On the eve of the start of the 2019 regular season, LSU was on the receiving end of some positive personnel news.
Friday evening on his personal Twitter account, Donte Starks announced that "[t]he NCAA has cleared me.” Stark signed with LSU earlier this year but didn’t report with the rest of his new teammates as he still had some unspecified academic issues to clear up before enrolling.
Because of those issues, Starks hasn’t been able to practice with the Tigers ahead of Saturday’s opener against Georgia Southern.
The NCAA has cleared me💜💛.
— 𝕯𝖔𝖓 𝕯𝖆𝖉𝖆🩸 (@donte_starks8) August 30, 2019
A four-star member of LSU’s 2019 recruiting class, Starks was rated as the No. 10 inside linebacker in the country and the No. 9 player at any position in the state of Louisiana. Only one linebacker in the Tigers’ class, Marcel Brooks, was rated higher than Starks.