Death Valley Insider - LSU 'felt like home' to 2025 IMG Academy DE Brandon Thomas
Rising sophomore hopes to return to Baton Rouge for an SEC game this fall.
lsu.rivals.com
LSU was the latest college stop for Virginia natives and IMG Academy teammates Desmond Ricks and Brandon Thomas this weekend.
And the latter, now among the Tigers' newest targets, doesn't expect the trip to Baton Rouge to be their last.
"Everything was good," Thomas said. "They treated me really good. It felt like home. I just enjoyed myself and my time with the coaches, watching some film and running through some calls and stuff like that. Everything just felt like home. I liked it."
Ricks, the five-star 2024 cornerback, earned his 11th offer — a list now at least three times as long — in January 2021 under the previous staff, including coach Ed Orgeron and cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond.
On Friday, the Tigers became the 20th offer thus far for Thomas, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound defensive end among the early stars of the nation's 2025 recruiting class.
Tennessee was the first program to offer Thomas two and a half years ago as a seventh grader, and Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and Maryland helped kick his recruitment into overdrive last winter.
Thomas said he feels like he's gained a better handle on the process since then.
"I feel like I improved a lot with just getting used to it," he said. "You know, you get nervous your first time in a coach's office. But I feel like I'm not really nervous anymore, and I can just have a normal conversation and feel more comfortable overall now."
Thomas said he enjoyed touring the football facilities and campus, including a stop by the university's live tiger mascot, Mike the Tiger.
But his strongest and most frequent praise praise was for LSU's new coaching staff and the conversations with assistants such as cornerbacks coach Robert Steeples.
"They sat us down and basically gave us the run down about what their school is about," he said. "And the thing I liked was how they develop players not just in players, but outside of football and for life after football."
A visit South Carolina next week and the Rivals Underclassmen Challenge in Atlanta next weekend are the next stops set on his schedule, Thomas said.
But he is eager to attend a game in Tiger Stadium this fall.
"I'm definitely trying to either catch that Tennessee game or that Bama game," he said. "I need to go. I heard those were lit games. I need to get out there and see it for myself.
"That's all I heard from everybody that's been there is there's nothing like it. The energy walking out the tunnel onto the field, they said nothing can match it."
