Position: Weakside Defensive End
Ht/Wt/40: 6'6" / 218 lbs. / 4.70
Location: Lutheran High School (2015) – Orange, CA
Offers: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, California, Colorado, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, Oregon State, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, Washington
Ranking: ★★★★.9783 (247 Composite)
FILM
In a move that everyone expected, although most thought it should’ve happened already, the Michigan coaches offered defensive end Keisean Lucier-South today while sweeping through California. Lucier-South is rated very highly by all four major sites with Scout having him the highest as a 5-star recruit.
I talked with Keisean and he was very passionate when I asked him how he felt about receiving the Michigan offer. “I was just in shock. (Laughs) I mean I felt like it might be coming but I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t actually see the coach (Ferrigno) but my coach told me about the offer.”
Early on in his recruitment Lucier-South referred to Michigan as his “dream offer.” That may still be the case but he wasn’t so quick to call the Wolverines his outright leader after receiving the offer. “I don’t have a leader right now but Michigan is up high on my list.” Being a California kid Lucier-South has never been to Michigan and says he definitely plans on making a trip to Ann Arbor whenever he can. He told me that will go a long way to see how much he really likes the Wolverines.
Moving forward in his recruitment Lucier-South said he just wants to take his time and enjoy the process. He wants to take some unofficial visits this spring and summer and with the way his list looks right now his main focus is trying to see what the right school is for him and if he fits at each school.
That plan sounds like a well-calculated idea but there could be an issue with Lucier-South’s approach when it comes to Michigan’s tendency to fill up the class early. Keisean told me that he’d like to wait until National Signing Day before he commits. The problem with that is that Michigan’s 2015 class could potentially be even smaller than the 2014 class and running out of space could be a concern if Lucier-South does indeed wait that long to make a decision. I asked him about that and he said, “I honestly just don’t know how that will factor in.”
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Lucier-South likes Michigan quite a bit, make no bones about it, but he has a lot of very high-level offers and lives in California. Those two factors are usually quite tough for Michigan to overcome. I fully expect Lucier-South to check out Michigan in person and if he does that the Wolverines as as good a shot as anybody, but if he really plans to wait all the way until NSD 2015 it’s hard to imagine that the recruiting class for Michigan won’t already be full. If the coaching staff aggressively pursues Keisean now that he’s offered his timeline could be sped up or Michigan might save a spot for him (as they've done for similarly-rated McDowell). It will be interesting to see what direction his recruitment takes now that he’s got an offer.