Lane Kiffin, LSU Predicted to Have Disappointing 2026
Newsweek · C · trust 33/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. SEC Media Days has come to a close, with each football team getting a chance to address reporters and set expectations for the season ahead.
Perhaps no one drew as much attention as Lane Kiffin, the new head of the LSU Tigers program who left his former squad, the Ole Miss Rebels, ahead of their deep run in the College Football Playoff.
Kiffin notably tried to avoid tough questions with a lengthy filibuster-style opening statement , but it appears that didn't impress the media too much.
In what's surely not a surprise, the Georgia Bulldogs are predicted to take the SEC, closely followed by fellow heavyweights the Texas Longhorns.
In what's likely to sting a little bit for Kiffin, his former squad is predicted to come in third in the league, which would almost certainly put the Rebels in the College Football Playoff.
As for LSU? It's predicted to come in fifth, below the Texas A&M Aggies.
If LSU did come in fifth, that would likely be borderline for a CFP berth.
Kiffin, as a first-year coach, certainly has some leeway, but after bringing in big-time transfers, a trip to the CFP is likely on the low end of what fans expect.
"Landing QB Sam Leavitt in the portal was a big first step," wrote Nick Kosko of On3. "Not only that, OT Jordan Seaton left Colorado for Baton Rouge, as well as Florida’s Eugene Wilson III. If all of the pieces mesh, this could certainly be a playoff team in Year 1 under Kiffin."
While the Tigers and Rebels face off relatively early on in the season on Sept. 19, that won't be the sole deciding factor in determining who truly wins the Kiffin sweepstakes.
If the Rebels can go farther than the Tigers this year, it will surely irritate LSU and Kiffin personally, as he ostensibly fled to Baton Rouge to helm a more nationally competitive program.
And if Ole Miss were to do the improbable — win their first national championship in more than 60 years — it would serve as the ultimate revenge against a coach who abandoned them.
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