Lane Kiffin, LSU football in way-too-early rankings for 2026 season
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BATON ROUGE – No other team in college football has had as much turnover and overhaul this offseason as LSU football has.
Lane Kiffin has taken over the program as head coach, officially hired on Nov. 30 and closing the book on the Brian Kelly chapter. Amid the coaching change, 37 players decided to enter the transfer portal and another 18 are exiting the program due to graduation along with some entering the 2026 NFL Draft.
As it stands, Kiffin and the new LSU coaching staff have pulled in the top rated 2026 transfer portal class, which features 38 new players joining the team. Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, Tennessee defensive lineman Jordan Ross,Boise State safety Ty Benefield, Ole Miss offensive lineman Devin Harper and Kansas State wide receiver Jayce Brown led the way within that group.
For all the movement and changes, the Tigers may be one of the more difficult teams to forecast on how the 2026 season is going to go amid the slew of unknowns. How will the team come together? How much can Kiffin affect the execution of LSU’s offense in year one? Is it fair to expect LSU to make the College Football Playoff in Kiffin’s first season?
While there is still more than seven months until LSU kicks off the 2026 season against Clemson inside Tiger Stadium Sept. 5 and the answers to those questions start to take shape, what are prognosticators expecting from LSU next season?
Here’s where LSU ranks in USA TODAY’s way-too-early Top 25.
Where LSU football ranks in way-too-early top 25 rankings
USA TODAY sees LSU as a top-20 team heading into next season. Kiffin landing Leavitt out of the portal was huge for the coach’s build of LSU’s offense.
LSU, just like every season, has a challenging schedule in 2026, highlighted by games against Clemson, Texas, Alabama and Texas A&M but all of those matchups are home games for the Tigers.
- Texas
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Indiana
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma
- Texas Tech
- Texas A&M
- Oregon
- Miami
- Alabama
- USC
- BYU
- Michigan
- LSU
- SMU
- Penn State
- Utah
- Clemson
- Ole Miss
- Iowa
- Florida State
- Houston
- Tennessee
- Boise State
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Where experts have LSU football in way-too-early rankings for 2026
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