The following story has been updated at the bottom.

The LSU Tigers have lost their biggest player to the transfer portal yet, as safety Dashawn Spears has announced his plans to leave, per CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz.

Spears will be entering his junior year. He was set to become a starring member of the Tigers' secondary next season. Instead he'll be looking for another opportunity.

The Denham Springs native was the No. 96 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, the seventh-ranked safety and third-best player from Louisiana in the 247Sports composite rankings.

This certainly softens some of the excitement from earlier on Wednesday when it was revealed that running back Harlem Berry would be staying in Baton Rouge. Most of the transfer portal losses so far have been players who would already be replaced or haven't really played much. That's not the case with Spears.

While the safety hasn't played that much over his first two years, something good happened whenever he did touch the field. He had a two-interception game against the Florida Gators earlier in the season despite playing fewer than 10 snaps.

Spears could have played far more for many other schools in the nation, but he was behind some more veteran stars like AJ Haulcy and Tamarcus Cooley in Baton Rouge. With Haulcy heading towards the NFL, that starting job was in line to become Spears'.

Add in that the defensive secondary staff is remaining the same, and it's sort of surprising to see him enter the transfer portal.

Through two years at LSU, Spears has 53 tackles with three for a loss with a sack and two interceptions.

Great news for Tigers fans later on Wednesday night as CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz has reported that Spears will no longer enter the tranfer portal after "after dialogue the last couple hours."

It's likely that Spears got an increased NIL commitment to go along with his starting role and LSU gets to keep their playmaking star safety after all. A win-win for both sides.