LSU football has now added three defensive linemen recruits in two days, and the latest prospect to commit to the Tigers is the highest-rated player of the bunch.
Damien Shanklin, a four-star edge rusher, announced Friday that he had chosen LSU over Ohio State and Alabama. According to 247Sports' composite rankings, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior is a top-120 national prospect, one of the country's 10 best pass rushers and the top player from Indiana.
Only two 2025 recruits committed to LSU — quarterback Bryce Underwood and running back Harlem Berry — are rated more highly than Shanklin.
LSU now has four defensive linemen (two edge rushers and two tackles) pledged to its 2025 recruiting class. The two interior linemen — Zion Williams and Brandon Brown — committed to the Tigers on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Brown, a four-star tackle from Melbourne, Florida, is a top-330 national prospect, according to 247Sports, and one of the 40 best defensive linemen in the 2025 signing class. He was once committed to Texas, but he switched his decision in part because, as he told On3, LSU had hired away Bo Davis, the Longhorns' former defensive line coach.
Williams (6-4, 295) is a four star prospect and a top-300 recruit from Lufkin, Texas.
The three additions bumped LSU's 2025 class up to the No. 6 slot in 247Sports' composite rankings. At one point this spring, it held the top spot, but the nation's No. 1 receiver — Texas wide receiver Dakorien Moore — dropped his pledge to LSU and committed to Oregon instead.
Underwood, a five-star from Michigan, is the consensus No. 1 player in the country. Berry, a native of New Orleans, is a top-20 national prospect and the best Louisiana-born player in the class.
In the 2024 cycle, LSU signed seven defensive linemen, most notably Dominick McKinley, the top-20 national prospect who starred at Acadiana High School. It also signed a pair of transfers — Wisconsin's Gio Paez and Grand Valley State's Jay'viar Suggs — for more immediate help in filling the roles that Maason Smith and Mekhi Wingo left behind when they declared for the NFL draft.
The other d-lineman committed to LSU is Jesse Harrold, a 6-5 edge rusher from Florida ranked among the country's 130 best recruits.