One of the biggest stories of the later stages of the 2025 college football season was the status of Lane Kiffin, who was guiding Ole Miss to a College Football Playoff appearance but was the clear No. 1 target for LSU. Kiffin did little to dispel rumors of his own interest in the job, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed his high-profile and often turbulent coaching career.
With his team heading to the CFP, Kiffin opted to leave for Baton Rouge, meaning he wouldn't coach the Rebels in the playoff. He replaced Brian Kelly at LSU, who went 34-14 and was fired after a 5-3 start to 2025. LSU wanted to swing big to try and return to glory, with its last run of success coming with the undefeated, Joe Burrow-led 2019 season that ended in a national championship under former coach Ed Orgeron and vaulted those Tigers into the conversation as perhaps the best college football team in the sport's history. Interestingly enough, Orgeron is back at LSU as a special assistant to Kiffin.
Kiffin is coming off maybe his best head coaching season to date, leading Ole Miss to 11 regular-season wins and a CFP appearance. While Kiffin wasn't involved in the postseason run, the Rebels did make it to the semifinals, where they fell to Miami in a classic meeting.
Kiffin has a long history of less-than-amicable departures. In 2007, the 31-year-old Kiffin was a surprise hire by the Oakland Raiders but was fired by late owner Al Davis early in his second season after posting a 5-15 record. His departure for USC after one season at Tennessee in 2009 left a sour taste for many Volunteers' fans, but he was later infamously fired at an airport by USC brass following a 3-2 start that included a 61-42 loss to Arizona State.
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Even so, Kiffin quietly rebuilt his image behind a 26-13 mark in three seasons at Florida Atlantic before taking over at Ole Miss and leading the Rebels to double-digit win seasons in four of his six campaigns, topped by last season's historic run.
Still, Kiffin's interest in and eventual departure to LSU were long speculated before becoming official, and the timing couldn't have been worse for Ole Miss. Kiffin offered to coach the Rebels through the CFP but this request was denied and defensive coordinator Pete Golding took the reins before eventually being named the permanent coach. Kiffin took the bulk of his Ole Miss staff with him to LSU, creating tension and public spats between his loyalists and those who remained with the Rebels. One of the many memorable barbs was Kiffin asserting that the Rebels would have won the national title had he remained at the helm.
Now, Kiffin is already facing potential discipline from the SEC for what some observers believe were culturally insensitive remarks regarding recruiting struggles at Ole Miss compared to the more favorable dynamics at LSU. He also recently re-hired the popular Orgeron as a defensive assistant and recruiting specialist.
Now that we've cleared some of the items off the baggage-claim carousel, the football voyage that awaits outside the doors is filled with promise. The college football future odds on the Over/Under win total for LSU sits at 8.5, and we're going to back the over.
LSU football futures odds (via FanDuel)
- Regular season win total: 8.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
- To win SEC: +800
- To make the College Football Playoff: Yes +150, No -190
- To win national title: +2200
Kiffin already has an efficient and proven winner in place at quarterback with Sam Leavitt, who was an integral part of Arizona State's playoff run two seasons ago before he missed the latter part of last season because of a foot injury. The Tigers are expected to have one of the highest NIL payrolls in the country, and they have used to it to land other prized transfers such as Colorado offensive tackle Jordan Seaton and edge rushers Jordan Ross from Tennessee and Princewill Umanmielen, who followed Kiffin to LSU from Ole Miss.
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Of course, a treacherous SEC schedule dictates that LSU must play to its talent ceiling and can't afford any slip-ups against inferior opponents. Coincidentally, a Week 3 matchup at Ole Miss will be a swing game in determining its win total, as will home showdowns against Texas A&M, Texas and Alabama.
But we believe there's a strong possibility the Tigers go 2-1 in those pivotal home contests and will be faced with a worst-case scenario of needing a win at Arkansas in Week 12 to achieve nine wins. But they could also have the milestone cleared ahead of the regular-season finale, and we'll back LSU to hit the over on its season win-total prop of 8.5.
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