LSU Football By The Numbers: 10 Digits That Will Define The 2026 Season

By KACE KIEISCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

This is your paint-by-numbers guide for LSU’s 2026 football season.

59.26%

That is the percentage of the LSU roster that was not on the team last year — 64 of the 108 total players. There are five returning starters on offense, four on defense. This is a new era of LSU football under Lane Kiffin.

483

The number of rushing yards LSU gave up to quarterbacks in 2025. That jumps to 515, or 42 yards per game when the -32 yards by Western Kentucky are removed. With games against Ole Miss’s Trinidad Chambliss and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed in weeks three and four, the Tigers will need to be better right away.

297

Three players on this LSU defense combined for 297 tackles in 2025 on three teams. Linebacker Dahvon Keys had 92 for LSU. Linebacker TJ Dottery led the SEC with 98 stops for Ole Miss. And safety Ty Benefield was No. 1 in the Mountain West with 107 tackles for Boise State. Factor in the 124 tackles a healthy Whit Weeks made in 2024, and a nightmare for opposing backs is brewing in Death Valley.

198

Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. ran the ball 576 times last year at Ole Miss, while LSU rushed 378 times – a difference of 198. The Rebels did play two more games, but take away the 48 carries in those two, and Ole Miss rushes still outnumber LSU’s by 150. Welcome to the Lane Train rushing attack.

21

A first-year head coach at an FBS program has led his team to nine or more regular season wins 21 times in the College Football Playoff era. Kiffin will need to make the 2026 Tigers the 22nd team to achieve that feat, if he wants a shot at the College Football Playoffs.

16.08

The average yards per catch of this year’s LSU receivers in the 2025 season at other schools. Compare that to the 10.92 mark LSU wideouts recorded last season, and the difference in the potential offense is apparent. Expect Kiffin’s unit to be much more explosive than the ‘25 Tigers.

11

Trey’Dez Green’s 11 touchdowns are already an LSU record for tight ends. But if LSU’s offense is going to put points on the board, it will need its top red zone threat to produce as much as ever.

9

Edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen tallied nine sacks at Ole Miss last season. Linebacker Harold Perkins led LSU with four in 2025. An edge like Umanmielen will be a difference maker for Blake Baker’s defense.

5

That is how many sacks projected starting tackles Jordan Seaton (at Colorado) and Weston Davis (at LSU) allowed in 1,060 snaps last season. LSU’s offense starts with these two bookends.

2

The total number of FBS starts made by LSU cornerbacks not named DJ Pickett or PJ Woodland. Both were made by redshirt junior Ja’Keem Jackson at Florida in 2023. After LSU sophomore Aidan Anding went down with an Achilles injury during spring camp, the Tigers will need to avoid any more injuries and rely on someone else in the room to step up.