Lane Kiffin’s honeymoon phase in Baton Rouge is already meeting SEC reality. Despite LSU’s aggressive transfer portal haul, former Tigers star Tyrann Mathieu isn’t ready to crown the new head coach just yet. Rather, he offered a blunt reality check to Kiffin about the program’s ceiling.

It’s not just outside noise, as the cornerback who has lived through the program, Tyrann Mathieu, doesn’t seem too confident about LSU’s performance. The latest episode of the “In the Bayou” podcast, hosted by Tyrell McCall, noted an underwhelming response from Mathieu. When probed about LSU’s SEC win predictions, he stated that 8.5 is low but a mindful one.

“I think 8.5 wins is low, but I’m sort of cautious about putting high expectations on them because I know how hard it is to win in the SEC. You’ve got 8 teams that could win,” said Mathieu.

Tyrann Mathieu has a point. Texas and Georgia remain the heavyweights, and Lane Kiffin is inheriting a 7-6 team. Relying on portal additions like quarterback Sam Leavitt to spark an overnight rebuild is risky in a conference this deep, as Mathieu’s words highlighted a lack of confidence in Kiffin to take and keep LSU at the top.

Departure from Ole Miss landed Kiffin straight in the line of fire from everywhere. As a first-year coach, Kiffin is under tremendous pressure and high expectations after his most talked-about season with Ole Miss. The criticism wasn’t about his record with the Rebels. It was more about him walking out the door just as the team was heading into the College Football Playoff, leaving them without a coach at the worst time possible.

Regardless, in his last season, Kiffin secured a landmark win against Georgia, a national powerhouse. The 11-1 victory went down in history as one of the greatest wins. Kiffin departed right after ensuring a College Football Playoff (CFP) spot, leaving Ole Miss leaderless. The ‘Portal King’, as he’s known, is aware that with great power comes great responsibility, but it takes time and patience to rebuild.

“Things don’t happen overnight,” Kiffin said. “We’re making some first steps. There’s a ton of work,” Kiffin continued, “to get the program back up to where everybody around here wants it to be. A long jump to go to the level that I came here to get at.”

“Like I’ve said before, we’ve assembled a good roster,” Kiffin said. “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 we came here. It was 7-6 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 at, and all the people around the program want to be at.”

Can Kiffin prove the prediction wrong?

Baton Rouge saw 52 fresh faces during the first practice session of the Spring. Kiffin had an eventful offseason as he wasted no time in refreshing the LSU roster. He secured a dozen new signees, but owing to his name, he transferred 42 players.

Sam Leavitt, a transferee from Arizona State, is a prime contender for leading Kiffin’s high-tempo offense. He seems to be recovering quickly from his foot injury, as his active participation in spring practice indicates.

Kiffin did not come empty-handed from Ole Miss; edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen and linebacker TJ Dottery also transferred from the rivals to the Tigers.