LSU wide receivers go through drills at spring practice
LSU football wide receivers go through individual drills at the team’s spring practice March 31.
He lit this fuse. Threw gasoline on a grease fire, and did his thing while it burned.
We can argue about the how and why of Lane Kiffin’s ugly departure from Ole Miss and heralded arrival at LSU, and if it was the right thing to do. But there’s no escaping the fallout.
There’s no patience for what LSU and Lane Kiffin have constructed.
“Things don’t happen overnight,” Kiffin said last week during the early stages of spring practice — and after getting his first look at the most expensive roster in college football.
After he left Ole Miss at the critical moment of a national championship run to take a better job.
After LSU paid former coach Brian Kelly $54 million to not coach.
After the governor of Louisiana got involved in Kiffin’s hire, and greased the tracks of a ridiculous process.
After Kiffin convinced the best young offensive coordinator in college football to follow him to Baton Rouge.
After LSU signed the most expensive transfer portal class ever, including a championship-level quarterback within that class.
After LSU spent, according to various reports, $40-50 million on this year’s roster.
And finally, and certainly unforgettably, after Kiffin has spent the entire offseason — from the day he left Ole Miss, really — doing what he does best on social media.
Taunting any and all, and living the life of kings.
There’s no patience after that, pal. Not for one of the best coaches in the game, and not for one who has never won a Power conference championship.
“There’s a lot of work to get a program to an elite performing level,” Kiffin said. “We’re making some first steps, but there’s a ton of work to do.”
To be fair, what’s Kiffin supposed to say? Should he step to the dais and declare LSU may not have the best roster in college football, but they’ve paid the most for it — and sonofagun, if these guys aren’t going to raise their level of play and bring home a national title to the Red Stick. For all of LSU!
It’s not realistic, none of it is. Not bringing together 60 new players (40 transfers) and building player-to-player and coach-to-player chemistry in a matter of months.
Not playing in a new offensive system with a new quarterback and wide receivers, and an offensive line. With seven new starters, and 17 of the 22 offensive players on the two-deep depth chart having not played a down for LSU.
Not playing with a rebuilt defense (three starters return) that was overworked last season, but still gave enough to keep LSU in games it had no business winning (or losing by one possession).
It’s hard work just to compete for a championship in one of the two best conferences in college football. It takes talent, elite quarterback play, rare chemistry and a bunch of luck.
It took Kiffin five years to get Ole Miss built to where it could reach the College Football Playoff, to where both sides of the ball could play at an elite level to win a playoff game. But Ole Miss still lost at home to a pitiful Kentucky team, and then lost at Florida in November while staring at a lock CFP bid.
That was 2024, when Ole Miss first got serious about spending money on a roster. A year later, they threw more money at the buildout, and luck entered the equation.
Who could’ve known then-Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.’s answer to the backup quarterback question — a transfer from Division II Ferris State — would become the SEC’s most dominate player by the end of the season?
Who could’ve known Trinidad Chambliss would step in for injured stater Austin Simmons in Week 2, and take the Rebels on the ride of a program lifetime? It’s utterly preposterous to even dream up that scenario — but that blind luck is just a small part of what it takes to win a championship.
For Kiffin to walk away from that, knowing how hard it is to reach that point, tells you exactly what he feels about LSU and his ability to reach the top of the mountain.
“It was 7-6 last season. Within that comes change, within that comes a lot of work,” Kiffin said. “It’s a long jump to go to that level that I came here to get at, and all the people around the program want to be at.”
Even if everything clicks, if new quarterback Sam Leavitt returns from a foot injury and plays like its 2024 and he’s leading Arizona State to the CFP. Even if the defense continues to grow under highly-paid coordinator Blake Baker, and eight new starters — and countless new, critical backups — play with the punishing symphony of 2025.
Even if a brutal schedule suddenly becomes favorable because those teams that looked like difficult lifts in the preseason, don’t develop into them.
The foundation of the season, of Kiffin’s time at LSU, won’t change from Day 1. It’s championship or bust.
There’s no patience.
And there’s no turning back now.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
