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New Orleans athlete Donte Jackson will make his collegiate decision today at 10:30 a.m. CST. Nola.com will carry live coverage of the announcement on a stream that you can watch here:
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Jackson lit up Army All-American Bowl practice a couple weeks ago. He earned heaping helpings of praise, like this, this, this, this, and this. 247 rewarded his performance with a 5-star rating. I'm convinced Rivals didn't follow suit only because 247 did it first. Rivals still bumped him like 100+ spots up to 58 nationally. His end ranking doesn't really matter much, just want to see the kid get his due.
At any rate, this is a Georgia and LSU battle and has been for some time. If you take a look at his Crystal Ball, early picks came through for LSU, then a slew of Georgia picks around August, while every pick since December 11th has been LSU. LSU seems to have really stolen the momentum in this one. If you pay attention to the guys picking LSU, it's not LSU writers, either. These are national writers, even the CEO of 247, Shannon Terry, who are presumably pretty well networked. To add further fuel to the fire, Jackson recently did an interview where he said not to read too much into his looming official visit with LSU... which is after his announcement. He's planned to take that official with good friends Tyron Johnson and Xavier Lewis for some time now. He claims the visit is keeping his word to Frank Wilson.
Could Jackson pick UGA, then show up at his official visit at the home school with his two best buddies? Sure.
Could this also be the worst kept secret in all of recruiting? I'm putting my money on that prop bet.
Jackson is a stud athlete that will project at CB for LSU. He should also factor into the return game. National analysts compare his game to an LSU target from the 2014 cycle: Adoree Jackson. Donte could work on both sides of the ball, but considering LSU's lack of ability to utilize space players, he's probably best suited vying for a spot at CB, and returning kicks.
Nabbing Jackson would bump LSU up to 10th in the composite national rankings, according to the class calculator. At only 17 commitments, LSU would have the fewest number of commitments of any team in the top 10.
What do you think, Tiger fans? Does Donte stay home?