Pompano Beach, Florida cornerback Rashard Robinson committed to LSU on Tuesday evening.  Robinson has been leaning to LSU for quite some time, but it was believed that LSU's coaching staff wanted to get a closer look at him at their July camp prior to formalizing an offer.  Robinson came and competed for three days, turned in a blazing 40 time, and performed well overall.  LSU reaffirmed their offer to Robinson before he left campus.   Robinson wanted to return to campus with his family, and he apparently did that on Tuesday.  His family apparently liked what they saw because Robinson is now LSU's 22nd commitment in the Class of 2013.  

Robinson is a legit 6'2" with great length and blazing speed.  However, he's very thin right now at just 165 pounds.  So he'll need to add some bulk and strength before being ready for the SEC, but he has time to work on that.  As a tall corner, he'll immediately remind many of Tharold Simon, and that's a pretty good comparison for his game.  With such long legs, it's tough for Robinson to keep up with shorter, shiftier receivers in the middle of the field.  But like Simon, he should be tremendous on the outside.  He can use his long arms to jam receivers, and then he can turn and run with any of them.  If they do get by him with their initial quickness, he has the top end speed to recover and the arm length to make plays on the ball.  Despite his very lean frame, Robinson also shows off some big-time physicality and toughness. 

LSU appears to be on the verge of another quarterback to the roster in Penn State transfer Robert Bolden.  Bolden will be a junior this fall and would add depth and experience to the position which currently has very little of either.   

Bolden was part of the Signing Class of 2010 and was highly thought of coming out of high school.  Rivals.com rated Bolden as the #2 dual threat quarterback in the nation and the #136 player overall.  He was rated ahead of Zach Lee who signed with LSU but left to play pro baseball.  Bolden was the first true freshman to start a season opener at Penn State in 100 years and was a part time starter during his two years there.  Those things don't mean a whole lot today, but they do provide an indication of Bolden's raw talent.   

The great Big East experiment is one year away from kicking off its inaugural season. Syracuse and Pitt have chucked up their deuces and are playing their swan song season this year before leaving the Big East for the ACC in 2013. Their leaving expedites a process that will signal another shift in conference affiliation.

This new Big East will see former member Temple re-join for 2012 in all sports while Houston, SMU, Memphis, and UCF join for all sports in 2013. Boise State and San Diego State are set to join that same year as football only members with Navy joining for football only in 2015. The Big East is also still hoping that Air Force and/or BYU will have interest in joining to round out the Western contingent.

The new Big East is a conference based on hope, good faith, desperation, and boldness. It's an admirable strategy to add some of the biggest, previously non-BCS markets and teams but despite all of this, the conference is still a house of cards. Four of the most preeminent members – Louisville, UConn, Cincinnati, and Rutgers – have openly courted membership into other major conferences,  mostly the ACC and Big XII. Chances of defection(s) remain quite high as the instability of a hybrid conference remains turbulent.

So what would happen if one, two, or all of the most prominent members depart for greener pastures? What then, especially for the schools out West that left stable, albeit less affluent, conferences?

The guys over at The Saturday Edge were nice enough to ask me to contribute on their site for a piece regarding LSU's 2012 football fortunes.  The Saturday Edge is a relatively new site dedicated to gambling/handicapping for college football.  It's a well put together site, and the content is outstanding.  I'm grateful they asked me to contribute there.  

The topic was the over/under for LSU's win total for the 2012 season.  Most sports books have the Tigers at either 10 or 10.5 wins.  I give a quick preview on the team and some thoughts on how many games they may win.  Below is a quick preview along with a link to read the entire story.  I really encourage you to give it a quick read and to check out the site. 

LSU finished last season with a perfect 12-0 regular season mark, and the oddsmakers seem to believe the Bayou Bengals have the talent to repeat that feat by setting LSU’s 2012 college football win totals at over 10 (-145) and under 10 (+125) and over 10.5 (+130) and under 10.5 (-170).

Helping us preview and project LSU’s 2012 season win totals is Kris Brauner of Saturday Night Slant. SNS is a great place to get the latest analysis, insight, and news on LSU Football and Recruiting.

Same as last year, only better

LSU’s strengths will be the same as they were in 2011. A stifling defense, solid running game, and outstanding special teams.

Even though they’ll be without first rounders Michael Brockers and Morris Claiborne, LSU’s defense should again be stingy.


Check out the rest right here... 

On Monday, the SEC announced the television schedule for the first three weeks of the 2012 football season.  Luckily for LSU fans, the Tigers will be playing three consecutive night games to kick things off.  So I thought we'd take a look at the remainder of the season on a week by week basis and give a best guess as to when the Tigers may be playing.  

To start, here is the schedule for the first three weeks.  

Chris Hardeman

The good news keeps coming for LSU during their second summer camp.  On Monday afternoon, 2014 defensive back Chris Hardeman committed to LSU.  Despite some initial confusion over whether the commitment would be accepted by Les Miles, Hardeman is indeed on board and LSU's second commitment for next year's class. 

Hardeman is on the smaller side, listed at either 5'8" or 5'9" but he is filled out, at around 180 pounds.  He's got good speed and good cover skills as you would expect.  He's pretty highly thought of in recruiting circles.  Lone Star Recruiting's early Texas Top 100 for the Class of 2014 ranks Hardeman as the #12 player in the state of Texas.   Typically, players ranked in the 10-15 range in the state of Texas are right on the fringe of being national Top 100 prospects.  So Hardeman is no slouch.  He is; however, different from what LSU typically targets at the cornerback position, and he'll have some obvious limitations due to his height.  The general thought is that LSU has him pegged as a nickel/dime back that can match up with slot receivers and blitz the quarterback effectively.  In other words, they're hoping he'll fill the roles played by other smaller defensive backs the last two years in Tryann Mathieu and Ron Brooks.  

Rickey Jefferson

LSU is in the middle of hosting their second camp of the summer, and they have already landed two commitments, one each for the Class of 2013 and Class of 2014.  

Starting with the Class of 2013, Destrehan athlete Rickey Jefferson came to Baton Rouge to observe camp on Sunday and gave his commitment to Les Miles on Sunday afternoon.  Jefferson has been a bit off the radar in the recruiting world, mostly because he missed most of his junior season with a knee injury.  He also hasn't attended too many camp events.   But make no mistake, Jefferson is a big-time player and his commitment is a big deal for LSU.  I've currently got Jefferson rated as the #3 player in the state of Louisiana.  I should be updating those rankings soon, but Jefferson will absolutely remain in the Top Five. 

Rashard Robinson

SLOW.....That's the only word to describe things around LSU here recently.  However, here's a quick rundown of a few noteworthy things going. 

• Former Clemson defensive coordinator and Baylor head coach Kevin Steele will be joining LSU's staff as an intern.  Yes, an unpaid intern.   He was fired from Clemson last year, and they still owe him money.  Since nobody else picked him up on staff, he decided to come work with longtime friend John Chavis, who he played with at Tennessee.  Prior to joining Clemson's staff, Steele worked for Nick Saban at Alabama, serving as defensive coordinator in 2007.  His name came up LSU's defensive backs job when Ron Cooper left to go to the NFL.  Corey Raymond got the job, but it turns out that Steele will be on the staff anyway.   It's unclear exactly what position Steele will hold.  I'm guessing that he won't be able to do much recruiting, if any.  And he may not be allowed to be involved on game day.  But to have an extra veteran coach on the practice fields and in the coaches' meeting room is invaluable.   I see nothing but positives with this addition to the program.  

This is my third update in a row where I'm discussing a new commitment for LSU Football...and that's a good thing.   This time, LSU goes out of state, all the way to North Carolina to land Lewis Neal, a 6'1" 235 pound defensive end.  Neal is rated as a three star player by most of the recruiting services (ESPN has him at 4 stars), but his offer list reads like many four star prospects.   He chose LSU over offers from Ohio State, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and many others.  Neal was once a commitment to Ohio State.   Just four days after committing there, LSU offered him and he immediately decommitted from the Buckeyes, citing the need to explore all of his options.  It seemed that Neal always held LSU in high regard and his receipt of that offer really jump started the Tigers' momentum with him.  Neal visited LSU with his family a couple of weeks ago, and his recruitment came to an end on Wednesday night when he announced for LSU.  

Just a few days after landing linebacker Melvin Jones, LSU landed another Lake Charles prospect when Barbe tight-end Desean Smith called up Coach Miles and committed.  Smith is a big time player and is widely considered one of the top tight-end prospects in the nation.   All four services have him ranked four stars and ranked nationally.   Smith chose LSU over offers from Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida State, Texas A&M, and just about everyone else.  As a junior, Smith caught 43 passes for 764 yards and seven touchdowns.