LSU Tigers: SEC
But are the Tigers destined to stay there? What could propel the Tigers even higher in the next three years? And what could cause them to stumble?
The Tigers will rise if: LSU will keep climbing if it can take advantage of an abundance of talent and a new offensive coordinator to turn around its sputtering offense.
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1. WR Malachi Dupre (River Ridge, La./John Curtis)
6-foot-3, 187 pounds
ESPN 300 Rank: 28
Why they want him: LSU has stockpiled its receiving corps with shorter, quicker slot types. Dupre marks a return to bigger downfield threats in the mold of past Tigers like Rueben Randle.
Who else wants him: Dupre has been quiet on his suitors, but UCLA, Michigan, Alabama and Florida State lead the list of contenders.
Odds they get him: 65 percent
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Back then, before RecruitingNation issued stars, Jefferson was given an 80 score, which translates to four stars.
Brandon Harris (Bossier City, La./Parkway) broke that drought this year. And now he's done something no Louisiana quarterback has done in the RecruitingNation era.
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BATON ROUGE, La. -- GTN writer Gary Laney took your questions:
From Bryan (Houston): LSU used to own Rosenblatt. Will the Tigers like the new stadium in Omaha?
Gary Laney: Skip Bertman's LSU teams, in particular, were built for Rosenblatt Stadium, which was a hitter-friendly park for most of the Tigers' run. LSU was the team in mind when the term "Gorilla Ball" was coined. To me, it was a huge advantage for LSU to play in that venue for national championships, because it played similar to Alex Box Stadium.
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With eight newcomers having already enrolled in the spring semester and gone through spring practice, that means 18 new scholarship faces joined the program. Here are the 10 most likely to make a quick impact:
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That may lead to some wondering why the Tigers would take him, especially considering that LSU already has a commitment from one relatively lightly-regarded receiver in Tony Upchurch (Pearland, Texas/Glenda Dawson) in a class that has again grown to 10 commitments (LSU had a commitment from junior college receiver D'Haquille Williams, who has since decommitted).
There are a couple of reasons.
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SEC recruiting has home-field advantage 
Recruiting is the lifeblood of every program in the country, and every conference has its own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to landing top prospects. In the start of a weeklong series, we'll examine the BCS conferences plus Notre Dame to find each's strength, the biggest obstacle each faces and the overall view of the conference. The SEC is up today.
Biggest obstacle: When it comes to recruiting in the SEC, the biggest obstacle arguably comes from within. No conference recruits as consistently strong from top to bottom as the SEC and the margin for error is very small. From 2006 through 2013, the SEC has had no fewer than six programs finish within the top 25 of the class rankings in any given year, and the 2013 final class rankings saw all 14 teams finish in the top 40, including 10 in the top 25. A program could be having good success on the recruiting trail and still find itself in the middle or even the back of the pack. Mississippi State, for example, finished with the 25th-ranked class this past cycle only to finish 10th within its own conference.
Being able to recruit as a member of the SEC brings with it many benefits, but as a result of that there are no weak links among SEC teams on the recruiting trail. Alabama has posted back-to-back top-ranked classes and a group that includes programs such as Florida, Georgia and LSU are usually top 10-15 staples, if not top class contenders themselves year in and year out. Other programs within the SEC have shown the ability to have success and even make a big impact as well. Ole Miss this past cycle broke from the pack to land a top-five class that included the nation's top-ranked prospect (Robert Nkemdiche). Even Vanderbilt, long considered a back-of-the-pack staple, made a surge on the recruiting trail as well under the direction of James Franklin and finished with a top-25 class for 2013.
Competition on the recruiting trail is tough all over, but in the SEC it has proved to be extremely fierce and a class that would be great in any other conference simply might not be good enough as a member of this conference.
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No, it doesn't mean Zach Mettenberger is being challenged as the starter. It does mean LSU is hot on the trail of some four-star talent at the position in recruiting.
Which one do you like?
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Try wearing red to a news conference, and he might glare at you and make a reference to "the school down south."
That's Miles, a Michigan man to the bone. But he's also LSU's coach which, in the context of the Tigers' hiring history, isn't shocking.
If many SEC schools used to show a regional bias when it came to hiring coaches, LSU's hiring history shows that the Tigers are the exception to that rule. The Tigers haven't had a head coach who graduated from an SEC school since Jerry Stovall, the former LSU All-American who led the Tigers from 1980-83.
Since Stovall, LSU has hired six straight coaches who have graduated from schools outside the SEC. Most only had loose SEC ties as head coaches. Gerry DiNardo (1995-99) had the strongest conference tie as head coach at Vanderbilt, but he was a native New Yorker and Notre Dame grad. Similarly, Curley Hallman was an Alabama native and assistant coach for Bear Bryant, but he played for, and graduated from, Texas A&M and came to LSU after coaching Brett Favre's Southern Miss teams. Most of his coaching career prior to LSU was outside the SEC.
It's not just a recent trend, either. Paul Dietzel, who coached LSU's 1958 national championship team, was part of the Miami (Ohio) coaching tree and came to LSU from Army.
Here's a list of LSU's head coaches since Dietzel, their alma mater and their previous SEC ties, if any (listed by coach, years, alma mater and brief synopsis of career before coming to LSU)
- Charles McClendon: 1962-79; Kentucky; promoted from Paul Dietzel's LSU staff and previously was an assistant at Vanderbilt
- Bo Rein: 1979; Ohio State; Never played or coached in the SEC
- Jerry Stovall: 1980-83; LSU; Member of McClendon's staff who had been an all-American halfback at LSU in 1962
- Bill Arnsparger: 1984-86; Miami (Ohio); Kentucky native who coached as an assistant at Kentucky from 1954-61, but came to LSU from the Miami Dolphins
- Mike Archer: 1987-90; Miami (Fla.); Joined Arnsparger's LSU staff from Miami and was promoted; had no LSU or SEC tie before joining Arnsparger's staff
- Curley Hallman: 1991-94; Texas A&M; Came to LSU after serving as Southern Mississippi's head coach for three seasons. He was on Bear Bryant's Alabama staff from 1973-76.
- Gerry DiNardo: 1995-99; Notre Dame; Head coach at Vanderbilt from 1991-94 before taking the LSU job
- Nick Saban: 2000-04; Kent State; Head coach at Michigan State had no SEC tie before taking the LSU job
- Les Miles: 2005-present; Michigan; Head coach at Oklahoma State had no SEC tie before taking the LSU job
1. New offers look ahead: LSU extended three offers on the weekend, all to players in the 2015 or 2016 classes.
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But at the Columbus, Ohio Elite 11 on Saturday, it was advantage LSU.
LSU head coach Les Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron had sons participating at the Elite 11, which gave them a loophole and allowed them to attend the event. The Elite 11 normally allows parents but prohibits college coaches from attending.
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With many school systems -- in Texas and Florida in particular -- still in session, the pickings were slim as the camp started Sunday afternoon and scheduled to run through Wednesday.
That's not completely unexpected. LSU's second camp, scheduled for July 14-17, normally has been a larger draw that yields more recruiting news.
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From Steve-O (Lake Charles, La.): It's not fair that LSU has to play Florida every year (as a permanent cross-division opponent) while Alabama gets to play Tennessee, which seems to get further from its glory days every year. Is there any possible compromise out there that could get LSU out of this situation?
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ABOUT GEAUX TIGER NATION
Gary Laney
Gary Laney joined ESPN.com in 2012 after spending a year and a half as online sports editor of the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate. Before that, he covered LSU sports for the Advocate. He has also been the sports editor at the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise and covered McNeese State athletics for the Lake Charles (La.) American Press. Laney currently lives in Baton Rouge. Email him at glaneyespn@gmail.com