LSU already is on the verge of enjoying the net-positive impact of Austin Thomas' return to the bayou.
The Tigers' football program is targeting Kansas personnel lead Will Redmond, envisioning a director of personnel strategy-type of role in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Ed Orgeron's Tigers program sources tell FootballScoop.
Redmond's title, per sources, will be director of personnel research and strategy.
Sources told FootballScoop that the G.M. model Thomas helped establish at Baylor and now is implementing at LSU played a key factor in Redmond's decision to explore the opportunity at LSU while also having an opportunity to continue to climb the internal ladder at Kansas.
If the LSU opportunity is finalized, it would mark an SEC return for Redmond.
A Franklin, Tennessee, native, Redmond is a two-time University of Tennessee graduate who just missed working on Rocky Top a decade ago with Thomas, also a UT alum.
Redmond, who led MTSU's personnel department before Kansas, played a major role in a 2021 Jayhawks recruiting class that was ranked third by 247Sports in the Big 12 behind Oklahoma and Texas.
Despite a winless season, the Jayhawks' recruiting class included inking the No. 1 player in the state of Kansas and also consensus four-star wideout Quaydarius Davis, the highest-ranked signee by Kansas in the 247Sports composite era.
Redmond's impending exit from the KU program continues a trend of other college programs recognizing the work on the Jayhawks' roster.
In this offseason, KU has lost personnel and recruiting staffers to Ohio State, South Carolina, the University of Southern California, and, most recently, UCF nabbed former Kansas personnel executive Dave Shumate.
Redmond's potential ascension to a premiere SEC program is the latest major jump for a former UT recruiting staffer during this cycle of moves.
Brandon Lawson was the first hire made by Josh Heupel when Heupel took the Tennessee head job; Lawson is Heupel's director of scouting on Rocky Top after serving as director of player personnel at UCF.
A UT grad and former U.S. Marine, Lawson quickly poached fellow Tennessee alum Trey Johnson from USC.
Lawson also hired Angelia Brummett, with whom he had worked at UCF and who was poised to join Johnson at USC before the trio converged in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Matt Wilson, a common bond most of these UT personnel alums, tackled the director of player personnel position in reuniting with Butch Jones at Arkansas State. Wilson previously headed personnel at Indiana University and served in an assistant role at Mississippi State.
Thomas' rise through the administrative ranks includes national accolades and stops at Tennessee during his student days, Southern Cal, Baylor and now into an unprecedented general manager's role at LSU.