Lane Kiffin and LSU fans deserve to spike the football, but perhaps it’s too early

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Lane Kiffin’s coaching debut at LSU was nearly flawless. Death Valley was even more electric than usual after dark and his Tigers crushed Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, 51-10, in a game that probably wasn’t even as close as the score suggests. Kiffin is now college football’s main character—and not by accident. People will tell you he’s polarizing but it’s a but unclear just how many people in real life care either way about the way he goes about the job.

What’s important is that LSU loves him right now. After one game. He’s been loved by a lot of places in his long, windy coaching career and it’s never been a perfect long-term marriage. Which is why he finds himself in Baton Rouge in the first place.

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He may, though, be perfect for LSU and LSU perfect for him. That’s Colin Cowherd’s stance, as he explained oh his show Monday.

“LSU cares about one thing: winning football games,” Cowherd said. “Lane Kiffin is a mercenary but so is LSU.”

There are many, many reasons to be excited about Kiffin’s potential at the football factory. He’s a genius offensive mind, is objectively funny and brings energy to everything he does. One could argue he’s never had better ingredients with which to cook up something special. Through 60 minutes the early returns are great.

Kiffin fans hear enough backlash against him that they are perfectly within their rights to spike the football after he demolished Dabo Swinney. With all that’s swirling around LSU right now, heck yeah, you stick your finger in a hater’s eye.

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But whether you like the Kiffin show or don’t much care for it, one thing that could be agreed upon is that it’s quite early in the season. LSU will have stiffer tests. They play Ole Miss and Texas A&M back to back in a few weeks and close by hosting Alabama and Texas before the season finale at Tennessee.

Then there’s the whole thing of the SEC potentially voting the school out of the conference later this week.

In short, a lot is going on and things are subject to change. Right now it’s easy to ride the high and savor the fruits of victory. Yet it’s a long and potentially novel road Kiffin will pave in Baton Rouge and it won’t come without some obstacles. Plenty of ballgames left.

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