| LSU wraps up the regular season Saturday with an historic home game against Oklahoma, as the Sooners visit Tiger Stadium for the first time. Essentially, though, the 2025 season has already begun. Coach Brian Kelly talked at his Monday news conference about all the factors that go into roster building, and I've got a column about what he said. Lots of questions going into next season, among them will wide receiver CJ Daniels return? Here's what Kelly said about that. There may only be one week left in the football season, but there are going to be three Weeks on the 2025 LSU football team. The Tigers got a commitment Monday from Zach Weeks, younger brother of West and Whit. Our Wilson Alexander has what we call the "main bar" from Monday's presser on what Brian Kelly had to say. You can see it below: ------------------------------ When the transfer portal opens next month, coach Brian Kelly said LSU football will be “very aggressive,” signaling a change in how the team has built the roster compared to the beginning of his tenure. Kelly said Monday that LSU could sign “one of, if not the largest, transfer portal classes” in addition to adding more than two dozen freshmen. Most notably, he indicated the Tigers would be willing to spend more money in the transfer portal than they did before the 2024 season. “I think that everybody that has followed us knows that we weren't very aggressive in the transfer portal,” Kelly said. “We really put ourselves in a position — and I'll use this term loosely — to stay well under the cap, so we could be quite aggressive this year.” The first transfer portal window runs from Dec. 9-28. It will later reopen from April 16-25 around spring practice. Players have to enter the transfer portal before the deadlines, but they can then choose a new school at any time. LSU’s usage of the transfer portal declined over the past three years. After signing 16 transfers before Kelly’s first season to reload a depleted roster, LSU added 13 transfers a year later. It signed only nine last offseason. Four of those have become starters, while two are rotational players. “It just didn't present to us in the manner that we felt like we were going to reach last year on some things,” Kelly said. “I think at the time, when we were looking at players that made sense for us, they duplicated a lot of things. We don't have that duplication in the program anymore, so that's why in certain areas, we'll be very aggressive.” Though LSU had multiple needs going into the season, the team did not spend aggressively in the transfer portal, especially along the defensive line. Kelly circled the position as the primary need in the spring transfer portal window after losing juniors Maason Smith and Mekhi Wingo to the NFL. LSU evaluated multiple players, including TCU sophomore Damonic Williams and Michigan State senior Simeon Barrow. They both asked for seven-figure deals, multiple sources said at the time, numbers that LSU did not come close to matching. Williams chose Oklahoma and Barrow picked Miami. Instead, LSU ended up with Wisconsin senior Gio Paez and Grand Valley State junior Jay’viar Suggs. Paez has started every game, while Suggs has been part of the defensive tackle rotation. LSU, which lost starter Jacobian Guillory in the second game, also has gotten contributions from converted defensive end Paris Shand, freshmen Ahmad Breaux and Dominick McKinley, and junior college transfer Shone Washington. “We put together a defensive line using minimal resources,” Kelly said. Kelly has not said which positions LSU will look for in the transfer portal this year, though the Tigers may need offensive linemen and safeties. He said they will “most likely” add another quarterback after losing a commitment from five-star Bryce Underwood. It’s unclear whether they will find one in high school or the transfer portal. “As much as we want to take a quarterback, I think what's most important is the overall health of the roster," Kelly said. "If it ends up being that we do take a quarterback, that's great. But I think our eye is on the strength of the entire roster.” LSU’s name, image and likeness collective offered Underwood a deal worth $1.5 million per year that would have made him the highest-paid player on the team, sources told The Advocate. After he flipped to Michigan, the team could distribute those funds elsewhere. Kelly noted how all of this works is expected to change before the 2025 season, creating a rush through next spring. Once the terms of the House antitrust settlement are approved, teams can begin sharing revenue July 1. The initial cap is projected to be $20.5 million per school, according to Yahoo Sports. Collectives could fade, reducing the importance of NIL money, though it’s unclear how the NCAA will enforce rules on boosters. “You want to be able to go out into the transfer portal, and you want to be able to do that before revenue sharing so you can begin to, if you will, balance off what your roster looks like in terms of the numbers whenever everybody comes into one locker room,” Kelly said. “If you waited until revenue share, it's going to be a different look for different players. You can balance things off if you're aggressive here in the next few months, and that's what we plan to be.” As LSU approaches the end of a disappointing season, Kelly said he is working on next year’s roster with associate head coach/running backs coach Frank Wilson and senior associate athletic director of football administration Austin Thomas. They already have started having meetings with players as they figure out who to retain, who will leave and how to finish the 2025 recruiting class. They want to be ready when the transfer portal opens in two weeks. “There's a lot going on right now in college football, and it has caused a lot of gray hairs,” Kelly said. “It has caused some guys to say I think I'd rather be doing something else. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about what the roster could look like. I'm excited about what kind of football team we can put on the field. It's going to be a fun couple of months.” ------------------------------ Kelly also talked about the prospect of Harold Perkins returning next season after his season-ending ACL surgery in September. Here is that report: ---------- LSU football coach Brian Kelly is still unsure if junior linebacker Harold Perkins will return to the Tigers in 2025. Perkins suffered a torn ACL during LSU's win over UCLA in Week 4. He was a projected first round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft prior to his injury. "I don't know that he's made that final decision," Kelly said Monday. "I know he's weighing the options, and clearly we would love to have him back but we know that those decisions are not easy. "We'll support him in whatever he decides and provide him all the resources necessary to make the best decision." Perkins had 16 tackles and two tackles for loss this season prior to suffering the injury. He accumulated 147 tackles, 26 tackles for loss and 13 sacks in his first two seasons at LSU. Without Perkins, LSU has relied on sophomore Whit Weeks and senior Greg Penn in the heart of its defense. Freshmen Xavier Atkins and Davhon Keys have also earned some playing time in Perkins' absence. ------------------------------ Monday was a doubleheader news conference day at LSU as we also heard from baseball coach Jay Johnson and a couple of his new Tigers. Johnson gave injury updates on several key players as the Tigers move closer and closer to the start of their season. In Nassau, The Bahamas, the LSU women's basketball team basically stole one from Washington thanks to a wild, clutch play at the end of the game by Kailyn Gilbert, running the Tigers' record to 7-0. And, finally, Wilson is taking your football mailbag questions one last time, so please make it a good one. That's all for now, folks. Now go start defrosting that turkey. Scott Rabalais | 
