LSU Tigers star linebacker Whit Weeks chooses Baton Rouge over the NFL draft.
Before the transfer portal opens on Friday, the LSU Tigers are going to be working overtime to keep their best players out of it and remaining on their team. On Thursday afternoon, though, they were able to beat the NFL draft as they retained star linebacker Whit Weeks.
This is what Weeks said on Instagram as he announced that he will be staying with the Tigers:
"College is too much fun to leave, and there is no better place in the country to be right now than Baton Rouge, Louisiana. All I want to do is ball in the purple and gold. See you in September."
Whether the draft or the portal, the goal is clearly to keep their best players on the roster. Weeks is certainly one of those players.
It isn't too shocking to see him choose to come back and play for Lane Kiffin, given how close he has become to that family since he has started dating Landry Kiffin. Weeks even sat with the Kiffin's during Lane's introductory press conference.
The Georgia native will be a prime candidate to wear the vaunted No. 18 jersey next season as one of the team's biggest leaders. His importance to the team was never clearer than when he wasn't on the field.
Weeks has 205 tackles with 16.5 for a loss and five sacks in three seasons at LSU. His numbers didn't jump off the sheet as a Junior, but he was battling injuries throughout the year. Still, he looked good when healthy.
Now, he will have a chance at another fully healthy season and putting together some NFL-level tape on a winning team. Had he gone to the draft after this year, he probably wouldn't have gone as highly as he could.