After weeks of drama, Lane Kiffin is officially in charge of LSU’s football program.
Kiffin replaces the fired Brian Kelly, the only non-interim head coach at LSU who failed to lead the Tigers to a national championship this century. So the expectations for Kiffin, whose only conference titles came in Conference USA while at FAU, are abundantly clear: win a national championship.
The Tigers have lost at least three games every season since they won the title in 2019. The first half of Kelly’s four-year tenure was defined by a defense that wasn’t good enough, and his run in Baton Rouge came to an end in part because the offense regressed significantly over the past two years.
So how can Kiffin get this program back to national prominence? Here’s a to-do list.
1. Get LSU’s talent back to an elite level
The Tigers are expected to have one of the best rosters in college football every season. They had some phenomenal players during Kelly’s tenure. Quarterback Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy in 2023. Receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. and offensive lineman Will Campbell were first-round picks.
But the reality is that Kelly’s rosters were never stocked with the volume of elite talent we’ve been accustomed to seeing from LSU throughout the past two decades-plus. At first, there was a clear talent deficit on the defensive side of the ball, which prevented Daniels and the stars at receiver from achieving much team success.
The Tigers seemingly turned a corner NIL-wise this past offseason and upgraded the personnel on defense through the transfer portal. But they missed on several evaluations on offense, particularly at receiver, and that unit struggled and failed to take advantage of having a veteran quarterback like Garrett Nussmeier.
Kiffin succeeded at Ole Miss because he consistently made solid portal evaluations and managed to get a locker room full of transfers to play together as a team despite annual roster turnover. Neither is an easy feat, which made Kiffin such an attractive coaching candidate and an ideal lead man for this new era of college football.
The Rebels had some of the better rosters in college football in Kiffin’s last two years. That was because he had strong alignment in Oxford, from the administration to Ole Miss’ collective to the coaching staff.
That’s something he’ll desperately need at LSU.
Kiffin built his rosters primarily through the portal at Ole Miss, but will have a much higher recruiting ceiling at LSU. Kelly failed to take advantage of that potential and finished with just one top-five class (2023) during his tenure. Notably, he lost out on several high-profile recruits last cycle. Five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood (Michigan) and five-star receiver Dakorien Moore (Oregon) were committed to the Tigers at one point but signed elsewhere, and four-star defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart was a top-40 national prospect from New Orleans who signed with USC.
Kiffin signed elite classes when he was the head coach at USC from 2010 through 2013, and did so under the cloud of significant NCAA sanctions. He was also regarded as a top-flight recruiter during his time as an assistant at USC and at Alabama.
LSU is the only Power 4 program in a talent-rich state. Will Kiffin revert to the hyper-intense recruiting mindset he demonstrated at previous stops? He’s proven he can win through the portal, and now he’ll have a chance to build a better roster with more high-end high school players. LSU needs that. We’ll see if he retains assistant coaches like Frank Wilson and Corey Raymond, who would boost those efforts on the recruiting trail.
LSU Five-Star Plus+ ATH commit Lamar Brown with new head coach Lane Kiffin🐯
Brown is the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2026 class.
Read: https://t.co/IhUd9C3f4H pic.twitter.com/hbHUrT70AH
— Rivals (@Rivals) December 1, 2025
2. Figure out the quarterback situation
Nussmeier is out of eligibility, so LSU will have a new starting quarterback next season — and this is by far the program’s most pressing roster issue.
Michael Van Buren transferred from Mississippi State last offseason, but didn’t look like the long-term answer during his starts over the past few weeks. Would Kiffin try to bring Ole Miss starter Trinidad Chambliss, who filed an NCAA waiver in an attempt to play in 2026, with him to Baton Rouge?
Either way, LSU will be an appealing option for any potential transfer based on Kiffin’s recent work with quarterbacks. He did a great job with Matt Corral, Jaxson Dart and Chambliss at Ole Miss and had a strong reputation for quarterback development dating back to his time at Alabama and USC.
There will certainly be options in the portal when it opens in early January.
3. Re-establish LSU’s physicality
LSU’s offense was seemingly stuck in the Stone Age during the late stages of Les Miles’ tenure. That was a major problem, but at the very least, you knew the Tigers were going to be physical.
LSU shifted into a more quarterback-friendly offense over the past decade — which was effective for the most part — but the program lost that tone-setting physicality during Kelly’s tenure. The Tigers ranked 84th nationally with 4.1 yards per rush last season, when they had four eventual NFL Draft picks starting on the offensive line. This year, they ranked 116th in that category at 3.6.
In addition to not being physical enough, LSU hasn’t had dynamic talent at running back in recent years.
Kiffin’s Ole Miss offenses were known more for their tempo, but he’ll have to bring that trademark toughness back to the LSU offense. That would make life easier for whoever lines up at quarterback in 2026 and would also provide some much-needed offensive balance. Too much was required of Nussmeier this season, and he and the receivers, who underwhelmed, couldn’t shoulder the load.
That’s why the offense faltered and finished the regular season ranked 108th in scoring (21.8 ppg), which contributed to Kelly’s downfall.
4. Build on the defensive progress
The defense has improved over the past two years under coordinator Blake Baker, and it seems likely that he will be on Kiffin’s staff — if he isn’t named head coach at Tulane. If Baker does get the Tulane job, finding a new DC will be a top priority for Kiffin.
LSU has been more physical on defense this year and has a decent amount of talent. The Tigers rank 15th in scoring defense (18.3 ppg) and gave up 24 points or fewer in 10 of 12 regular-season games. They improved from 89th in yards per play allowed in 2024 (5.9) to 30th (5.0) this season.
Keeping Baker would help with continuity, but Kiffin will have work to do replacing some talented transfers. Cornerback Mansoor Delane, safety A.J. Haulcy, linebacker West Weeks and defensive linemen Jack Pyburn, Bernard Gooden and Patrick Payton are all seniors.
LSU attacked the portal aggressively for defensive players this past offseason, and it helped spark the turnaround on that side of the ball. Kiffin will likely need to do so again this offseason.
5. Win big and do it quickly
I recently spoke to several people in the industry for a story about coaching jobs, and one FBS athletic director brought up the challenges of being the head coach at LSU.
“You gotta win right off the bat and enamor the fan base and then sustain it,” he said. “Some of these jobs, you’re getting hired to get fired. If you have a one-year trip up, you get fired two years after winning a national championship at LSU or Auburn.”
Kiffin will have no problem getting the LSU fans on board. Sure, he might be a college football villain, but he’s the type of coach fans love if he’s leading their program. But that will last for only so long.
Kiffin won 10 games in his second season in Oxford — two years after the Rebels went 4-8 under Matt Luke — so he’s orchestrated quick turnarounds before. He’ll have every resource available to elevate the talent on LSU’s roster this offseason.
Kiffin has not had to work under these sorts of national championship expectations before, at least not as a head coach. There will be no excuses. LSU has invested heavily in him and his staff. He’ll need to win and win fast. Nick Saban, Miles and Ed Orgeron all won national championships within their first four seasons in Baton Rouge. Kiffin will need to do the same, or we’ll likely be evaluating his replacement in a few years.
