More than a decade back, Lane Kiffin was on a bus outside an airport after USC lost 62-41 to Arizona State. That’s when the program informed him that he was no longer the Trojans’ head coach. For many coaches, a public firing like that would have been the end of the road. But Kiffin is a different breed.

He got back to coaching as an assistant under Nick Saban and found his groove. Soon, Kiffin was back in the reckoning. After successful stints at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss, he is coaching another powerhouse in Baton Rouge. But the greater the stage, the greater the expectations. No one knows it better than Urban Meyer, who won national championships with Florida and Ohio State.

“They’d better win the SEC. The investment that they put into that program, the fans, you know, that’s one of those stadiums down there that’s a tough one,” Urban Meyer said on his Triple Option podcast when asked about what success means for Kiffin next season. “I think LSU is one of those few places that they just ran Brian Kelly out of there. They ran Ed Orgeron out of there a couple of years after the national title. I would expect that they have to make the SEC championship game. That’s what I would say. They have to be in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.”

At LSU, winning nine or ten games is usually insufficient. National titles are the goal. SEC championships are the expectation. That reality will constantly hit Kiffin in Baton Rouge, unlike at Ole Miss. Just merely making it to the playoffs last year was considered a huge deal for Kiffin. But LSU did not hire Kiffin to improve the program over several years gradually.

Brian Kelly’s tenure is now considered a total failure by LSU fans. That is, even though he won 10 games in each of his three full seasons at Baton Rouge. The Tigers were 5-3 when he was let go last year. However, what hurt Kelly more were those three losses he mounted every campaign. In the 12-team CFP era, that is enough to keep an SEC team out of the playoffs.

On their part, the LSU administration has fully backed the new head coach. Kiffin brought in a total of 34 transfer portal players, including Sam Leavitt and Jordan Seaton, through high-profile NIL deals. Leavitt, for instance, alone reportedly has a $5 to $6 million NIL deal.

With the amount of investment (around $40 million) LSU is putting in, pressure will be at an all-time high on Kiffin.

Urban Meyer opens up about Kiffin hiring Ed Orgeron at LSU

The former LSU national championship coach, Ed Orgeron, has returned to the program as a special assistant to recruiting and defense. While Meyer joked about Orgeron’s larger-than-life personality, he stressed that he has enormous respect for him as a recruiter. Many people remember Joe Burrow’s record-breaking season. Others remember the natty trophy. But recruiting was the foundation of it all, and Orgeron was at the center of that effort.

“One of the best out there,” Meyer said about Ed Orgeron’s recruiting prowess. “When Ed Orgeron got his hands on you, that was a tough get. This is also about Louisiana. When I was a head coach at Florida, we played in Louisiana, got to the dance floor with a great player, and then he wouldn’t come. So, I said enough. I’m not flying into Louisiana again. I’m good. There are enough good players around Georgia and Florida.”

That is one reason Kiffin wanted him back. The two coaches go back a long way. They worked together at USC. Kiffin later hired Orgeron at Tennessee. When Kiffin left for USC, Orgeron followed him there. Their football relationship stretches back nearly two decades. Now they are together again.
For Kiffin, bringing Orgeron into his camp isn’t about nostalgia; it is about winning recruiting battles.

Orgeron helped build stellar recruiting classes at USC while he served under Pete Carroll. Later, at LSU, he recruited and developed players like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Derek Stingley Jr., Patrick Queen, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Grant Delpit, and Kristian Fulton. As a result, the 2019 LSU team produced 14 NFL Draft picks, many of whom became first-round selections.