Behind the Scenes: How LSU landed 4-star Jelani Watkins

Texas four-star wide receiver Jelani Watkins announced his college decision on Friday, picking LSU among his double-digit scholarship offer list.

With 23 commitments on board, the Tigers continue to move up the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings for the 2024 class. Watkins is ranked as the No. 191 overall prospect and No. 32 wide receiver in the country.

How did the LSU staff pull off landing both a football and track prospect in Watkins?

Here’s The Bengal Tiger’s “Behind the Scenes” look into how things unfolded.

Behind the Scenes: LSU brings a Louisiana native back home

***** LSU officially got into the mix for Watkins on April 19, 2022, which came just ahead of the first spring evaluation period for the current staff in Baton Rouge. But LSU has some ties working here that date long before the past 16 months.

***** LSU running backs coach/assistant head coach Frank Wilson and LSU Recruiting Specialist Sherman Wilson both have ties to the Watkins family after recruiting his older brother, Ahmonte Watkins, out of Riverside Academy (Reserve, La.) in the 2021 class. Frank Wilson had been head coach at both UTSA and McNeese State when recruiting Watkins in high school, while Sherman Wilson was on staff first at Southern, then Memphis, and he offered Watkins when he took the job with the Tigers. So by the time Jelani became a recruit, there were a number of staff members at LSU who had a prior relationship with his family. Then even before arriving at LSU, Sherman Wilson and LSU quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan were on staff at Louisiana Tech when the program became one of Jelani’s first scholarship offers.

***** Watkins told me that growing up in the New Orleans area, he always wanted to play football for the Tigers. So when LSU offered after his sophomore season, it shook up his recruitment in a major way. There were already some big SEC programs as well as Lone Star State schools that had offered, but the idea of returning home to Louisiana and suiting up in purple-and-gold jumped out to him as an opportunity that would be tough to pass up.

***** A few days after Watkins landed the LSU offer in April 2022, he made the drive to Baton Rouge to meet in-person with the coaching staff. From there, it was going to be very tough to knock LSU out of the top spot. The Tigers got out front of this one and didn’t let up on making the four-star a priority at wide receiver.

***** Fast forward to this past spring, Watkins had picked up even more college offers after winning a state title in the 200-meter dash as a sophomore before turning in a strong junior season on the gridiron. That’s when LSU turned up the heat even more. LSU’s track-and-field staff reached out to Watkins an extended him an offer to run track for the Tigers in college. Now, Watkins had the chance to compete in both sports at a program he had circled as his “dream school”.

***** The LSU track-and-field offer came on March 5, which was his very first college track offer. That held even more weight with Watkins. Former LSU receiver and sprinter Bennie Brazell – a Houston native – took the reins and began to buckle down even more on the push to get Watkins to Baton Rouge for college. With lines of communication open with both the LSU football and track staff, the Tigers were strengthening the lead even more. This is a big reason you saw me holding a ton of confidence this offseason that Watkins was going to be a Tiger.

***** When it came time to plan out summer official visits, Watkins only circled one trip: LSU. He made his official visit on the final weekend in June, which put him on campus at the same time as Duncanville (Texas) four-star running back Caden Durham, who also has the chance to run track and play football for the Tigers. Brazell met with both during the weekend visit, and when it came to a plan for Watkins, he got with LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton and laid out a detailed plan on how Watkins could balance competing in both sports in college – something a number of LSU football players have pulled off over the years.

***** After the visit, I was more confident than ever before that Watkins would be a Tiger. Once the official visit weekend ended, I put in an On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) with an 80% confidence score. He had not made official visits to any other colleges, and shortly after the trip, he told me that he was going to make a decision in early-August. That said, he also told me he wanted to visit Texas A&M at the end of the month.

***** As LSU worked through the NCAA Dead Period in July, they talked with Watkins about visiting LSU before taking in a trip to College Station. So, he locked in a visit to Baton Rouge for the Bayou Splash on Friday, then made his way to Texas A&M on Saturday.

***** The Bayou Splash was a major hit with recruits, and Watkins was one of them. He arrived a day early and spent the evening hanging out with Caden Durham and LSU freshman quarterback Rickie Collins. The group bonded well, and that carried over into Friday’s recruiting event on campus as Watkins got the chance to spend time with the other players, commitments, top targets and the staff. Even with a trip to College Station the next day, LSU was still confident they had built a huge lead here. Barring some late twist, it would be the Tigers.

***** As for Texas A&M’s involvement, I learned through talking with his family that Watkins had visited College Station a number of times as a recruit. The Aggies were also the first team to offer him a football scholarship. But with how quiet Watkins went about his recruiting process, a lot of those visits to College Station went unreported. So, even as LSU was the clear team out front, the Aggies were still getting Watkins to campus. With his mother in Texas and father in Louisiana, there was some chatter behind the scenes that she might want him closer to home for college. But when the dust settled, it was on Watkins, and he wanted to be a Tiger.

***** Watkins had been talking with LSU a lot over the past few days following the Bayou Splash, I’m told by sources. On Thursday evening, he called up LSU head coach Brian Kelly and gave him his commitment to the Tigers. Then he let the staff know he would announce his college choice on Friday afternoon. He wasn’t dragging this out any further.

***** Now that he is on board, LSU may well be done at wide receiver given the staff has four commitments in – and three, Watkins included, are Louisiana natives. And with the success rate we’ve seen LSU have with Louisiana wideouts, that’s a great thing.

***** There were a number of people who worked to get this one across the finish line, and that’s on both the football side and on the track side with the push from Brazell. Now, it’s official, and I don’t expect there to be any drama the rest of the way. Watkins has the chance to return home to Louisiana, play for his “dream school”, and both run track and suit up with the football team. From talking with those close to Watkins, this is how he always wanted this one to end.

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