THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

1. Well, there’s a new battle for No. 1 on both the field and the recruiting trail.

One has to be careful deciphering some prospect tweets involving the Tigers and Death Valley visits these days, as LSU has ascended this season to join Clemson atop the football polls as well as Rivals.com's team rankings.

Clemson had been threatening to possibly pull away down the stretch of these next two months leading into the early signing period. Then LSU pulled off a major five-star surprise last week that catapulted Ed Orgeron’s group back into the top spot, which it had briefly held earlier this fall.

We had viewed Georgia as the strongest challenger to Clemson’s bid for its first No. 1 class. But in step with how the actual college season has played out, the picture has expanded from more than a two-team race.

LSU then added a four-star this past weekend while also flipping four-star defensive end B.J. Ojulari from Tennessee.

That positioned LSU atop the rankings with 3,004 points, ahead of No. 2 Clemson (2,900), No. 3 Ohio State (2,805), No. 4 Alabama (2,745) and No. 5 Georgia (2,329).

There’s a clear delineation between the haves and have nots right now in college football, and here’s your evidence the chasm should only grow.

The expectation is LSU will cut several commitments before to make room for their newest additions as well as a couple of other bigger fish it figures to like better than what’s already in the cooler.

Yet its main edge going down the stretch is projected volume.

Clemson still has more five-stars (five, to LSU’s four) and a negligibly higher per-prospect star rating (4.05 to LSU’s 4.04, both just behind UGA’s 4.06).

Every little bit is going to count … or every big bit, as the case may be.

2. We prefigured that the visitor list for Clemson’s 59-7 triumph against Boston College wasn’t going to be all that glamorous, although there are always a couple of prospects who show without public notice.