Lane Kiffin and LSU look to keep fading playoff hopes alive

LSU's Tiger Walk last Saturday was designed to dominate social media, and it did. Lane Kiffin made his pregame stroll to Tiger Stadium surrounded by celebrity power, including actor Kevin Costner and former LSU stars Shaquille O'Neal, Angel Reese, Paul Skenes and Olivia Dunne.

"The whole thing is that you create a program with people watching .. [who] say, 'That place is cool. I want to go there,'" Kiffin said on Monday.

By the end of the night, though, a different procession was drawing attention: LSU fans filing out of the stadium in the fourth quarter of Alabama's commanding 31-13 victory. The booing only quieted because the stands kept emptying.

The loss dropped LSU to 6-3 in Kiffin's first season, still without a signature win, and the criticism has intensified. A videoboard outside the Tigers' locker room this week captured the mood: "When you win, everybody loves you. When you lose, everybody has an opinion .. WELCOME TO LSU and THE DARK SIDE OF BEING THE VILLAIN!"

Nine games into Kiffin's tenure, the program leads the sport in hype while its on-field results remain ordinary. LSU sits at No. 21 in the College Football Playoff rankings, but the path is not closed. Texas visits this week, followed by a trip to Tennessee, and winning both could still push the Tigers into the playoff picture.

Kiffin is not running from the expectations he helped create. "The loss at Tiger Stadium, yeah, that's bad," he said. "I feel bad for our fans and for the state. We're supposed to win. We're certainly not supposed to score 13 points in a game, ever."

Kiffin had spent six years rebuilding his career and his life at Ole Miss, achieving success on the field, sobriety off it and what was arguably the best team in school history. He left on the eve of the playoff, believing LSU was a competitive upgrade he could not refuse. "My heart was [at Ole Miss], but I talked to some mentors, Coach [Pete] Carroll, Coach [Nick] Saban, especially when Coach Carroll said, 'Your dad would tell you to go, man, take the shot,'" Kiffin said last offseason.

LSU paid a staggering price to land him. The school spent $54 million to buy out Brian Kelly, then gave Kiffin a nearly fully guaranteed $91 million contract, even agreeing to cover the $500,000 in bonus money he would have collected for each Ole Miss playoff win. The Rebels went on to reach the national semifinals. LSU also committed at least $40 million to its current roster, and the athletic department reported a $44 million shortfall for fiscal 2026 with another $26 million projected for fiscal 2027.

The investment went beyond money. In August, when Kiffin moved to sign players who had just been cut from NFL rosters, the school backed the effort and then fought the backlash from an angry SEC, which in legal filings threatened to expel LSU after nearly 94 years of membership.

Now the question hanging over Baton Rouge is simple: if LSU and Kiffin were each worth such sacrifice, why can't the Tigers beat Kentucky and its first-year coach, let alone Alabama? "Who [I] walked in [with] wasn't the reason we didn't execute in the red zone," Kiffin said. Another Saturday, another Tiger Walk and another chance await, and with this coach and this program, something will go viral either way.