Longstreet to LSU: do QBs trust Lane Kiffin more than Lincoln Riley?

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Now that we know Husan Longstreet is headed to LSU, his departure really stings. Lincoln Riley should be offended. USC football fans should feel betrayed. And we should all be asking much deeper questions about what went wrong with his Trojan tenure.

It was widely believed that Longstreet entered the transfer portal in search of a starting opportunity next season at a Power 4 school, which he would not find at USC in 2026 because incumbent starter Jayden Maiava is returning to the Trojans. Instead, Longstreet is signing with the Tigers, perfectly content to back up Sam Leavitt and develop for another season under Lane Kiffin.

Why is he willing to sit at LSU but he wasn’t willing to at USC? What happened to his desire to play now? There were few Power 4 opportunities still available, but they were out there! And he could have always found an opportunity to start at a Group of 5 school!

Let’s talk about all of the layers to this, including the big question: does this mean Lane Kiffin has surpassed Lincoln Riley as a developer of quarterbacks?

Kiffin over Riley???

There’s no getting around it. In this situation, Husan Longstreet had a year under Lincoln Riley and obviously wasn’t satisfied. He picked Kiffin over Riley for his development in a lateral move! Not because Kiffin is handing him the starting job next season, but because he’d rather sit behind Sam Leavitt and be developed by Lane Kiffin than sit behind Jayden Maiava and be developed by Lincoln Riley.

But is this just the opinion of Longstreet specifically, or does it represent a greater shift in the college football landscape?

Jaxson Dart

Jaxson Dart is another top quarterback who left USC to play for Lane Kiffin. But let’s be careful about comparing Dart to Husan Longstreet for a few reasons.

For one, Dart was a Clay Helton recruit. He didn’t sign up to play for Lincoln Riley.

For another thing, Dart left a situation at USC where he would have been backing up Caleb Williams for two whole seasons, to start immediately at Ole Miss. It wasn’t a lateral move like Longstreet: it allowed Dart to receive significantly more playing time throughout his college career.

And finally, Jaxson Dart had proven his merit on the field at USC. Taking over for an injured Kedon Slovis, he played his way into the starting quarterback job and shown that he was ready to handle that role. Remember when USC almost knocked off a ranked BYU team that season behind a two touchdown performance from Dart? That’s when we all clearly knew that he could handle the starting job for a Power 4 team.

Husan Longstreet hasn’t proven anything on the football field at the college level.

Picking Lane Kiffin over Lincoln Riley as a QB developer is insane

As a developer of quarterbacks specifically, Lane Kiffin does not compare to Lincoln Riley. They are not in the same league.

Lincoln Riley is the only head coach in college football history to coach three Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks: Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and Caleb Williams. He also coached Super Bowl champion/Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts. Spencer Rattler is in the NFL. Miller Moss likely will be. Everyone who starts for Lincoln Riley goes on to have an NFL career.

Kiffin has coached no Heisman winning quarterbacks, unless you count Matt Leinart…when he was the offensive coordinator at USC. Sure, he’s coached some solid players like Dart and Matt Corral and Trinidad Chambliss. Sam Leavitt is going to be very good next year. But those guys are not in the class of signal callers that Lincoln Riley has coached.

But, Kiffin wins

There is one clear advantage that Lane Kiffin has over Lincoln Riley in recent years: his teams win more consistently. Since Lincoln Riley was hired at USC in 2022, the Trojans have gone 35-18. Kiffin went 40-11 at Ole Miss in the same span, leading the Rebels to a College Football Playoff appearance this season, though he bolted for LSU before he could coach Ole Miss in said playoff.

Maybe Husan believes that he is more likely to contend for a national championship at LSU than he is at USC? Kiffin only made the one playoff at Ole Miss and he will have to put some work into rebuilding LSU after a 7-6 season. I think it’s as much of a toss up with Kiffin the next few years as it is with Riley. But I can at least understand where Longstreet is coming from if this is his opinion.

Hold this against Lincoln Riley if you want, but don’t go overboard

I think it’s safe to say that something about Longstreet’s USC experience was lacking. If you want to place blame on Lincoln Riley and argue that he should have done more to keep Longstreet around, go for it. Ultimately I think there’s some truth to the idea that Lane Kiffin did beat Lincoln Riley on a level playing field to win Longstreet’s services in this situation.

And yes, the trend of quarterbacks like Longstreet and Malachi Nelson and JuJu Lewis leaving Riley to play elsewhere is troubling. It feels like we’re never going to see a top recruit out of high school start for USC at quarterback, and that’s a frustrating feeling.

But that doesn’t mean the tide has shifted so dramatically in favor of Lane Kiffin. Trinidad Chambliss is trying to fight for an extra season of eligibility right now to play for Ole Miss, not Kiffin. That’s telling in and of itself.

And on the flip side, QBs still pick Lincoln Riley. Jayden Maiava could have entered the NFL draft after an excellent season and he chose to come back to USC. Jonas Williams is a top recruit joining USC’s roster next season. Riley will continue to attract top quarterback talent in the transfer portal and recruiting because his reputation is something that will never be taken away from him.

Let’s pay attention to Lane Kiffin, Husan Longstreet in 2026

I’m really curious about the conversations that are going on behind the scenes about how LSU plans to use Husan Longstreet next season. Is he going into this with the expectation that he won’t see the field at all? Or, is Lane Kiffin planning to use him to run specific plays?

I don’t think Longstreet brings much to the LSU offense that Sam Leavitt doesn’t already offer. Leavitt is a very mobile dual threat QB, so bringing Longstreet in to run the football makes less sense for the Tigers than it did for the Trojans.

Nonetheless, Kiffin may allow Longstreet to see the field more after Longstreet seemingly left USC because he wasn’t seeing the field enough. It will be interesting to see if he approaches that differently from Lincoln Riley.

I wish all the best to Husan in his professional development. But he likely can’t expect the majority of Trojan fans to be behind him anymore when he chose another university over USC in such a direct, lateral move.

I assume that’s a risk he was willing to take. I don’t think playing for Lane Kiffin over Lincoln Riley was worth the risk, but maybe Lane will prove me wrong. Hopefully not.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Husan Longstreet picks Lane Kiffin over Lincoln Riley in lateral move

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