Lane Kiffin spent Monday morning opening LSU’s McNeese State week with the same blend of candor and edge he’s brought all season, and the biggest question hanging over the Tigers is still the health of quarterback Sam Leavitt.
Leavitt’s hamstring injury from the Texas A&M game made him the first topic of discussion, and Kiffin did not commit to whether Leavitt or backup Landen Clark would get the start against McNeese State. What he did say was that he plans to be “extremely cautious” with Leavitt this week. Kiffin also explained that the injury situation changed how he managed the Texas A&M game itself.
“I’m human,” Kiffin said. “I took guys out earlier in (the Texas A&M) game than I did the previous home game (with Louisiana Tech) because of what was going on (with injuries) just freaked me out.”
The Tigers enter the week ranked No. 11 and sitting at 3-1, with McNeese State coming in at 2-3. The game is set for 6:45 p.m. Saturday on the SEC Network from Tiger Stadium.
Kiffin also used the news conference to revisit a complaint he has made before: the grind of the nine-game Southeastern Conference schedule and what it means for rosters thinned out by the NIL and transfer portal era. But he made it clear he is not treating that as an excuse for the staff.
“I challenge our coaches,” Kiffin said. “That’s part of why you’re supposed to be good coaches and get paid a lot. It’s not just coaching the elite player, but now how can you fit our system to players that are going to need to play?”
And while Kiffin likes the idea of a loose, lively program, he also drew a hard line on where that energy has to stop. He pointed to basketball goals and fire extinguishers on the sideline as part of the atmosphere he wants around the team - a place “that has a swagger to it, so people watch and say, ‘I want to go play there’ ” - but he stressed that discipline still has to hold.
That balance, in his view, is what keeps a team from crossing into self-inflicted mistakes like the taunting penalty Texas linebacker Colin Simmons drew Saturday at Tennessee.
“You have to be really careful to have discipline so they can’t carry that over,” Kiffin said.
In Other News...
LSU Just Turned One Huge Concern Into Real SEC Hope
After the disappointment against Ole Miss, LSU needed a response that looked and felt different, and Saturdays 35-6 rout of Texas A&M delivered exactly that. The Tigers moved the ball at will, piling up more than 500 yards on offense, with quarterback Sam Leavitt throwing for over 300 yards and two touchdowns while the defense set the tone by overwhelming the Aggies up front.
The broader picture matters even more for a team trying to keep its SEC path alive under Lane Kiffin. LSU held Texas A&M to fewer than 200 total yards and repeatedly disrupted the rhythm of the game with sacks and turnovers, a level of control that had been missing in the loss to Ole Miss. Whether it proves to be the reset this season needed will depend on what comes next, but this was the kind of complete performance that can change the conversation quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Got An Early Playoff Path Fans Will Study
After four weeks of the college football season, ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach reshuffled their College Football Playoff and bowl projections, and the SEC remains as crowded as ever in their latest forecast. Their updated outlook has 13 league teams headed to postseason play, with only South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Arkansas left out, underscoring just how little margin there is for anyone trying to climb into the top tier of the conference race.
For LSU, those projections are the kind of thing fans around Baton Rouge will study closely because they help sketch out not just the Tigers own path, but the playoff lane that could open or tighten around them as the season goes on. The full breakdown also maps out projected bowl destinations and playoff matchups for every SEC team, giving a fresh snapshot of where LSU stands in a league where one good stretch can change everything and one bad Saturday can send the conversation in a different direction. [Read more 🡒]
LSU May Have Found A New Defensive Difference Maker
LSU left College Station with plenty of individual performances worth sorting through, but the defensive emergence of true freshman Deuce Geralds stands out as the kind of development that can change the feel of a front seven. After turning in a sack and two tackles for loss against Texas A&M, Geralds was named overall Game MVP and also picked up SEC Freshman of the Week honors, a strong sign that the Tigers may have another disruptive piece to work with as the season moves deeper into conference play.
Geralds was hardly the only Tiger making noise on that side of the ball. Tamarcus Cooley added two tackles, a sack and an interception, while Princewill Umanmielen kept his own pressure streak going with another sack to reach seven on the season. LSUs defense has been looking for a player who can consistently tilt a game, and after this outing, Geralds has at least made himself part of that conversation. [Read more 🡒]