By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Lane Kiffin is expected to host two top 10 portal players this weekend as the portal window rolls through its first weekend.
The Tigers are expecting No. 5 defensive lineman Stephiylan Green (6-foot-4, 290), a redshirt sophomore from Clemson, and No. 8 wide receiver Tre Wilson (5-10, 194), a redshirt sophomore from Florida.
Green is also expected to visit Texas A&M, USC and Miami. In 10 games and six starts in 2025, he made 18 tackles with 2.5 sacks with a pass breakup. He was the No. 27 defensive lineman in the country and No. 18 player in Georgia coming out of Rome High in Rome as a four-star prospect at No. 187 overall in 2023.
Wilson caught 27 passes for 239 yards and three touchdowns for the Gators in a 2025 season cut short by an ankle injury as he played in just eight games with five starts. He is the No. 37 overall portal prospect by 247sports.com. A redshirt sophomore, he would have two seasons at LSU.
A four-star prospect out of Gaither High in Tampa in 2023, Wilson was the No. 16 wide receiver in the nation when he signed with Florida, the No. 27 player in the state and No. 109 in the nation. He was named a Football Writers Association of America freshman All-American in 2023 and made the All-SEC freshmen team after making 61 catches for 538 yards with six touchdowns. Wilson missed but all four games of the 2024 season with a hip injury and surgery. He is also expected to visit Texas A&M.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the portal, LSU sophomore running back Caden Durham has entered the portal and is planning on a transfer. Durham led the Tigers in rushing in 2025 with 505 yards on 111 carries and three touchdowns while catching 16 passes for 91 yards.
The No. 6 running back in the nation and No. 124 overall prospect in 2024 out of Duncanville High in Duncanville, Texas, Durham also led LSU in rushing as a freshman in 2024 with 753 yards on 140 carries and six TDs with 28 receptions for 260 yards and two touchdowns.
Durham could be headed to Ole Miss, where Frank Wilson, his running backs coach with the Tigers for two seasons, is the running backs coach in waiting. Wilson will be replacing running backs coach Kevin Smith, who left Ole Miss for LSU but has been coaching the Rebels in the playoffs.
Smith’s top running back at Ole Miss – sophomore Kewan Lacy – could be entering the portal and transferring to LSU after the playoffs. Players on playoffs teams, such as Ole Miss, have an extended window to enter the portal after the general Jan. 16 deadline.
Lacy gained 98 yards on 22 carries and scored two touchdowns in No. 6 Ole Miss’ 39-34 win over No. 3 Georgia on Thursday night in the playoff quarterfinals in the Sugar Bowl. He has 1,464 yards on the season on 295 carries with 23 touchdowns.
Durham was the 21st LSU player from the 2025 season to consider a transfer, and No. 22 happened later Saturday.
As expected, sophomore quarterback Michael Van Buren entered the portal. A transfer after last season from Mississippi State, Van Buren replaced injured starter Garrett Nussmeier late in the season and started the last four games. He completed 94 of 151 passes for 1,010 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions.
Van Buren had said late last season that he planned to stay at LSU, but that was before Kiffin was hired. And everyone knew Kiffin would be signing multiple quarterbacks from the portal.
And LSU has lost wide receiver Zavion Thomas, who has said he will put his name into the 2026 NFL Draft.
A senior from John Ehret High in the New Orleans area, Thomas still had a fifth year of college eligibility as he was never red-shirted. Thomas caught 41 passes for 488 yards for the Tigers in 2025. He caught 23 passes for 218 yards and two TDs in 2024. Thomas played his first two seasons at Mississippi State in 2022 and ’23. His best season was in ’23 with the Bulldogs as he caught 40 passes for 503 yards and a touchdown.
Other portal visiting news on Saturday has Kiffin expected to host three other players. The highest ranked of that trio is No. 17 wide receiver Jayce Brown, a junior from Kansas State. Brown (6-0, 179) caught 41 passes for 712 yards and five touchdowns in 2025. He had 47 receptions for 823 yards and five touchdowns in 2024. In 2023, he caught 27 passes for 437 yards and three touchdowns.
Brown, who is No. 60 in the portal by 247sports.com, is also scheduled to visit Ole Miss, Georgia, Auburn, Kentucky and Louisville. He was only a three-star prospect at Choctawhatchee High in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, as the No. 195 wideout in the nation and No. 185 player in Florida.
LSU has two other expected visitors.
-Redshirt freshman Carter Vargas (6-0, 212) of Football Championship Series (FCS) California-Davis is the No. 100 running back in the portal and No. 1,095 prospect. He gained 445 yards on 67 carries with five touchdowns in the 2025 season in only eight games because of an injury. Vargas is also visiting Oregon. At St. Joseph High in Santa Maria, California, Vargas was a three-star prospect as the No. 182 running back in the nation and No. 301 player in his state.
-True freshman Landon Clark (6-0, 186) is the No. 66 quarterback and No. 723 portal prospect from FCS Elon in Elon, North Carolina. Clark completed 155 of 277 passes for 2,321 yards and 18 touchdowns with eight interceptions in the 2025 season. He was not ranked coming out of Radford High in Radford, Virginia.
According to previous reports, there are four other expected visitors – No. 2 quarterback Brendan Sorsby, a redshirt junior from Cincinnati, No. 1 edge Chaz Coleman, a freshman at Penn State, No. 7 wide receiver Terrell Anderson, a junior at North Carolina State, and No. 40 wide receiver Iverson Hooks, a junior at Alabama-Birmingham.
LANE TRAIN ALSO TAPPING HIGH SCHOOLS
Just because the portal opened Friday and will run through Jan. 16 doesn’t mean Kiffin can’t keep an eye on high school recruiting, too.
On Saturday, Kiffin got a commitment for the Class of 2027 from highly ranked edge rusher Jaiden Bryant, who is No. 5 at his position in the country, according to 247sports.com’s composite rankings. Bryant (6-3, 245) is the No. 34 overall prospect nationally for ’27 and the No. 2 player in South Carolina out of Irmo High ;in Columbia.
New LSU defensive line coach Sterling Lucas, whom Kiffin just hired from South Carolina, had been recruiting Bryant to South Carolina.
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