By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Welcome to LSU Football’s version of “The Last Picture Show.”
No disrespect to the classic, Peter Bogdanovich film of 1971 co-written by Larry McMurtry about small town Texas life in the 1950s losing its movie theater and much of its innocence. But I can almost see a tumbleweed or two now meandering about the synthetic turf field at NRG Stadium in Houston on a lost Saturday night this weekend, even though it has a retractable roof.
This is the end for the 2025 football season for the Tigers – what’s left of them – from a season that started with so much hope from a No. 1 NCAA Transfer Portal class, a Heisman Trophy contending quarterback and a No. 9 preseason ranking.
LSU (7-5) plays No. 21 Houston (9-3) in Houston in the Texas Bowl, which like other third-tier bowls are reminiscent of movie theaters from a bygone era that do not realize it’s over and has been for years. Kickoff is in prime time Saturday (8:15 p.m., ESPN), but do not look for any blockbuster ratings.
This season was supposed to be so much more on Broadway for the Tigers and their head coach, who said about a year ago that he would be keeping “receipts” from a national championship game appearance in January of 2026.
“So, whatever camp you want to jump into, go right ahead,” Brian Kelly cracked after LSU’s 37-17 win over unranked and 5-5 Oklahoma to finish the 2024 regular season at 8-4 after a three-game slide that knocked the Tigers out of the polls from No. 8 at mid-season.
“So, we’re taking RECEIPTS, and we’ll see you at the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP,” Kelly proclaimed, borrowing an infamous boast from 2023 by Colorado coach and brief portal king Deion Sanders, who has also run out of receipts amid a 3-9 (1-8 Big 12) 2025 season after a 9-4 and 7-2 “breakthrough” in 2024.
The only postseason game Kelly and LSU reached after that comment was the Texas Bowl in Houston last year when they beat unranked Baylor to finish 9-4. A receipt from that game won’t even get you into drive-in movie.
LSU now finds itself back where it was a year ago in something akin to a spring game.
Only Kelly won’t be there. He was fired on Oct. 26 – the day after losing, 49-25, to No. 3 Texas A&M and falling to 5-3 and 2-3 in the SEC and out of the College Football Playoff for the fourth time in his four seasons.
Kelly’s only receipts now are from his 10-year, $100 million contract he signed before the 2022 season after leaving Notre Dame that has LSU paying him a $54 million buyout. That would be decreased by a lot if Kelly finds another major coaching job, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Not even soiled-again Michigan is interested.
LSU senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier won’t be on the field either. His Heisman hopes disintegrated as he played most of the season with painful abdomen strain injury that plagued his performance as did a porous, portal-patched offensive line that never meshed. Nussmeier is trying to get healthy again for the NFL Draft.
Sophomore backup Michael Van Buren will start at quarterback for the Tigers. Sophomore Ju’Juan Johnson is expected to be Van Buren’s backup, even though Johnson has said he plans on entering the transfer portal.
There were a couple great players from LSU’s 2025 portal class on defense like senior cornerback Mansoor Delane and senior safety AJ Haulcy, but for the most part that top ranking was fool’s gold.
Delane, who also played with a painful core injury, will not be playing in the Texas Bowl as he prepares to be a first round pick in the NFL Draft. Haulcy isn’t hurt, but he also will not be playing against his former team as he prepares for the draft.
Senior defensive end Jack Pyburn, junior linebacker Harold Perkins Jr., junior wide receiver Aaron Anderson, senior wide receiver Barion Brown and senior guard Josh Thompson are also not hurt and could play, but they have opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft. Most of the 11 LSU players who have entered the portal or plan to will not be playing in the game.
Van Buren will have senior wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr. to throw to in the Texas Bowl. Hilton is expected to play. The Texas Bowl actually means a lot to him, and he is clearly in the minority. In a disappointing, injury-riddled career, he did set a career high for receiving yards with 113 on four catches in the Tigers’ 44-31 win over Baylor in the Texas Bowl last season, including a 41-yard touchdown.
Sophomore running back Caden Durham and freshman Harlem Berry are expected to play. So is LSU center Braelin Moore.
Lane Kiffin finishes hiring his mostly Ole Miss West coaching staff:https://t.co/4QLnTtZ1WM
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) December 23, 2025
LSU new head coach Lane Kiffin and his newly hired assistant coaches will not be coaching in the game. Kiffin has been too busy reviewing the roster to decide what players he wants to keep and which ones he will weed out as he prepares for the portal’s next window (Jan. 2-16) and the next high school signing day (Feb. 4).
LSU-Ole Miss coach swapping saga right out of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice:https://t.co/FI70AeMPjL
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) December 22, 2025
The six offensive coaches Kiffin brought with him from his former head coaching job at Ole Miss are back in Oxford to prepare the No. 6 Rebels (12-1) for the quarterfinal round of the playoffs in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 in New Orleans against No. 3 Georgia (12-1).
That’s a real bowl.
This one is not.
The LSU offensive coaches for the Texas Bowl likely wish they could opt out, too, as they have not been retained by Kiffin. But they will be continuing with their lame duck status preparing the Tigers in practice and will coach the bowl. Then they will be off to other jobs as soon as they find them.
At the moment, only interim coach Frank Wilson has been hired – as running backs coach at Ole Miss.
Most of LSU’s defensive coaches will be coaching the Tigers in the bowl and have been retained by Kiffin.
What this all amounts to is the least anticipated, least talked about and least written about bowl game in LSU history. Media interviews of coaches and players for the game have been minimal, and there have been even fewer complaints about that.
This has happened before. After Kelly replaced coach Ed Orgeron following the 2021 season, the Tigers with an even more depleted roster than the current one and interim coach Brad Davis fell to an unranked Kansas State, 42-20, in – yes – the Texas Bowl with Kelly only watching. The immediate transfer portal and NIL were only in their infancy at the time.
Four years later and so many Texas Bowl-like postseason scrimmages seem even more meaningless.
Kiffin will likely watch it, because it’s his job. But he will likely not be entertained.
While watching LSU lose 17-13 to Oklahoma in the regular season finale on Nov. 29 as he prepared to fly to LSU, he reportedly remarked, “Who came up with this game plan?”
LSU fans have been wondering that most of the season. And the same group will try to come up with another one Saturday night.
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