SerpApi.Org
When LSU broke the bank to poach head coach Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss right before the College Football Playoff earlier this year, the expectation in Baton Rouge was that the team was going all-in on winning a national title.
Months later, those expectations haven’t changed. Only now, everyone is seemingly expecting LSU to compete for a title right away, which is putting even more pressure on Kiffin to deliver in Year 1.
Jordan Rodgers of SEC Network even exclaimed on ESPN’s “First Take” Monday morning that the 2026 season was “national championship or bust” for Kiffin and LSU.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush, Lane Kiffin has to reach the national championship game or it’s a failure,” Rodgers said. “If he can’t get further than he did at Ole Miss, with more resources at LSU, then what are we even doing here? If you look at this roster — and I’m not even talking about how much money LSU is spending over the next six or seven years — to field the 2026 version of LSU, they’re spending over $100 million.
“That’s $54 million to have Brian Kelly not coach them, that’s $40 million-plus to a roster that you accumulated talent through the NIL portal, and you have $13 million for Lane Kiffin. That’s over $100 million — if you can’t get further than Ole Miss did last year with a quarterback that nobody wanted that came from the FCS level…but if you can’t get that far, if not further, it’s a failure.”
The 51-year-old Kiffin had perhaps the best coaching season of his career last year, leading an Ole Miss team no one expected to compete for a CFP spot to an 11-1 record behind quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a transfer from Ferris State who didn’t have many Division I offers.
Heading into his first season with the Tigers, Kiffin has even more talent than he did in Oxford last year (he poached a lot of those Ole Miss players through the transfer portal), led by five-star quarterback Sam Leavitt.
With home much money LSU invested in Kiffin (and spent firing Kelly), if the Tigers are one-and-done in the College Football Playoff, things could start to get unruly in Baton Rouge pretty quickly.
Related Articles
