Controversy hit LSU the second Lane Kiffin walked through the door, and it still hasn’t really let up.
Kiffin left Ole Miss in the middle of a College Football Playoff push to take over the Rebels’ archrival, and plenty of people blasted the timing of the move. Others pushed back, arguing the real problem is the college football calendar itself and the way it creates situations like this in the first place.
That mess is still hanging around in late July, too. Ole Miss is trying to secure buyouts for defensive end Princewill Umanmielen and offensive lineman Devin Harper, both of whom signed NIL extensions with the Rebels before following Kiffin to Baton Rouge.
All of that makes LSU’s 2026 outlook one of the more fascinating storylines in the sport. A lot of people around college football think the Tigers will be better next season, but not enough to put them in the SEC title conversation in Kiffin’s first year.
Josh Pate landed in that same neighborhood. On a recent episode of "Bussin With the Boys" with Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, he called LSU a major wild card heading into 2026.
Part of the uncertainty comes from the kind of roster Kiffin has built before. Teams loaded through the transfer portal always raise the same question: how quickly does it all come together?
That concern has faded some after Indiana won a national championship with a roster full of portal additions, but the challenge still comes down to evaluation and fit. Kiffin didn’t reach Curt Cignetti’s level at Ole Miss, but he did put together four 10-win teams built heavily from portal talent.
"(With) any portal-heavy team, you're always going to ask 'How does this talent mesh together?'" Pate said.
"It feels like that's a little bit of an overused doubting point these days. It's going to work to some degree, I think."
Even when the talent is there, the early weeks can be clunky. Pate pointed to the idea that some teams need time to find their footing, and said LSU may not have that luxury.
"Is this the kind of team that needs a long runway to get up to speed? Because they don't really have it," Pate said.
"They play three losable games in their first four weeks. I count Clemson as a losable game (because) you have no idea what Week 1 could bring."
The other two games he flagged are at Ole Miss and at home against Texas A&M. That trip to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium figures to be a rough one after Kiffin’s exit at the end of November, and LSU will also be trying to bounce back against the Aggies in Death Valley after last season’s total meltdown.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Just Got Hit With Another Brutal AJ Storr Twist
AJ Storrs time at Ole Miss may end up feeling even shorter than it first looked. The former Rebels guard has entered the transfer portal after being granted an additional year of eligibility through an injunction, setting up yet another roster shakeup for a program that has already had to navigate plenty of movement. Storr gave Ole Miss one productive season, averaging 15.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists across 35 games, and he was one of the more experienced scoring options on the floor.
Now the challenge is finding a landing spot for a player who suddenly has another season available, but is doing so late in the roster-building process. Many teams have already filled out most of their plans for the upcoming year, which makes Storrs next step less straightforward than a normal portal move. For Ole Miss, it leaves another familiar name on the move and another reminder of how quickly the modern college basketball landscape can change. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A Massive Kewan Lacy Decision In 2026
Kewan Lacys 2025 season gave Ole Miss exactly the kind of backfield centerpiece every program wants, with program records in rushing yards and touchdowns and a nation-leading workload to go with it. As a true sophomore, he carried the offense in a way few players can, and now the Rebels are trying to figure out how to handle a player who has already proven he can be the focal point while still having another season of college football ahead.
Ole Miss has already added three transfer running backs for 2026, giving the staff a chance to lean into a deeper, more varied rotation if it wants to ease Lacys burden. The bigger picture is even more complicated: 2026 is expected to be his final college season before an NFL push, and some evaluators already see him as a top 2027 draft prospect. That leaves the Rebels balancing immediate production, long-term draft value and the question of how much wear they want to place on a runner theyll likely only have for one more year. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Rodgers Pulls Oklahoma Into A Huge SEC Big Ten Debate
Jordan Rodgers helped stir an old debate back into the spotlight this week, using Oklahoma as part of the larger conversation about where the SEC stands in relation to the Big Ten. The former Vanderbilt quarterback and ESPN analyst said the SEC still should be viewed as the nations strongest league, pointing to the conferences long run of national title success and the idea that it simply has more teams built to contend at the top.
The timing matters, too, with the upcoming 2026 schedule set to give SEC and Big Ten teams more chances to settle the argument on the field. For an Ole Miss audience, it is the kind of conference-wide discussion that never really goes away, especially when the postseason keeps narrowing the gap between perception and proof. Rodgers point was clear enough, but the next round of crossover games will go a long way toward showing whether the old hierarchy still holds. [Read more 🡒]