Lane Kiffin will be college football’s main character this year

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It’s been a crazy year for LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin helped the 2025 Ole Miss Rebels make the College Football Playoff before bolting to LSU before the CFP started. He was heavily pursued by LSU and decided to take the job.

He then flipped LSU’s roster ahead of the 2026 season and is involved with commitments from two professional players, tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, who previously played at Ole Miss.

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According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Kiffin will wait and see what happens during Thursday’s court hearing, during which the SEC will defend its ban on pro players, before the two players are officially added to the roster. The final 105-man roster has to be submitted on Friday.

Lane Kiffin is the main character

Kiffin is heavily involved with this situation, and that’s not going to change before Friday’s roster deadline.

However, this is only one of his storylines during the 2026 college football season. He’s tasked with taking over a program that fired Brian Kelly in 2025 and finished with only seven wins.

He’s got some big games on the 2026 schedule, including one against the Clemson Tigers this Saturday and one against Ole Miss in Oxford on Sept. 19. We should find out pretty quickly how good this LSU team is.

Speaking of Ole Miss, the program will try to do better under head coach Pete Golding after he took over for Kiffin and led the Rebels to the CFP semifinals. Trinidad Chambliss is also back at quarterback for another season.

Get ready for a lot more Kiffin storylines throughout the season.

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