By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU football coach Lane Kiffin coined, or should I say minted, the phrase, “It’s just different” at his introductory press conference on Dec. 1 – a day after leaving his former job as Ole Miss head coach.
And it took off as a hashtag via social media everywhere.
He also used the phrase to reply to tweets.
It’s just different here https://t.co/j8BTVJt7QC
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) January 2, 2026
At first, he was explaining why he took the job at LSU when he used the phrase on Dec. 1. But the phrase describes more than LSU. It speaks to Louisiana culture in general and the culture he wants to build at LSU.
At his press conference for the opening of spring football on Tuesday, a reporter asked Kiffin, “What is it about being here for a few months that makes this place a little different?”
And Kiffin responded, “A little different?,” and smiled.
Real seafood!! #ItsJustDifferent 👢 pic.twitter.com/aRc8yxamQo
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 20, 2025
“You know, ‘Just different’ really entails a lot,” he said. “And it’s why I just think it’s a really good phrase because it comes up a lot. I’m sitting in meetings, ‘Well, how do you like this? How do you like that?’ And you’re just trying to explain to outsiders like, ‘It’s just different.’ That means Louisiana and the mindset of people here. We had two junior days (recruiting) this weekend, and I really enjoy Lousiana parents and how they think. And what they put into their kids. And how their kids want to work the same way.”
Parents of Louisiana prospects have asked Kiffin, “Hey, we just want to know if he works really hard, he’s going to get a fair shot, right?”
And he said that is no longer a routine question in the age of the instant transfer portal and Name, Image & Likeness money in recruiting.
“That may sound like a normal question, but nowadays that’s not what parents are usually asking anymore,” Kiffin said. “I really enjoy that, and that’s a different mindset, I feel like.”
Kiffin continued to explain what’s different about LSU.
“The expectations, the great players who played here, the stadium, like all of that is just different than other programs,” he said.
Before Ole Miss, Kiffin was the head coach at Florida Atlantic and was the offensive coordinator at Alabama after previously being the head coach at USC and Tennessee.
Kiffin has also turned the phrase onto the players he is recruiting out of the high schools and junior colleges and from the portal as a bit of a warning.
“We teach the recruits and the players, ‘If you’re going to come here, with the way that WE do it here, it’s going to be really different,” he said. “And you’re not going to (or may not) like it. Like, if you want to get a check and be pretty good, it’s not going to work. You’re not going to like it. If you don’t want to have the number one thing that you’re doing is trying to be the best player that you can be the entire year, and that is not your number one focus outside of everything else, it’s not going to be a great experience for you. Because you’re not going to feel comfortable here in it.”
And it’s not just about the players.
“The coaches are up here, too,” Kiffin said of late nights in the office. “So, It’s just a different type of thing you’re coming into.”
Kiffin has put the “It’sJustDifferent” hashtag on tweets from various restaurants he visits around town and while riding in a St. Patrick’s parade in Baton Rouge or at the Endymion Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. But he said on Tuesday not to misunderstand those activities.
“Because you see me doing things around the community, or a parade, or Mardi Gras, or a concert doesn’t mean that there isn’t relentless pursuit of greatness here and effort in the way that we work and
the amount of time that we spend in this office,” he said. “In my opinion, that’s the only way to do it. And it’s especially the only way to do it nowadays, because you have to do so much so fast with so many new pieces.”
What Kiffin is trying to do in his first year at LSU will also be “different” than the first year of many new coaches in college, even since the no-sit-out portal and NIL began in 2021. He just signed one of the largest portal classes of the new portal era with 41.
“This is not normal territory that we’re going into,” he said. “You can’t open the book of old coaching of how you do this, because the roster’s never turned like this.”
Yes, it’s just different.
WHIT WEEKS SITS OUT 1ST SPRING PRACTICE
LSU senior linebacker Whit Weeks, who missed much of last season with a broken ankle, is apparently still nursing that. He did not participate in the Tigers’ first spring practice on Tuesday.
“Whit will continue to do more as we get going through spring,” Kiffin said. “He’ll be cleared for more stuff.”
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