For the second year in a row, Southeastern's recruiting season is all about laying it on the line.

Last year, it was the defensive line that required urgent attention, with some really spectacular recuiting results, as things turned out.

This year? With the Lions fielding arguably the best running back in the Southland Conference in Jay Lucas, they'd better come up with an offensive line to put in front of him.

And that will be the area of most urgent interest as the Lion coaching staff hits the bricks with bait and bucket to seduce prep football talent.

"If we have a need this year, it’s offensive line," Lions head coach Mike Lucas said, stating the very obvious about a unit that will be gutted by graduation and in the end wasn't quite good enough last season to push the Lions into conference title contention.

"We’re losing four senior starters and our starting center, Brad Bardy, will be a senior next year," Coach Lucas said. "We’ve only got six scholarship offensive linemen returning, and one of those is David Ward coming off of knee surgery, and Larry Brewer has had some medical problems and hasn’t played at all.

"So we’ve got to try to find some junior college players, and we’re scouring the countryside. We’d like to sign eight offensive linemen — four junior college and four high school."

Last year the Lions needed to do that on the defensive line, and the results were extraordinary, with almost the entire freshman D-line class forced into service by injury or other attrition and most of them proving that they have the goods to be an elite unit down the road, if they can take care of business in the weight room as well as the classroom.

Now it's the offensive line that demands attention after initial head coach Hal Mumme's push to win quickly with junior college linemen and his failure to establish a base of "program" offensive linemen — guys who hit the field as upperclassmen only after two or three years in the weightroom — comes home to roost.

"We should have 15 offensive linemen on scholarship, and right now we’ve got six," Lucas said. "Last year that’s the way we were on defensive line and we addressed it and found eight freshmen defensive linemen and those guys have really stepped up and played well.

"But it’s difficult to bring in eight freshmen offensive linemen and ask them to play. We’ve got to find some junior college guys who can step in and physically be ready to play. And it’s important that they be December transfers so we have them for spring practice. If we bring them in in May or June as junior college players, it would be really tough to get them ready for August."

The other offensive priority will be running back. Jay Lucas is good enough to be mentioned among the Walter Payton Award candidates next season. But behind him the Lions have a promising sophomore in Johnny Owen and not much else.

"It’s tough to go through the Southland Conference with only two running backs," Mike Lucas said. "So we’ve got to go and sign another running back also."

Of lesser importance on offense are the receiver and quarterback positions. The Lions have four quarterbacks on scholarship who are all eligible to return but will try to sign another to develop. Returning starter Brian Babin will only be a redshirted junior, as will Bradd Schlosser.

Last year's juco addition, Mike Neville, will be a senior next season, and while the Lions are high on the physical skills of redshirted freshman Eric St. Amand, he must still prove he can handle the load both on the field and in the classroom.

No doubt the Lions have to get better at quarterback — one way or the other — if they want to contend in a league that will be studded with veteran quarterbacks next season.

Babin had a solid sophomore season as a starter — but with lots of room to improve, especially learning to make quicker decisions and reducing his sacks and throw-aways.

"He's got to get in the weight room and become more phyiscal and imporove his speed," Lucas said. "And another year with Coach (Tommy) Condell in reading coverages and making quick decisions will help. There's also some mechanics things that he can improve on.

"We look for him to make another jump, but he's done awesome. I'm very proud of what he's done, but now it's time for him to make another big jump."

As for receivers, the only real urgency would be another tight end to pair of freshman find Cole Wardell. As for the wideouts, the Lions have a nice corps back that already will be supplemented by two players already in the fold.

One of them is redshirted freshman Kory Theodore, who was the second-fastest wideout on the taem this season behind senior Byron Ross. The other is a walk-on from St. Amant, Grady Miles, who Lucas says is good enough to contribute next year.

"When you put together Merrick (Lanaux) and Kris Mohammad and Luis (Sobalvarro) and Courtney Smith, that gives you four big guys who can go — if they're medically ready to go — and Andre Cryer as your little speed guy for speed sweeps and those kind of things," Lucas said. "Brady Miles and Kory Theodore gives us seven. If everybody's healthy and everybody's ready to go, we're still pretty good there."

Pretty good, but...

"We need to find that big-time guy," Lucas said. "We're not going to take a receiver just to take one. He's going to have to be a difference-maker."

On special teams, the Lions should be set for next year with punter Cody Samples and All-Conference placekicker Jeff Turner, but Samples will be a senior next year and the position will have to be addressed then if not before.

Turner was only a sophomore and had an outstanding season — so good, in fact, that he chased off the competition. Lucas said freshman kicker Danny Hrappman has decided to transfer to another school in search of opportunity.

On defense, the recruiting urgency is pretty much for depth and difference-makers.

Up front, all those freshmen from last year will only get better with a year in a collegiate weightroom, and if the Lions' best defensive lineman heading into last season, junior Walter Vaughn (broken arm), returns as expected, Southeastern will be much closer to championship caliber on that side of the ball.

At linebacker, the emergence of true freshmen Mark Newbill and Ryan Godare as first-year starters, plus the return of projected starting middle linebacker Keithshone Dantzler (knee), juco addition Steven Honore and fellow veterans Chris DiCarlo and Tim Richardson, should offset the graduation of three solid seniors in George Leverette, Michael Johnson and Antonio Richardson.

The safety unit should be outstanding, headed by third-year starter Tommy Connors and last year's juco prizes, Marquis Powell, Travis Williams and Trey Douglas. And true freshman Jared Byers played his way into the starting lineup last season when Powell and Williams were nicked up.

If there is a defensive recruiting priority, Lucas said, it would be at cornerback. Starters Eric Jackson and Demerious Johnson are eligible to return, but the depth behind them took a hit, Lucas said, when promising sophomore Devin Cannon decided to quit football to take care of his young family.

The Lions do have sophomores Ra'Keem Wilson and Jeremiah Williams, but they need more, Lucas said. Trouble is, they're hard to find this season.

"Last year it seemed like there was a surplus of defensive linemen, and that’s why we signed a lot," Lucas said. "This year it seems like there’s a shortage of corners out there. So it cycles, and we’ve got to see what’s out there.

"Right now, it’s thin at the corners and the wide receivers. We haven’t seen any right now that we say that guy we’ve got to have. But many high schools put their best athletes at quarterback or running back, and we're going to have to look at a lot of film and see if we can identify some that can help us there."