AP Top-25 road wins since 2021: Kalen DeBoer: 9 Josh Heupel: 4 Shane Beamer: 4 Steve Sarkisian: 4 Mark Stoops: 3 Mike Elko: 3 Lane Kiffin: 2 One of Lane’s two wins was against Tulane.

Lacking leadership elsewhere too

In his entire four-year tenure at LSU, Brian Kelly lost just 4 games when favored by 3 or more points. Lane Kiffin has already lost 2 games as a favorite of 3 or more points in his first 6 games at LSU. Kiffin has already matched half of Kelly’s four-year total in just six games.

Since the start of the 2024 season, Kentucky is 4–13 against SEC opponents not coached by Lane Kiffin. But they are 2–1 against Lane Kiffin.

The Lane Kiffin era at LSU is off to quite a start. Tried to add two former NFL players. Neither made the roster. Got sued by their own conference. Had the Governor of Louisiana on national TV defending the whole thing. Went back to Oxford and lost his super bowl 32-24 to Ole Miss. And just when it looked like the SEC fight might finally be cooling off, the conference says its concerns with LSU “remain unresolved” and it is preparing its response in federal court. We’re three games into the Lane Kiffin era.

Brian Kelly was fired at 5-3 after losing to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, three teams that all finished in the Top 15. That was deemed unacceptable after Kelly went 10-4, 10-3 and 9-4 his first three years. Then LSU made a massive near quarter billion dollar investment to change regimes and make sure Lane Kiffin had every resource necessary to meet that standard. They gave Lane a $91 million contract, making him one of the three highest-paid coaches in college football. They’re paying his OC and DC $5.5 million combined. And they built a roster reportedly costing $40-50+ million, more than twice what Kelly said LSU spent on his final roster and potentially the most expensive roster in the sport. Kelly never had anything close to that overall level of resources, and LSU still decided that losing to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M was unacceptable. Three games into the Lane era, he’s already lost to Ole Miss. Texas A&M comes to Baton Rouge Saturday. So if LSU loses again, it’s a fair question: By the standard LSU established for Brian Kelly BEFORE making this massive investment, how hot is Lane Kiffin’s seat supposed to be?

LSU plays Texas A&M in three days. Roughly 390 of the 780 words Lane Kiffin said on today’s SEC teleconference were about Ole Miss. Asked about Marcel Reed? He brought up Trinidad Chambliss. Asked about Sam Leavitt and preparing for A&M? He brought up Ole Miss’ crowd noise and music being played through the snap. Worry about your coach.

LSU paid $54M to fire Brian Kelly, paid to get Lane out of Ole Miss, gave Lane $91M, built one of the most expensive staffs in America and reportedly put together a $50M roster. All in, they’re pushing a quarter of a billion dollars. You don’t get to make Year 1 excuses with that kind of money.