By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
There has been word that attendance at the Southeastern Conference Football Media Days will not be as high as it has been in recent years with the four-day gala of press conferences moving to Florida for the first time after years in the more sensible, centrally located Birmingham, Alabama, and recently in Atlanta and Nashville. There was also one in Dallas.
Plus, maybe some of the national writers are taking vacations this week so they can attend the Big Ten Media Days next week, July 28-30, in a real city – Chicago for the best conference in college football and winners of the last three national championships.
One way to keep attendees in Tampa if they arrive in the first place is by having the main event on the last day.
And that will be rock star, controversial, new LSU coach Lane Kiffin – loved by those who are fans and reporters of his team, loathed by others jealous he isn’t coaching theirs or left theirs like a thief in the night (though most coaches leave). The Ole Miss Nation, by the way, has been remaking “Mississippi Burning” for the last seven months since Kiffin left after six seasons – four of which were 10-win-or-more campaigns like that program has never seen – for LSU.
Lane Kiffin developed his offense genius via the Dark Side – Defense, including his Father and Darth Vader Saban.https://t.co/Xxdt0Yo8Uf
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) July 18, 2026
“The last few years we’ve been leading off,” LSU associate athletic director for communications Michael Bonnette told Tiger Rag Radio last week. “And I think this (Kiffin on the last day) is an attempt to keep the media contingent there all week.”
Bonnette will be at his 27th consecutive SEC Media Days as LSU football sports information director.
“I think they strategically put us on the last day,” he said. “It gives us an advantage to see what everybody is talking about. It helps us get a look at what we’re heading into.”
One of Lane Kiffin’s biggest national critics – of many – is ESPN and SEC Network star Paul Finebaum.
Finebaum said with great clarity on SEC Nation Sunday night in a special SEC Media Days preview what many throughout the national, regional and local media have been saying for months.
“What are the expectations you have for Kiffin in year one?” Finebaum was asked by SEC Nation host Matt Barrie.
“CFP,” Finebaum said. “It’s really simple.”
LSU has not made the CFP – the College Football Playoff – since the 2019 season when the Tigers won the national championship at 15-0 under coach Ed Orgeron – also a fan and coaching friend of Kiffin who has joined his staff as a special recruiting ace and defense assistant after LSU fired him during the 2021 season.
“And if he fails to do that, the human cry will be loud and vociferous,” Finebaum said. “But that is the expectation, because not only the money paid to him ($13.5 million a year in a seven-year, $91 million contract), but the money paid to the players.”
It has been estimated that LSU’s various collective and NIL money sources have shelled out between $30 and $45 million for its 2026 roster. That includes the No. 1 portal class in the country with 41 transfers, including No. 1 quarterback Sam Leavitt of Arizona State at an estimated $5 million a year. No. 1 offensive tackle Jordan Seaton of Colorado and No. 1 edge rusher Prince Umanmielen of Ole Miss likely have multi-million dollar deals as well.
“Nobody did better in the portal,” Finebaum said. “He’s got players across the board, and it’s incumbent to get there (to the playoffs). Now, if he doesn’t, as much as I would like to say, ‘Lane Kiffin ought to be fired,’ he’s not going to be. It’s not even going to be close.”
LSU coach Brian Kelly was fired last season after signing the No. 1 portal class, but that was going into his fourth season. He never put LSU into the playoffs.
But Finebaum quickly pulled back on his “ought to be fired” hypothetical.
“I say that jokingly because Kiffin has so much goodwill right now that even a subpar season is not going to change fan optimism for the future,” he said.
This is true. LSU coach Jay Johnson had one of the worst seasons in school baseball history in 2026 at 30-28 and 9-21 in the SEC, and he still retains huge popularity. But he just won national championships in 2023 and ’25. LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade may have more goodwill than even Kiffin, so much so that he could withstand a poor season in 2025-26 and still remain immensely popular … for a while anyway.
SEC Media Days started Monday as usual with an address by commissioner Greg Sankey, who may try to finesse around how the Big Ten has passed his league by stressing balance, which he did at the SEC Spring Meetings. Can’t wait for that.
The four coaches today will be Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, Kentucky new coach Will Stein and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel with each bringing three players.
On Tuesday Auburn’s next new coach, Alex Golesh, will take the stage as will Georgia’s Kirby Smart – the last SEC coach to win a national title in 2021 and ’22 back when Sankey spoke more of championships than balance. South Carolina’s Shane Beamer and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea are also scheduled.
On Wednesday, the coaches will be Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Florida new coach Jon Sumrall, who left his program at Tulane as Kiffin did but got no national outcry as did Kiffin, Ole Miss’ interim-turned-head coach Pete Golding and Texas A&M’s Mike Elko.
Then on Thursday, Portal and Twitter King Kiffin, possibly soon to be SEC King, takes the stage as will Arkansas new coach Ryan Silverfield, Mississippi State’s Jeff Lebby, a former Kiffin offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, who coached with Kiffin at Alabama under Nick Saban.
And then the only question is, will Kiffin, who stopped tweeting last May after a controversial feature in Vanity Fair, return to Twitter to talk about it? As a nation waits.
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