To be honest, it hasn’t done so well because we’re marketing a slightly different product. And that is that we want to succeed, grow, interact, and form relationships in addition to recruiting.
“We’re not in the market of buying players and unfortunately right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought. And I understand that NIL is part of this, and we have an incredible collective, we have very, very generous opportunities around the greater Baton Rouge area for NIL opportunities. So they are here, but we’re not going to go out and buy players. That’s not what this is about, this was never about that.
“We will develop you, we will get you ready for the next step… but if you’re just looking to get paid, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you like all the things that we do here in developing our players, bringing you into a championship program, playing in front of the best fanbase in America, playing for championships and having an opportunity for NIL, you should be a Tiger. But if you just want to get paid, this is not the place for you.”
Options are dwindling for the Tigers in the transfer portal, and that could lead to depth issues at a number of positions, particularly defensive tackle where the team returns just two players with game experience.
But Kelly seems confident in the current group, and for better or worse, he doesn’t seem to be keen on getting into bidding wars for players in the transfer portal.
