LSU Tigers

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The commitment of Maquedius Bain to LSU on Wednesday made perfect sense.

Bain, the No. 6 defensive tackle in the ESPN 150 and the highest-rated of the Tigers' 24 commitments, figures to play at LSU early. And he'll play a position where the Tigers have a tremendous recent track record for getting players to the NFL. Part of the reason there is a need for defensive tackles in this LSU class (Bain is one of four DT commitments in the class) is the presumed early departure of junior Bennie Logan to the NFL.

If Bain does play immediately, it will continue an LSU trend: Tiger freshmen should come ready to play because many of them will play. LSU used 15 true freshmen in the 2012 season, including four who started and a fifth who was a special-teams starter.

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LSU on Monday morning donned full pads for the first time in August as the Tigers wrapped up a stretch of five straight practice days to start August camp.

It was the second day of the team being together as a group, meaning you are getting a feel for how newcomers might be used this year.

What's particularly interested is watching the linebackers, where true freshmen Ronnie Feist, Lamar Louis and Deion Jones, all true freshmen, have often worked together as a second-team unit behind first-teamers Kevin Minter, Tahj Jones and Lamin Barrow. That doesn't necessarily mean a veteran like Luke Muncie, who was competing with Barrow for the starting spot on the weak side, has completely fallen out of favor, but it is interesting to see the young players get early looks.

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GeauxTigerNation writers David Helman and Gary Laney break down the competitions, issues and talking points of LSU's August camp. Players report to campus Aug. 1 and we'll have a preview segment every weekday in July leading up to the day the players report:

It wasn't long ago that you thought of linebackers when LSU's dominant defense came up.

As recently as 2009, the Tiges had Kelvin Sheppard, Perry Riley, Jacob Cutrera and Harry Coleman, all future NFL players (though Coleman has since moved on to the CFL) alternating between three positions. Sheppard and Riley, in particular, were solid.

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GTN writers Gary Laney and David Helman answer your questions in this week's mailbag. You can send questions to glaneyespn@gmail.com or helmanespn@gmail.com or their Twitter accounts, helmanespn or glaneyespn.

Today, they'll discuss:

1. Recruiting grades

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In the end it appears the LSU Tigers are going to retain one of the state's best linebackers in Lorenzo Phillips (Patterson, La.). The versatile linebacker, who has proven effective from both "on" and "off" alignments, lacks some size but is plenty explosive.

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Four-star outside linebacker Lorenzo Phillips (Patterson, La.), ranked No. 135 in the ESPNU 150, has committed to in-state power LSU, multiple sources report. He made an official visit to Baton Rouge, La. over the weekend.

This is Phillips' third commitment. In March, he announced for Texas A&M but quickly decommitted. Phillips then gave his pledge to Florida before dropping the Gators in October.

Phillips also made official visits to Houston (Dec. 16) and Louisiana Tech (Jan. 6). Indiana, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Baylor and Tennessee were his other scholarship offers.

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