Lane Kiffin made history Thursday at Southeastern Conference media days, the “talking season” spectacle that wrapped up after four days in Tampa.
Kiffin approached the podium representing an unprecedented third league school, with the first-year LSU coach having previously guided Tennessee in 2009 and Ole Miss the past six seasons. There were no fireworks in his 30-minute presentation before the main media room, but rather plans for extending an ascending career that contains seven 10-win seasons.
Four of those 10-win seasons transpired the past five years in Oxford, where Kiffin posted a sizzling 50-14 mark from 2021-25.
“We’ve put together a roster that can win now,” Kiffin said during his lengthy opening address that only allowed time for four questions, “but when you look to build a program that will really go to another level, it’s how you build your depth. The future is really bright and really amazing at LSU.”
Kiffin was hired to replace Brian Kelly, whose 34-14 record wasn’t nearly good enough to please the Baton Rouge faithful. Kelly lost at least three games in each of his four seasons and failed to match the high-end success of predecessors Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron, who each guided the Tigers to national championships.
Kelly was fired after a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M left last season’s Tigers at 5-3, and things didn’t improve from there, as LSU wound up 7-6 after losing the Texas Bowl to Houston.
Last year’s woes were wiped away when Kiffin was hired at $13 million annually and promptly produced the nation’s top transfer portal class that included three of 247Sports.com’s top six players — former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, former Colorado offensive tackle Jordan Seaton, and former Ole Miss edge rusher Princewell Unanmielen. The Tigers also brought in former Tennessee edger rusher Jordan Ross and former Ole Miss linebacker TJ Dottery.
Kiffin touted LSU on Thursday for having 12 players with NIL deals through Nike, including Seaton as college football’s only offensive lineman with such a deal, and he explained that the Tigers will continue to go heavy into the portal as long as there is no cap on what players can earn coming directly out of high school.
“We built so much through the portal and will continue to build a lot through the portal because of the way the system is, even though we can sign great, elite, top-100 high school players like we just did and like what’s committing to us,” Kiffin said. “We’re still going to build a lot through the portal until they balance out the system and balance out how contracts work.”
Although there are a sea of new faces at LSU, one of Kiffin’s biggest accomplishments was retaining Blake Baker as defensive coordinator. Since taking over in 2024, Baker’s defenses have shaved off nearly 10 points and 86 total yards per game.
“I love playing in his defense,” Tigers senior linebacker Whit Weeks said. “He makes it simple, but we also have so much stuff and do so many things that you’re not just running the same reps every single time. Every day in practice, you have a different job and a different responsibility, so as a linebacker, we’re setting everything behind us and in front of us, and it makes it a lot of fun.”
Weeks, who continues to date Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, is also excited to have Orgeron back with the program as a special defensive assistant.
“The first time he came and talked to our defense, everybody wanted to run through a wall for that guy,” Weeks said. “He fired us up, and I can’t wait to see what he has to say to us on game days.”
(SIGN UP: Get the daily sports newsletter in your email box by clicking here)
LSU opens Sept. 5 against visiting Clemson, and the Tigers will travel to Ole Miss two weeks later in an anticipated showdown that has already been picked up by ABC in prime time. Other intriguing dates on the schedule include a visit from Alabama on Nov. 7, and a trip to Tennessee on Nov. 21.
Given that Kiffin, who hasn’t posted on social media all summer, spent the 2014-16 seasons as Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama, he will be facing all three of his former SEC employers.
“There are tremendous resources at LSU in terms of players and being able to attract people, and I think Lane is taking advantage of that,” Saban said on the SEC Network. “He is a really, really good coach, and he’s going to develop the players on his team and do a really good job. I like where his focus is in terms of how he presented himself today. I think he’s in the right place mentally.”
Said Kiffin: “We really do have a lot of great players. We just haven’t put them together.”
Saban’s advice
Kiffin appeared on the SEC Network set after his time at the podium, and Saban discussed the publicized trip to Oxford with him.
“When you get to that game, give me a call, because you’re going to break the record for the ass-kicking you get from the place you go back to,” Saban said. “I have it right now from when I went back to LSU after leaving and going to Alabama. I’ll give you some coaching points on how to get through that.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.