LSU came out of Saturday’s 32-24 loss to Ole Miss with one clear answer and one much bigger problem.
The Tigers can run the football. They piled up 172 rushing yards in Oxford, and Dilin Jones led the way with 106. But the game also exposed a more pressing issue for Lane Kiffin’s team: when LSU needs to win through the air, can it actually do it?
Sam Leavitt’s numbers told the story. He finished 16 of 27 for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
LSU averaged just 5.9 yards per passing attempt, and Leavitt’s longest completion went for 26 yards. After looking back at the tape, Kiffin said the passing game had chances - just not enough execution.
"We had open players," Kiffin said. "I'm pretty hard on quarterbacks, but then I break it down to them and show them."
What stood out to Kiffin wasn’t that LSU failed to create openings downfield. It was that Leavitt didn’t often trust what he saw once the pocket started to collapse. Ole Miss got pressure early, and Kiffin said that changed the way his quarterback played.
"When you get impacted early in the game by rush, they did a really good job," Kiffin said. "Same thing, obviously everybody tries to do against a quarterback - you can't step up and throw in rhythm."
Leavitt wound up doing plenty of damage with his legs instead. He rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown, and his scrambling helped LSU claw back from a 24-7 hole to tie the game at 24.
Kiffin doesn’t want that part of Leavitt’s game taken away.
"You don't want him to stop running. I'm not saying that," Kiffin said while discussing Leavitt staying in the pocket longer. "But just staying in the pocket more and letting passes develop."
The concern is balance. Leavitt’s escape ability makes him dangerous, but LSU can’t lean so heavily on him improvising that the passing game stalls whenever pressure shows up. Kiffin said quarterback confidence can turn "fragile" when hits start coming from multiple angles, but he also made it clear Leavitt has to be better.
"He knows he got to do a better job of that, even in those situations, and deliver the ball on time and not try too much," Kiffin said.
Kiffin also pointed to another factor: Leavitt missed practice time before the Ole Miss game, including LSU’s third-down and red-zone work. In Kiffin’s view, that mattered.
"Didn't help missing practice last week," Kiffin said. "He actually missed third-down, red-zone day.
You know, the timing of those routes. I believe that practice matters, so that didn't help him."
Still, Kiffin wasn’t laying the passing issues entirely at Leavitt’s feet. He said the Tigers have to help their quarterback more.
"I love Sam's competitiveness. I love that he put us in a position to win the game," Kiffin said.
"We've got to play better around him. We've got to protect him better."
LSU had its chances even after the game tilted against it. The Tigers trailed by 17, then ripped off 17 straight points to pull even. Ole Miss answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive, but LSU got the ball back with 6:07 left and drove deep into Ole Miss territory before the comeback ended with an interception in the end zone.
"We didn't finish," Kiffin said afterward. "We have to finish on defense and stop them. We let them go down and score, and then the offense moved the ball and stalled at the end."
Now Texas A&M is up next, and LSU is already 0-1 in SEC play.
"We have a lot to learn from," Kiffin said. "We know where we are at and we know the spot we are in right now. 0-1 in SEC play and it only gets harder from here."
Ole Miss solved one piece of the LSU puzzle. The Tigers can run it.
The bigger test is still hanging out there: when the game demands that Leavitt stay in the pocket and beat an SEC defense with his arm, can LSU protect him long enough - and can he make the throws that are there? Against Texas A&M, Kiffin may not have to wait long for the answer.
In Other News...
Lane Kiffin Turns LSU Loss Into Bigger SEC Scheduling Frustration
Lane Kiffin spent part of his first SEC teleconference back in the LSU spotlight talking less about the loss itself and more about the setting around it. After Ole Miss beat LSU in Oxford in Week 3, Kiffin pointed to the fact that the game was played there for the second straight year, framing it as more than just an inconvenience for the Tigers and more like a scheduling issue with real competitive weight.
For LSU, the complaint lands in a familiar place because Oxford has long been one of the leagues tougher road environments, and Kiffin noted the home-field edge and crowd noise as factors that hurt his team. The bigger frustration now is not just what happened in the game, but how the setup kept LSU in the same uncomfortable spot twice in a row, leaving the scheduling conversation hanging over an otherwise straightforward result. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Gets A Telling Warning From Mike Elko Before SEC Showdown
With LSU heading into another SEC test, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko offered a useful scouting lens on what his defense expects to see when the Tigers line up across from them. Elko pointed to LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt as a competitive, physical presence, the kind of player who can shape a game by staying tough through contact and keeping plays alive.
Elko also touched on how little direct exposure he has had to Lane Kiffins offense, even while making clear he respects what Kiffin has built over the years. For LSU, that combination matters because it frames this matchup as more than a simple talent check. It is also a chess match against a coach who likes what he sees from the Tigers quarterback and knows enough about Kiffin to understand how much discipline this game could demand. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces An Immediate Test After Its LSU Statement Win
Ole Miss left a clear impression with its win over LSU, and the ripple effects were immediate. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said the Rebels belong in the national title conversation after that statement victory, with quarterback Trinidad Chambliss drawing attention from NFL personnel for the way he handled the Tigers.
The next step is a different kind of test, though, and one that says plenty about whether that buzz holds up. Ole Miss heads to No. 21 Florida as a three-point underdog, meeting a team that is 3-0 under Jon Sumrall and is favored to protect home field, so the Rebels do not get much time to enjoy the LSU breakthrough before another spotlight game arrives. [Read more 🡒]