College football's 2026 recruiting class features a record 23 five-star prospects in the latest ESPN 300. Following a busy summer of activity atop the class that included 12 five-star pledges -- headlined by No. 1 overall prospect Lamar Brown (LSU) and capped by defensive end Jake Kreul's move into Oklahoma's latest recruiting class on Aug 12 -- all 23 of the nation's five-star recruits will enter the fall holding a verbal commitment.
For each commitment, recruiting reporter Eli Lederman and scouts Craig Haubert and Tom Luginbill will look at how recruits landed at their school and what we can expect in college:
Lamar Brown, DT
2026 ESPN 300 ranking: 1
Committed to: LSU Tigers
Background: Brown, the versatile, 6-foot-5, 285-pound defender from Erwinville, Louisiana, opted to stay home with the Tigers on July 10 at the end of a neck-and-neck recruiting battle between LSU and SEC rival Texas A&M, which worked harder than any program to pull Brown out of the state.