The 2026 college football season is yet to start, but the LSU Tigers just took the biggest L of this year’s recruiting cycle. Lane Kiffin’s plan of snagging the nation’s No. 1 WR has backfired on him as Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes came out of nowhere and pulled arguably the heist of the year by snatching 5-star DL Jaiden Bryant.

After an official visit to Coral Gables over the weekend, Mario Cristobal changed his perspective.

“It went great,” Bryant told EJ Holland of CaneSport.com. “Some highlights from this weekend were spending time with some of the guys and some of the players already on the team. I just had an all-around great time. I appreciated the way the coaches treated me and my family. I felt love here. I felt wanted.”

The Columbia, South Carolina native (Irmo High School) had been pledged to LSU since January 2026. Standing at 6-foot-3.5 and weighing 245 pounds, Bryant’s rated as the No. 19 overall prospect and the No. 4 edge rusher in the entire country for the 2027 class. Stealing a defender of this caliber right out of the SEC is diabolical work.

Not only was he blown away by his official visit. But he also decided to shut down his recruitment entirely. According to EJ Holland, he has now cancelled all his remaining trips, including a highly anticipated local visit to South Carolina and a June 19 return to Baton Rouge.

Not gonna lie, by locking in Bryant alongside other elite recruits like Donte Wright, 5-star QB Israel Abrams, and No. 24 wide receiver Nick Lennear, Miami now boasts four five-star commits. This kind of recruiting surge officially skyrockets the Hurricanes to the No. 3 spot nationally in the team recruiting rankings. If the Hurricanes can hold this lead for a while, this would apparently be the best recruiting campaign in school history.

The Miami scouts and other Power Four scouts are already comparing him to Rueben Bain Jr.

“I’m starting to hear that way more,” the five-star said of the Reuben Bain comparisons. “I’m hearing it from other colleges too. ‘You starting to look like Bain.’ I like it, but I get mad sometimes because I realize I’m not 6-2. I swear I’m 6-4. It would be a copy-and-paste with a little bit of tweaks to it. If they can do that with him, they can do that with me. I keep that in mind all the time.”

Given the Hurricanes’ ability to develop some of the best front-seven talent over the last few years, at this point, it’s only a matter of time before he plays like him. All this heist happened under the nose of Lane Kiffin. But apparently, he was too busy trying to flip Texas commit Easton Royal, the No. 1 WR in all of the United States.

However, in a way, Lane still has pretty good odds of snagging him.

LSU’s still in the business of flipping Easton.

The catch here is that Royal has been verbally committed to Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns since November 29, 2025.

However, LSU is desperate to lock down the borders of Louisiana, and Kiffin used a brilliant secret weapon to make it happen. He recently hired legendary former LSU national championship coach Ed Orgeron as a special recruiting assistant. Coach O personally hosted Royal for a red-carpet, three-day official visit last weekend. The legendary treatment paid off in dividends.

The very first thing he did following his multi-day stay at LSU was cancel his upcoming June official visits to SEC rivals Ole Miss and Tennessee. Although he’s still technically committed to Texas, top national analysts like Sam Spiegelman of Rivals reported that LSU just made a “very big, significant jump” in his recruitment.

The race for the nation’s top pass-catcher has officially come down to a fierce heavyweight battle between Texas and LSU. Some believes that Florida’s still in contention. Nonetheless, losing Bryant temporarily leaves LSU with only four hard commits in their 2027 class, which drops them outside the top national ranks in total volume.

Beyond the wide receiver, LSU is also actively trying to flip two five-star Texas Tech commits: defensive lineman Jalen Brewster and edge rusher Anthony Sweeney. Truth be told, if LSU snatches any two out of the three, they could live with the loss of Jaiden Bryant. But still, it’s a long way to go.