BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lane Kiffin, wearing a white T-shirt, white shorts and a white visor, walked off the field after LSU's first spring practice and wasted little time addressing the stratospheric expectations surrounding his highly hyped arrival on the bayou.
“Things don’t happen overnight,” Kiffin cautioned before he'd even been asked a question by a throng of reporters inside a team meeting room in LSU's football operations building. “We’re
making some first steps.
“There’s a ton of work," Kiffin continued, "to get the program back up to where everybody around here wants it to be.”
Noting that the Tigers went 7-6 last season, Kiffin added that it's “a long jump to go to the level that I came here to get at.”
Kiffin has begun his tenure by remaking the roster, adding close to 40 transfers and more than a dozen signees. In all, there were 54 new players on the field to open spring practice.
They include quarterback Sam Leavitt, a transfer from Arizona State who has spent this offseason recovering from a foot injury that required surgery. He took part in individual drills, throwing to receivers on a range of short and longer sidelined and crossing routes. Others include edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen and linebacker TJ Dottery, who followed Kiffin from rival Mississippi, and a number of new receivers from programs across the country.
A few more who aren’t yet enrolled are expected to arrive during summer.
Still, Kiffin downplayed LSU's depth, asserting that it's difficult to stockpile talent in this era of player payments and drastically reduced restrictions on transferring.
“We’re going to have really good front-line talent guys on our roster, and we’re going to have some depth issues,” Kiffin said. “I’m sure all programs probably feel that way nowadays."
Kiffin had just coached Ole Miss to an 11-1 regular-season record in 2025 and a College Football Playoff berth when he was wooed away from the Rebels on Nov. 30 by LSU, which had fired Brian Kelly in late October.
The timing and finances involved in LSU's coaching change highlighted the increasingly cut-throat, big-money nature of major college football.
With Gov. Jeff Landry wielding political influence over the football program at his state’s flagship university, LSU fired Kelly in Year 4 of a 10-year, $100 million contract — a move that required the school to absorb a buyout of about $54 million.
Landry and his key appointees on LSU's Board of Supervisors then pressured athletic director Scott Woodward to resign. They promoted then-deputy AD and former LSU football player Verge Ausberry, who in turn pursued Kiffin with a seven-year, $91 million contract offer and the promise of tens of millions more to pay players.
Once Kiffin agreed to take the LSU job, he was barred by Ole Miss from continuing to coach the Rebels in the postseason.
Kelly suggested during a recent media appearance that Kiffin’s current roster might have cost as much as $40 million. LSU has not publicly disclosed specific figures related to football player payments.
Since Kiffin's arrival in Baton Rouge, he hasn't been shy about posting his whereabouts on social media, including time spent indulging in some of Louisiana's renowned cultural traditions.
But after practice, he stressed, “Don’t mistake, because, you know, you see me doing things around the community or a parade or Mardi Gras or a concert, that there isn't relentless pursuit of greatness here.”
Kiffin said he took a moment when he first walked out to practice to reflect upon how grateful he was to have a chance to coach at LSU, a storied program with a passionate following and a famous home stadium.
He said he thought about “the responsibility level that I have coming here to LSU, to the people of Louisiana, the great players and coaches that have been here before.
“That was pretty cool," he added, "just thinking of that as I walked out on the field today.”
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