2022 Early Signing Day: Primer and Open Thread

Not a whole lot of drama heading into Wednesday. Good.

Wednesday begins the Early Signing Period for the 2023 football recruiting class and, as a pleasant surprise, LSU actually doesn’t have a whole lot of drama going in.

As it stands at the moment I’m writing this, LSU has 29 members in its 2023 class (25 high schoolers, and four transfers). You never want to assume anything in recruiting, but—for the moment at least—almost all of these 25 high school players are expected to sign. The only commit who isn’t signing is corner Daylen Austin from the Long Beach, California area. Austin’s going to be signing in February but there’s also been a lot of smoke around him possibly flipping to Oregon.

Still holding on to 24 out of 25 from a top-five class is about as good a start Brian Kelly could have. Below is a list of players I found that are for sure signing tomorrow:

• Ashton Stamps: CB, Archbishop Rummel (Metairie)
• Whit Weeks: LB, Oconee County (Watkinsville, Georgia)
• Ryan Yaites: S, Guyer (Denton, Texas)
• Zalance Heard: OT, Neville (Monroe)
• Mac Markway: TE, DeSmet (St. Louis, Missouri)
• DJ Chester: OT, Eagles Landing Christian Academy (McDonough, Georgia)
• Tyree Adams: OT, St. Augustine (New Orleans)
• Dashawn Womack: DE, St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Shelton Sampson Jr.: WR, Catholic (Baton Rouge)
• Jeremiah Hughes: CB, Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nevada)
• Kaleb Jackson: RB, Liberty Magnet (Baton Rouge)
• Paul Mubenga: C, Buford (Buford, Georgia)

Note: there’s probably more but these 12 were the only ones I found as confirmed signees for Wednesday. I’ll update the thread when others sign.

The most interesting question surrounding LSU isn’t who will they keep, it’s who will they add. LSU’s hoping to boost its 2023 class with the additions of three players: corner Desmond Ricks, safety Isaac Smith, and tight end Ka’Morreun Pimpton.

Ricks is the biggest fish on LSU’s board. The five-star corner out of IMG Academy reclassified into the 2023 class and LSU’s long been in the running for his talents. It’s going to come down to a battle between LSU, Florida, and Alabama, but LSU got the ever important last official visit. Ricks is signing Thursday, not Wednesday, but the people who get paid the big bucks to report on LSU recruiting all feel pretty good that Ricks will pick the Tigers.

Smith is a safety out of Mississippi and it’s down to LSU and Mississippi State. Pulling Mississippi kids out of the state is damn near impossible when either Ole Miss or Miss State are involved, but with Mike Leach tragically passing away last week who knows how this one will play out.

Pimpton has been a late add to LSU’s wish list but they were able to get him on campus earlier in December. Pimpton is a Fort Worth native and currently committed to Vanderbilt, but LSU, Texas, and the new-look Nebraska Cornhuskers under Matt Rhule have all offered within the past three weeks.