The No. 1 overall player in the 2025 class Bryce Underwood has picked where he wants to play his college football at. On Saturday evening, the Belleville, Michigan native picked the LSU Tigers over the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Colorado Buffaloes, the Florida State Seminoles, the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Oregon Ducks and the Michigan Wolverines. Brian Kelly is just getting started!
News of Underwood picking the Bayou Bengals came hours after Kelly was able to pry Blake Baker away from the Missouri Tigers to be his next defensive coordinator. Fresh off a ReliaQuest Bowl win over Wisconsin, things are certainly looking up for the Tigers heading into year three under Kelly. It will be Garrett Nussmeier under center next year, and maybe in 2025. After that, it will be Underwood.
Obviously, there is a lot to unpack here with Underwood's commitment. Let's discuss why it is so incredibly good for him and the LSU program, as well as a tremendous missed opportunity for Michigan. The Wolverines had him in their backyard and were unable to reel him in. This hits much worse than the Wolverines missing out on Lloyd Carr's grandson, who committed to Notre Dame.
Clearly, Underwood feels he can contend for national titles and win a Heisman Trophy in Baton Rouge.
Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 overall player in the Class of 2025, has committed to LSU. The Belleville, Mich., native picked the Tigers over suitors that included Alabama, Colorado, FSU, Penn State, Oregon and Michigan. pic.twitter.com/OXsZStQwpL
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 6, 2024
With Jayden Daniels bringing home hardware last month, you cannot put a price on that Heisman!
Bryce Underwood is the newest member to join Brian Kelly's LSU family
Although LSU is not quite on the same level as Alabama or Georgia in the SEC landscape, you can honestly say that the Tigers are in the same group of teams with Ole Miss and Texas as expanded College Football Playoff probables. Missouri's chances of getting in next year took a huge hit with Baker leaving Columbia for a chance to go back to Baton Rouge. Like Hagrid's hut, it's the place to be.
While Underwood's commitment is great and all, we have to remind ourselves that we live in the wonderful world of NIL and the transfer portal. Neither Daniels nor Joe Burrow committed to LSU out of high school. Daniels was a decent quarterback playing for Herm Edwards at Arizona State, while Burrow could not get on the field at all during his three years playing for Urban Meyer at Ohio State.
I think the best way to process the news of Underwood committing to LSU is that the Bayou Bengals are going to be a force to be reckoned with in this dawn of a new era of college football. If the SEC gets four teams into the expanded playoff, LSU will probably be one of them more often than not. Furthermore, this is the new place where blue-chip quarterbacks are wanting to go play football at.
A lot can happen between now and the start of spring practice next year, but good for the LSU Tigers!