Lane Kiffin has plenty to fix after LSU suffered its first loss of the season. Falling behind 24-7 to Ole Miss at halftime, the Tigers rallied all the way back to tie the game, but they couldn’t complete the comeback as the Rebels escaped with 32-24. FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt says LSU’s bigger issue isn’t the loss itself, but how starting quarterback Sam Leavitt is operating under pressure.

Speaking on The Next Round, Joel Klatt rejected the idea that Sam Leavitt’s main issue was simply being too aggressive with the football. He criticized the QB’s tendency to abandon the structure of the offense when his first read was unavailable.

“It’s not that he’s too risky,” he said. “He doesn’t process information. He’s got a massive problem with his clock. He has no patience for the scheme. He was playing like a wild animal out there, and there were half beats looking one direction and then just frantically running around, and you cannot play quarterback that way.”

That assessment landed hard because Sam Leavitt actually gave LSU life in the second half. After a sluggish opening, he became dangerous with his legs and helped turn what looked like a runaway Ole Miss victory into a one-score game. But Joel Klatt believes LSU’s comeback masked some of the QB’s underlying issues.

“He will not make it through the season if he thinks that he’s going to take one look and then turn into Bo Jackson and start helicoptering around at the 5-yard line,” he said.

Klatt’s comparison makes sense because Sam Leavitt can hurt a defense when he gets out of the pocket. But LSU cannot keep depending on him to run around and make something happen every time a play breaks down.

The LSU star’s numbers against Ole Miss show the same thing. Sam Leavitt finished 16-of-27 for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The 6’2 QB also ran 17 times for 63 yards and a score. LSU rushed for 172 yards overall, with Dilin Jones contributing 106. His biggest moment came after LSU safety Ja’Keem Jackson intercepted Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss and returned the ball to the Rebels’ 33-yard line.

On third-and-7, Sam Leavitt scrambled for roughly 10 yards. Several Ole Miss defenders converged on him and flipped him completely upside down before he landed near the 4-yard line. He got up. One play later, he slipped another tackle and scored, and got the Tigers moving.

Sam Leavitt later hit Winston Watkins Jr. for a 26-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit to 24-21. LSU eventually tied the game at 24 before Trinidad Chambliss answered with a 14-yard touchdown run. Then came the finish.

With LSU trying to tie or take the lead late, Sam Leavitt’s pass was deflected, and Jaylon Braxton intercepted it in the end zone, sealing Ole Miss’ victory. Lane Kiffin has not placed the full burden on his QB. LSU gave him a tough night with the pressure, and there were also a few open throws he failed to make.

Joel Klatt is not saying Sam Leavitt cannot make plays. But LSU cannot keep waiting for him to bail them out with a scramble or a broken play. SEC defenses will eventually make that costly.

As he put it, “This is going to sound so snarky, but you can’t play Big 12 football in the SEC.”

This isn’t just a bad night for Leavitt. It is the reality of adapting from Big 12 football to the SEC. At Arizona State, Leavitt’s athletic instincts allowed him to extend plays and buy time outside the pocket with great success. But against elite SEC pass rushers, those same extended scrambles close down much faster, turning heroic broken plays into heavy hits and game-ending mistakes.

For Lane Kiffin, the Texas A&M game now offers an obvious test. Better protection would help. So would Sam Leavitt trusting the pocket, working through the progression, and resisting the urge to turn every broken play into a backyard football snap.