By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The men’s basketball NCAA Tournament opened on Thursday (Sorry, I don’t count the play-in games).
The women’s NCAA Tournament begins Friday.
But on Tuesday, the real March Madness will begin with the opening of LSU Spring Football under new coach Lane Kiffin, who signed 41 new players in the NCAA Transfer Portal for the No. 1 portal class in the country and 18 in the traditional signing class of high school players and junior college transfers that is ranked No. 13. That’s 59.
In all, Kiffin will be practicing with 105 players over spring – 41 from the portal, 11 enrolled members of the 18 from the recruiting class and 53 returning players. Seven players from the recruiting class will join the team for August practices.
So, there is going to be quite a Big Dance on the LSU football practice fields beginning at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday when the whistle blows.
Without question, this will be the greatest Spring Football season in LSU football history. And that’s coming from someone who has never been a fan of spring football. Moi.
But this one will actually be significant from a news and interest basis. Most of them are not. When a new head coach or coordinator is hired, those spring football drills are significant, yes. Spring practice is also always important for the players to develop. But usually that is not interesting or news worthy, as no one outside of the team really knows what is coming until the real games start.
But at LSU this week, you have the biggest hire in college football in the 2025-26 cycle with the rock star Kiffin at $91 million over seven years and the greatest NCAA Transfer Portal class he assembled in the history of the immediate transfer era that began in 2021-2022 all coming together at the same time.
It’s going to be cool just watching such new transfers as Sam Leavitt and Jordan Seaton just walking around on The Ponderosa practice fields. Leavitt is only the No. 1 player in the portal and No. 1 quarterback in the portal from Arizona State, while Seaton is the No. 1 portal offensive tackle from Colorado and No. 4 overall portal player.
Leavitt’s salary from Name, Image & Likeness and revenue share is approximated at about $5 million. Seaton’s is around $3 million. Only Kiffin, defensive coordinator Blake Baker and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. or in that dollar zip code of LSU’s coaches.
And there will be actual media access on Tuesday at practice and with a rare Kiffin press conference to follow. And he won’t be on a Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s parade float!
He’ll actually be at the podium at LSU for just the third time since his Dec. 1 introductory press conference.
“To be able to now look into next year and have all that set on the roster, whatever these roles are, really excites me,” Kiffin said in his last press conference at LSU way back on Feb. 4. “So where that puts us now is that we have a really talented roster. Does that mean we’re going to win games? Not necessarily. Does that mean they’re going to be a great team? No. We have a lot of work to do now. Now you’ve got to put all that aside. You’ve got to be able to work for the betterment of the program. So, that is a big challenge to say, ‘Okay, can we put them all together, so they play really well?’”
There are drastic additions on the offensive line with eight from the portal and two early enrollees from the signing class and at wide receiver with nine from the portal and two early prep enrollees.
“There will be a ton of work for a long time now in this offseason,” Kiffin said. “Defensively, keeping most of the coaching staff (DC Blake Baker in particular) allows us schematically over there, not much change. Offensively, we have all the new players and a new system to put in. So, excited about the work ahead.”
All eyes will be on Leavitt, though he will be limited because of a foot injury suffered last season. He injured ligaments in his right foot and played in just seven games before Lisfranc surgery, which involves plates and screws realigning the foot with a six-month recovery.
“Sam will be able to throw some and participate in seven-on-seven in the spring,” Kiffin said. “Probably not team stuff.”
Therefore, redshirt freshman Husan Longstreet of USC and redshirt sophomore Landen Clark of Elon – both from the portal – will get valuable time at QB through spring practice that ends on April 24.
“It was really critical what we did at quarterback,” Kiffin said. “Because that’s going to be a lot of how your spring ball goes, which is your first time of your team feeling an offense. Our offense is very much pushed and driven by the quarterback, because of the tempo piece of it. A lot of change had to happen there.”
Change is in the air like never before with LSU Football.
Kiffin basically signed two portal classes in one because he mixed and matched upperclassmen with underclassmen. Many will have immediate impacts, obviously. But many will not or barely play. They are the future beyond 2026. And Kiffin proved to keep most of his transfers from transferring again while he was becoming the Portal King and turning around Ole Miss more drastically than it had ever been turned around.
And Kiffin is at a new job now after equaling his previous longest stint at the same school – six years as Ole Miss’ head coach from 2020-25 after six as a USC assistant from 2001-06.
“It’s neat to redo things like this after six years,” he said.
Not quite the NCAA Tournament and buzzer beaters, but it will be neat and fun to watch.
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