On July 10, 2025, LSU did what championship programs are supposed to do with monsters growing in their own backyard.

It kept one home.

Lamar Brown, the five-star defensive lineman from University High on LSU’s campus, committed to the Tigers on that date, giving LSU the No. 1 defensive lineman in the country and perhaps the centerpiece of its 2026 class. Brown’s commitment became even more important once LSU changed coaches five months later. Brian Kelly had landed him in the heat of July, but Lane Kiffin had to keep him in the chill of winter, which may be the more revealing part of the story now.

And another half year after that, LSU’s larger football operation today is continuing to look just as aggressive.

TigerDroppings reported this week that the Tiger Athletic Foundation has invited some of LSU’s top donors to a private event at the Governor’s Mansion, hosted by Governor Jeff Landry and LSU President Wade Rousse. The letter described the concept as a “first look at an alternative revenue generating opportunity for LSU athletics that is first of its kind nationally and could quite possibly change the future of college sports in America.”

It was an article on the pioneering efforts of LSU athletics that reminded us of our piece last week on LSU hitting the Big Apple on July 1, 2021 with the advent of the NIL era.

Brown’s recruitment showed the player side of that new era. Here is a snapshot of that hectic Sunday in December from Tiger Rag:

Brown (6-foot-4, 285 pounds) was waiting at the LSU football operations building on Skip Bertman Drive for Kiffin to arrive from the Baton Rouge Airport.

Kiffin landed at 4:55 p.m. Sunday and went straight to see Brown, similar to Gerry DiNardo immediately driving to Carencro to meet one of the nation’s most elite prospects at the time in running Kevin Faulk on DiNardo’s first day as LSU’s coach in December of 1994. Faulk signed with LSU and led the Tigers to winning seasons in 1995, ’96 and ’97, breaking a span of six straight losing seasons.

Then Brown tweeted his meeting with Kiffin.

“It’s great to know that I’ll have a coach who’s ready to compete for a national championship and wants to bring one back to Baton Rouge,” said Brown, who went to Kiffin’s office balcony to greet fans who were waiting for Kiffin.

For a few days, though, it still had the feel of a recruitment that had to be won a second time. On3 reported that Brown initially remained on course after his conversations with Kiffin, then shifted plans and considered waiting until February so he could get a better feel for the new staff. Kiffin, general manager Billy Glasscock and the new LSU operation kept working the recruitment through the week, with Brown’s representation meeting with LSU staffers while the Tigers tried to push the deal across the line.

Then LSU sealed it again and Brown signed. It ended the week-long waffle and, combined with other recruiting saves and the extension of defensive coordinator Blake Baker, gave Kiffin the kind of first-week win that does not show up on a scoreboard just yet, but absolutely shows up in the health of a program and new coaching staff.

It also allowed Kiffin to thumb his nose at a scheduled appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay and Rece Davis Saturday morning. Something tells me that might have been Kiffin’s plan all along, and I wouldn’t have blamed him.

That hectic first week is also where the coming meeting at the Governor’s Mansion relates: LSU is trying to make sure the next major recruiting wobble is backed by a larger, more organized operation—or kept from becoming a wobble in the first place.

The new LSU approach still has some vestige of the old. Keep Louisiana’s best players home. Survive unforeseen circumstances without letting elite recruits drift across state lines.

To this writer, who is not that young anymore but also not all that old, yes, there is still something unsettling about college sports moving this openly toward such an architected finance strategy. But LSU did not create this era. It is simply deciding whether to compete inside it or bemoan the loss of something that maybe never really was. Perhaps we were all cheering for a sport that hasn’t been amateur in a very long time.

On July 10, 2025, LSU landed a local monster.

Then Kiffin had to prove the monster still belonged to the Tigers.

Now LSU appears to be building the cage strong enough to keep more of them home.