By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU football coach Lane Kiffin noticed a flip in the fan base at his weekly radio show on Thursday night at the Court To Table restaurant near LSU.
Fans, by definition, tend to flip often.
“When I first got here, fans would tell me all the time, ‘Coach, all you’ve got to do is fix the running game, and we’ll be fine,'” Kiffin said during the show. “Now, I’m hearing, ‘Coach all you’ve got to do is fix the passing game.'”
LSU’s run game has improved dramatically this season over last season when it finished 124th out of 134 FBS and last in the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards per game with 104. This season, the Tigers have doubled that rushing total so far with 209 a game for 37th nationally and seventh in the SEC. Running back Dilin Jones is fourth in the SEC and 25th in the nation in yards per game with 95.
But LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt is No. 97 nationally and No. 14 in the SEC in passing efficiency with a 127.3 rating based on 57 completions in 97 passes for 732 yards and three touchdowns with five interceptions. In a 32-24 loss at Ole Miss on Saturday, Leavitt threw for just 158 yards on 16-of-27 passing with a touchdown around several inaccurate throws and an interception.
“We’ve got to make the throw,” Kiffin said as Leavitt has been frequently inaccurate with his passes to open receivers. “We’ve got to get the passing game back on track. Just be more consistent.”
“That stadium’s full an hour early. So, I guess I had to leave to get them to do that. So, you’re welcome.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 20, 2026
-Lane Kiffin to Ole Miss. He was laughing as he said it. But he’s right. Column:https://t.co/P6SuR3cmvL
Leavitt may have a chance to do that Saturday when the No. 10 Tigers (2-1, 0-1 SEC) host No. 23 Texas A&M (2-1, 0-1 SEC), which gave up 252 yards passing to Kentucky quarterback Kenny Minchey on 14-of-18 passing in a 31-21 loss last week.
But what is most concerned about with his team is that it keeps its loss to Ole Miss (3-0, 1-0 SEC), which has moved to No. 4 in the nation, in context.
“But what we don’t want do is overeact,” Kiffin said from the coaching perspective. “We just played a one-possession game that could’ve gone either way at the end. There were a bunch of plays that could’ve gone either way. So, we don’t overreact and say, ‘Well, now, we’ve got to change all these things.’ Just like if we would’ve won, we wouldn’t have said, ‘Now, we have all the answers – we don’t have to look at anything or change anything.’ So, I don’t overreact either way.”
Kiffin said the Tigers are also coming off one of the most unique games with which he has ever been involved.
“I think last week was different than any game we’ll ever play,” he said as he returned to Ole Miss, where he was the head coach from 2020-25. “I mean it just is what it is, especially with a number of players who were there last year with me. And you’ve got a lot of coaches that had been there, and had been there for a long time. And they had great memories there. It was a very unique setting – probably never happened in sports because even when you used to go back to a place years ago, there wasn’t the transfer portal. It was a lot. So, I don’t think we’ll ever be in that situation again.”
Unless, Kiffin leaves for a new head coaching job at what would be his fourth SEC school after Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU.
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