LSU Football Sports Information Director Michael Bonnette Goes Into His 27th Season

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU associate athletic director for communications Michael Bonnette will enter his 27th season on September 5 as the Tigers’ football sports information director.

Bonnette, a native of Lake Charles and an LSU graduate, joined Talk Louisiana on WRKF (89.3) Monday morning with guest host Jim Nickel, a lobbyist in Baton Rouge who filled in for vacationing host Jim Engster. Nickel is very familiar with LSU football as well as he is a former spotter for the LSU Radio Network football broadcasts.

LISTEN TO MICHAEL BONNETTE’S APPEARANCE HERE

Nickel asked Bonnette about the Tigers’ 2026 schedule, which opens with Clemson on Sept. 5 in Tiger Stadium (6:30 p.m., ABC) and features three home games against teams that finished the 2025-26 season in the Associated Press rankings – No. 8 Texas A&M (11-2) on Sept. 26, No. 9 Alabama (11-4) on Nov. 7 and No. 12 Texas (10-3) on Nov. 14. It will be the first Texas-LSU game in Tiger Stadium since the unranked Tigers upset the No. 11 Longhorns, 20-7, on Sept. 19, 1953.

“Oh, without a doubt, it’s one of the best schedules LSU has ever had,” Bonnette said. “Especially the home games – Clemson, Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M. It’s as good a home schedule as you’ll find.”

As for the road games, LSU will be at Ole Miss, which finished No. 3 in the final A.P. rankings last season at 13-2, on Sept. 19 (6:30 p.m., ABC) and on Nov. 21 at Tennessee, which received votes for the final poll at 8-5.

LSU’s other home games in 2026 are Louisiana Tech on Sept. 12, McNeese State on Oct. 3 and Mississippi State on Oct. 17. The other road games are at Kentucky on Oct. 10, at Auburn on Oct. 24 and at Arkansas on Nov. 28. LSU will play five road games in the Southeastern Conference for the first time as the SEC moved to a nine-game schedule for this season.

Bonnette will breaking in his fifth head football coach since becoming LSU’s football sports information director in 2000 when Nick Saban took over as coach after being hired away from Michigan State. Bonnette then worked with Les Miles from 2005 through four games of the 2016 season, Ed Orgeron for the rest of 2016 through 2021, Brian Kelly from 2022-25 and now Lane Kiffin, formerly the head coach at Ole Miss.

“All very different,” Bonnette said.

Bonnette also worked with three interim coaches – Orgeron before he was promoted after the 2016 regular season, Brad Davis during the bowl game after the 2021 regular season and Frank Wilson last season following Kelly’s firing on the day after the Oct. 25 loss to Texas A&M.