LSU brought Lane Kiffin with a lot of hope after facing a four-season playoff drought. So, it’s pretty clear he’s facing high expectations. But the former Ole Miss head coach knows the reality, and he is making sure the entire LSU fanbase knows it, too.

“Things don’t happen overnight,” LSU head coach Lane Kiffin said in a press conference. “It takes a lot of work to get a program up to an elite-performing program level. So we’re making some first steps, but there’s a ton of work to do. As I said before, we’ve assembled a good roster. But at the same time, too, there’s a ton of work that goes into that to get the program back up to where everybody around here wants it to be, and the reason that we came here.

It was seven and six last season. So within that comes change. Within that comes a lot of work, because that’s a long jump to go to the level that I came here to get to and all the people around the program want to be at. So it was good.”

Curt Cignetti turned a dead program into a championship-winning team, but it still needed two years. He evaluated good players from the portal and brought in guys like Fernando Mendoza while having an impressive staff. But overall, the Indiana story is an outlier. Development takes time, and every head coach needs at least a few recruiting classes to stamp their vision on a program.

Kiffin started out by having the No. 1 transfer portal class this offseason. He went to Knoxville to recruit Sam Leavitt in front of an angry crowd that had been holding a grudge against him for years because of his move to USC. He brought his entire Ole Miss offensive staff with him to ensure their chemistry and game plan were optimal for the Tigers.

Lane Kiffin brought top players from Ole Miss to LSU, including wide receiver Caleb Cunningham, running back Kewan Lacy, and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen. While at Ole Miss, 23 of his players went to the NFL, including 8 in 2025, the most for the school since 1994.

The team added a lot of experienced players, with nearly 10,000 career snaps of playing time. They also brought in 39 new scholarship players while keeping key players like running back Caden Durham. So this pipeline of success already shows he is reshaping LSU. But let’s not forget that top players and a good roster don’t always mean a playoff run.

Remember how Ole Miss ranked No. 1 in the transfer portal in 2024 but couldn’t make the playoffs? That’s exactly why Lane Kiffin is giving a reality check to his team. But what makes the expectations much higher is the $91 million paycheck that LSU gave to Kiffin. If a team invests a fortune in a head coach, they will expect results. With spring practice starting, let’s wait and see if Kiffin can bring the same success as Ole Miss at LSU or not.

Lane Kiffin on spring practice

To make spring practice successful for LSU, Lane Kiffin made it clear that the team will follow its daily routine and stick to the plan. He believes that if the team trusts the process, they would have a better chance of winning games. That mindset is already working for them, as one of the players who did well in the practice was junior tight end Trey’Dez Green, and even Kiffin praised him.

“His skill set is ultra-elite,” Kiffin said. “But so is his mindset, and that’s really, really unique to have because they usually don’t coincide.”

Last season, the Tigers played a hard schedule with strong teams like Clemson, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn, and Alabama. Every game tested how well the team prepared and how well Kiffin could lead them. But despite all the pressure, Kiffin’s nothing but grateful for the opportunity he has gotten to make a huge transition from Ole Miss to LSU.

“I had a moment before, just reminding myself of how grateful I am to be here,” Kiffin said.

With a $91 million contract comes immense pressure, and Kiffin’s ability to replicate his Ole Miss success at LSU will be the defining storyline of the upcoming season.