Lane Kiffin isn’t just thinking about Saturday’s game against McNeese State. He’s thinking about what’s left after it.
After watching injuries pile up in LSU’s 35-6 win over Texas A&M, Kiffin came away rattled enough to pull his starters early and start looking at the bigger picture. With the Tigers at 3-1 and a path to the College Football Playoff still in play, he knows the margin for more bad luck is thin.
“I took our guys out earlier in that game than I did in our previous home game,” Kiffin said, “because of just what was going on and that just freaked me out.”
That concern is now shaping the approach for LSU’s final nonconference game of the regular season. Kiffin said the Tigers will be careful across the board this week, especially with a schedule that already feels packed before they even get to the grind of SEC play.
“We’ll be extremely cautious this week all around,” Kiffin said, “because it’s just the schedule you play with. Once you go to nine (conference games on the schedule), it’s another SEC game. I mean, it feels like we’ve played a whole season already, but we have seven SEC games to go.”
The most obvious question sits at quarterback. Sam Leavitt played through a hamstring injury on Saturday, and it clearly limited his movement even though he delivered his best passing performance of the season. He completed nearly 74% of his throws for 312 yards and two touchdowns, but his availability against a 2-3 FCS team from the Southland Conference is now in doubt.
Kiffin did not reveal whether Leavitt will be held out, but he has already shown trust in backup Landen Clark, the Elon transfer. Clark didn’t complete a pass after entering against Texas A&M, though two of his throws to the end zone were dropped. Kiffin has also used Clark as a runner in red-zone situations, and that part of the package has mattered in close games.
Clark has 83 rushing yards and three touchdowns, including two against the Aggies.
“Landen’s done a great job,” Kiffin said. “He goes into the games (and) he finds a way to make plays. I joked with him that he’s got to be the first player in the history of quarterback (and) the history of football to actually throw two touchdowns that are in guys’ hands and throw another completion in the game and somehow be 0 for 5.”
LSU’s caution won’t stop with the quarterback spot. Kiffin may also be careful with Ty Benefield, Princewill Umanmielen and Jordan Seaton, three of the Tigers’ most important healthy players in key spots on both sides of the ball.
Benefield shifted from safety to the star position on Saturday after Dashawn Spears tore his ACL against Ole Miss. He finished with nine total tackles against Texas A&M and handled the move well, but his importance only grows with Spears and Whit Weeks out.
Umanmielen has been LSU’s most productive defender, piling up seven sacks in just four games and driving the pressure up front. Seaton has been just as valuable on the other side of the line, allowing only three quarterback pressures and no sacks at left tackle through four games.
If Leavitt or any of those players were lost, it could knock the season off course. LSU has poured major resources into the roster - an estimated $47 million to $50 million, according to The Athletic - but Kiffin still believes building true depth in Year 1 is a difficult ask.
And in an era shaped by the transfer portal and NIL, he doesn’t see depth coming together the way it once did.
In Other News...
LSUs Poll Position After That Win Says Plenty About The Tigers
LSUs latest surge still came with a familiar caveat in the polls, even after a convincing 35-6 win over Texas A&M. The Tigers held at No. 11 in the Coaches Poll and slipped one spot to No. 11 in the AP Top 25, a ranking that says as much about the national crowdedness around them as it does about their own performance. Floridas climb to No. 8 after beating Ole Miss was one of the bigger shifts near the top, but LSUs place remained a reminder that one big win does not always bring a corresponding leap.
For LSU, the more interesting part may be how little room there is left for error if the Tigers want the respect that usually comes with a late-season push. The AP list and the coaches version both showed movement elsewhere, with teams dropping out and others collecting votes, but LSU stayed planted just outside the top tier. In a week when some programs rose sharply and others faded from view, the Tigers were left in the middle, good enough to stay in the conversation but still waiting for the kind of change in perception that only comes with another statement win. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs SEC Push Suddenly Depends On How Far These Backups Can Go
After bouncing back with a win over Texas A&M in Week 4, LSU enters the heart of SEC play with a very different kind of test ahead of it. The Tigers are trying to keep momentum going after the loss to Ole Miss, but the bigger issue now is survival depth, with injuries thinning out key spots across the roster and forcing the next wave of players into the spotlight.
That has pushed backups like Landen Clark, Jackson Harris, Davhon Keys and Tamarcus Cooley into more important roles than LSU likely planned this early in the season. With linebacker Whit Weeks, quarterback Sam Leavitt, wide receiver Phillip Wright III, tight end TreyDez Green, linebacker Charles Ross II and safety Dashawn Spears all on the injury list, the Tigers push through the SEC may come down to how steady those reserve pieces can be while the staff waits for help to return. [Read more 🡒]
LSUs Texas A&M Grades Revealed One Breakout And One Lingering Concern
Pro Football Focus latest grading from LSUs game against Texas A&M offered a tidy snapshot of where the Tigers found traction and where they still have work to do. Jackson Harris came out as the highest-graded offensive player with a 92.0 mark, while Tamarcus Cooley paced the defense at 87.7, giving LSU a couple of bright spots to point to after a matchup that demanded consistency on both sides of the ball.
The same report also flagged the Tigers rougher edges, with Jayce Brown drawing the lowest offensive grade and Dylan Carpenter landing at the bottom on defense. For LSU, that kind of split matters because it reinforces the difference between isolated standouts and full-game reliability, leaving the staff with clear evidence of who is elevating the group and where the lingering concern still sits. [Read more 🡒]