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LSU has had about as much success you could possibly hope for in the transfer portal era. Joe Burrow became the greatest player in program history; Cole Tracy had the best single season a Tiger kicker has ever had; Breieden Fehoko was a solid piece along the defensive line, playing in 23 games over two years and starting 12; and Jabril Cox and Terrence Alexander were both heavy contributors in their lone respective seasons on campus.
The transfer portal has been kind to LSU since its inception. Can Major Burns keep it going?
The Story
Coming out of Madison Prep, Burns was all set to join LSU’s 2020 recruiting class. But LSU made a swing for the fences with five-star defensive linemen Jordan Burch and in order to try and make room for Burch, Burns had to be sacrificed (I believe it’s called “processed” by those who follow recruiting religiously). It ultimately blew up in LSU’s face as Burch elected to stay home and sign with South Carolina and Burns signed with Georgia, but Burns found his way back to Baton Rouge in the end.
The Numbers
247 Composite Rating: ****
247 Composite Ranking: .9258
2020 Stats: 6 games played, 5 tackles
I’m not sure what if anything can be gathered from Burns’ one and only year in Athens. He was a true freshman without the usual summer and fall work a football team gets in a normal offseason. It shouldn’t be a shock he didn’t come in right away and win the Thorpe Award.
What I do know is by all accounts Burns has worked his ass off since getting back to Baton Rouge and seems to have won a starting safety job. We’ll see him next Saturday (eight days!) against UCLA. Burns will have the two best corners in America manning the boundary and gets to be coached by Corey Raymond, the best DB coach in the business, and, to me, that adds up to a guy who will see his stock soar at LSU.
High End: A Brandon Taylor type of career. He’ll be the unsung hero of the secondary but absolutely holds everything together. Leaves after the 2022 season and becomes a third round draft pick.
Low End: Splits time with a pretty stacked group of safeties. Has a career similar to Kary Vincent’s where he’s good at a bunch of things but not great at anything and hears his name called toward the end of whatever draft he enters.
Realistic: A lot of people who have far more access to the program than we do expect LSU’s starting safeties to be Burns and Jay Ward. That’s wild considering where we were when last season ended, but its a testament to both guys that they’ve taken these jobs.
I think Burns will be a good, maybe not great, Tiger but will be someone who absolutely gives his all to the program. He’s a Baton Rouge kid and I’m happy to see him back home.