LSU left Saturday night with a 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech and a 2-0 record, but the Tigers didn’t leave Tiger Stadium with everything cleaned up.
The headline issue came from quarterback Sam Leavitt, who was brilliant in his purple-and-gold debut against Clemson and much shakier against the Bulldogs. In the first half alone, he threw three interceptions. Still, he found a way to swing the game with his legs, scoring three rushing touchdowns and becoming the first LSU quarterback to rush for three scores since Joe Burrow did it against Texas A&M in 2018.
That uneven performance gave LSU plenty to sort through before a major Week 3 trip to Oxford to face Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin knows his offense has to sharpen up, especially around ball security and finishing drives once it gets close.
"We got to execute better," Kiffin said following the win. "Sam's got to do a better job taking care of the ball. We made a lot of yards and were smooth through that at times, but obviously the red zone is where you got to finish drives.
"So, maybe it was perfect for us, you know, that we needed something like that cuz if we play good on offense and the game's 70-7 or something, then we don't have attention. Maybe it's what we needed and we're in a good place.
We're winning by 31 points and we're really upset. We got a good standard going."
LSU now turns to one of its biggest tests of the season, with Kiffin returning to Oxford for the first time since taking the LSU job. The Tigers are undefeated, but the message out of Saturday night was clear: the standard is higher than this.
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LSU Just Got A Bigger Spotlight After Trey'Dez Green's Breakout
Trey'Dez Greens breakout against Louisiana Tech gave LSU another weapon to talk about, and it arrived at a moment when the Tigers are already drawing plenty of national attention. Green finished with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown, the kind of line that tends to travel fast when a team is trying to build an early-season identity around its passing game and its most dangerous matchups.
The timing matters, too, because LSU is sitting seventh in the 2026 US LBM Coaches Top 25 poll, behind Texas, Georgia and Notre Dame at the top of the rankings. Poll placement alone does not define a season, but performances like Greens can shape how voters and everyone else view the Tigers going forward, especially with the season still early and the spotlight only getting brighter. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Heads Into A Lane Kiffin Showdown With Extra Emotion
The buildup around LSUs Week 3 trip to Oxford has already taken on an extra layer because of who is standing across the sideline. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss acknowledged the matchup feels weird with Lane Kiffin now coaching LSU, but he also made clear the Rebels are trying to keep the focus where it belongs. The game will be nationally televised, which only adds to the noise around a meeting that already has plenty of history attached to it.
For LSU, the storyline is unavoidable even before kickoff arrives. Kiffins return to face the program he once led gives the matchup a personal edge, while Ole Miss is treating it like another chance to settle in and play football instead of getting caught up in the drama. That balance between emotion and business will shape the conversation all week, and it should make Saturday in Oxford feel like more than just another early-season SEC game. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Stayed Unbeaten But Ole Miss Questions Are Already Back
LSU kept its unbeaten start intact with a 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech, and the defense did the heavy lifting for much of the afternoon. The Tigers controlled field position, smothered the Bulldogs offense and generally made life miserable for Louisiana Tech whenever it tried to build anything resembling a rhythm.
Still, the game did not exactly quiet the bigger concern hovering over LSU: offensive consistency. Even with the final margin looking comfortable, the Tigers had stretches where they failed to separate cleanly, and that leaves the discussion pointed straight at next weeks trip to Ole Miss, where loose execution and wasted chances tend to get exposed in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]