Recruiting wins out of state are always satisfying, but they are especially rewarding when the player in question comes from a completely different part of the country and a coach is able to steal the athlete out from under the nose of a genuine national title rival.
By Steve Wright
That is what we have here as Ed Ogeron and LSU pulled off a recruiting coup over the weekend in landing Derrick Davis Jr. out of Gateway (Monroeville, PA) High School, a talented safety that was being chased heavily by both Ohio State and Penn State.
Davis check-in as a 4-star prospect at the safety position and he is only just grated by the 247Sports Composite Rankings as being outside the 5-star range. He is rated as the No. 53 player nationally in the class of 2021, as the second-best safety in the class, and as the No. 4 player in the state of Pennsylvania. Davis stands at 6-foot-1 and weighs 194 pounds, a number expected to sit in the 210-pound range when he plays on Saturdays for the Tigers.
Davis is a player that could be in line for a role as a hybrid safety in the LSU system. He is a strong defender in the box and he hits in a tough and physical way. He also shows the ability to cover in man-to-man situations and has the right combination of speed and awareness to shine at the free safety spot too.
The defensive highlights are at the back end of this video from around 2:43 onwards. They show a player as adept at working the back end of the defense as he is blitzing the QB or stuffing a RB at the line of scrimmage. With the ability to be versatile playing such a key role in college football today, Derrick Davis has the look of a three-down defensive back that can be used situationally to do a number of different things – and do them all well. Davis is certainly a commit that LSU fans can be excited about.
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