The Lane Kiffin era at LSU begins Saturday.
LSU opens the 2026 season against the Clemson Tigers at 6:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium (ABC).
LSU and Clemson are both coming off mediocre seasons by their standards.
LSU went 7-6, including a 17-10 season-opening victory over Clemson. Head Coach Brian Kelly was fired on Oct. 26 after a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M. The Tigers were 5-3 at the time after a 4-0 start.
Clemson also went 7-6. That had some wondering if Head Coach Dabo Swinney, who has won two national championships in 18 seasons, had lost his touch.
Kiffin was hired by LSU on Nov. 30 after leading Ole Miss to an 11-1 record, the best in program history.
The chatter during game week has been as much about lawsuits and court rulings as it has been about football. It has centered on players who have signed with NFL teams and been in NFL training camps returning to play college football under the new five years to play five seasons rule with the clock starting the year a player enters college.
About 40 players nationwide who enrolled in 2022, including two who committed to LSU, have sued successfully gained a fifth year of eligibility.
As of Friday, the issue hadn’t been resolved despite a Louisiana judge ruling in favor of the players on Thursday.
Kiffin has faced criticism over his stance on the issue and answered several questions about it during his press conference earlier this week. But his focus is on Saturday’s game.
“Couldn’t be more excited for this to be here,” he said. “This will be about preparation not hype. There’s so much hype into this game, so much excitement from our fan base to watch us, probably that same excitement from everybody else in the country to root the other way, against us.
“Just a lot of work went into it, whatever seven or eight months of getting to this point. I always look at a game really as like a performance. The players do all this work. The coaches do all this work to make sure they put the best performance out there for our fans.”
LSU enters the season ranked No. 11 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the Coaches’ Poll. Clemson is unranked in the AP Top 25 and No. 23 in the Coaches’ Poll.
Kiffin expects a big challenge Saturday.
“Really tough opponent in Clemson, very well-coached,” he said. “Veteran staff. Guys that have won a lot of games, coordinators. Head coach, obviously, Dabo, is one of the best to ever do it and done it for a long time.
“So this is a great matchup, one that we’re excited to be part of. And I’ve said it before. I’m humbled to be here as the LSU head coach. I don’t take that lightly. I would hope that the way that we work, the time that we put in, preparation of what we do over these seven months is what people brought us here to do.”
Kiffin has largely overhauled LSU’s roster. LSU has 52 transfers, including former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, who gets the start Saturday.
Leavitt passed for 1,628 yards and 10 touchdowns in seven games before suffering a season-ending foot injury. In 2024, he passed for 2,885 yards and 25 touchdowns as Arizona State won the Big 12 title. He was 16-4 as a starter.
Kiffin has liked the way Leavitt’s performed during training camp.
“I think there’s been really good improvement,” he said. “I think Sam has had a great camp and I’m usually pretty hard on the evals on anyone. … I can’t imagine it going much better for him. Now we’ve got to make more plays around him, protect better, be more consistent but he’s been great.”
He said he always believes there’s room for improvement, but he’s exited about the potential of the offense.
“The running game has looked really good,” he said. “The running backs have really improved. It’s really kind of exciting to watch. Now it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t go do it Saturday. But the way that it’s progressed knowing that almost nobody was here on this offense and how it looked at the beginning of spring and how it looks now, it’s exciting to see it all work together and them work together with each other.”
Kiffin is trying to rebuild an offense that ranked last in the SEC in total yards last season.
Preseason All-America tight end Trey’Dez Green is back, but LSU’s wide receiver corps is entirely new. Caden Durham and Harlem Berry return in the backfield. Wisconsin transfer Dilin Jones is a former 4-star recruit.
Clemson has 30 new players only 10 of which are transfers.
Swinney named junior Chris Vizzina, a backup to Cade Klubnik the last three seasons, the starting quarterback earlier this week.
Vizzina started one game last season when Klubnik was sidelined with an injury. He completed 29-of-42 passes for 317 yards and no interceptions in a 35-24 loss to SMU.