When Lane Kiffin looks back on his six years at Ole Miss, he has said he needed Oxford, Mississippi, more than Oxford needed him.
He believes Oxford gave him the opportunity to grow, mature and stabilize his life.
Kiffin has coached just one game at LSU.
But after what happened Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, it’s fair to wonder if Louisiana needed Kiffin more than Kiffin needed Louisiana.
The answer may have been revealed in 60 minutes.
LSU didn’t just beat Clemson 51-10 in Kiffin’s debut. The Tigers reintroduced something that had been missing around the program for quite some time — swagger.
Kiffin could have stayed at Ole Miss and continued building a program capable of competing for national championships in the modern era of college football, where the transfer portal, NIL and expanded playoff have given programs outside the traditional power structure a legitimate chance to win it all.
Instead, he came to Baton Rouge.
And if Saturday was any indication, Kiffin may be a particularly good fit for Louisiana.
Louisiana is passionate. So is Kiffin.
Louisiana enjoys proving doubters wrong. So does Kiffin.
Louisiana loves to win. Kiffin certainly does.
And perhaps most importantly, Kiffin is aggressive. He has shown throughout his career that he is willing to explore every possible avenue to give his team an advantage.
That mentality was on full display Saturday.
The excitement surrounding LSU’s season opener had been building for months, but it reached another level when defensive end Jordan Ross intercepted Clemson quarterback Chris Vizzina and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown.
Tiger Stadium was roaring like it has not in years.
Senior linebacker Whit Weeks, playing in his 33rd game in an LSU uniform, said the energy was noticeable long before kickoff.
“We felt energy not only on Victory Hill, but when we were driving to the practice facility in the morning to do our morning walk-through, I mean campus was buzzing,” Weeks said. “It was awesome to feel, because we worked so hard this offseason and to get that response from the fans is special.”
That response is exactly what LSU had been missing.
Saturday night was a complete 180-degree turn from the second-half collapse against Texas A&M last season, a loss that ultimately led to Brian Kelly’s firing.
The LSU fan base had been beaten down.
The glory of the 2019 national championship seemed increasingly distant.
There was frustration. There was skepticism. And there was a growing sense that LSU had lost some of the identity that once made Tiger Stadium one of the most intimidating venues in college football.
Kiffin appears determined to bring it back.
“That is the LSU swagger, that’s the energy, that’s how the stadium is supposed to be,” Kiffin said. “Hard to come in and play, hard to play on offense, especially at quarterback.”
There were also plenty of reason to wonder whether the ongoing eligibility drama surrounding two LSU players who were recently on NFL rosters could distract the Tigers.
Kiffin said before the game it wouldn’t.
He was right.
“If your team thinks the right way, understands and you can explain to them, what do you want to do, you have a chance to add a couple of players and they said yeah, so they are not distracted by it,” Kiffin said.
The Tigers looked anything but distracted.
They looked focused, confident and — perhaps for the first time in a long time — like a team that expected to dominate.
During his introductory press conference in December, Kiffin talked about how difficult it was for opponents to walk into Tiger Stadium and win.
He had spent years standing on the other sideline, watching the LSU crowd create an environment opponents had to overcome.
Now, for the first time, the crowd was behind him.
And he loved every minute of it.
“You only been on that side of something and you’re always like, ‘What would that be like?’” Kiffin said. “Maybe you drive by a house somewhere and you’re like, ‘Man, what would it be like to live over there?’ And now you get to. It’s pretty cool.”
One game doesn’t make a season.
It doesn’t guarantee LSU will compete for a national championship.
And Clemson’s 51-10 defeat doesn’t erase everything that went wrong during the previous regime.
But it does provide something LSU desperately needed — belief.
For one night, at least, Tiger Stadium felt like Tiger Stadium again.
And Lane Kiffin looked very comfortable living on the other side of the fence.
The Tigers will try to keep the momentum going Saturday night when Louisiana Tech visits Tiger Stadium for a 6:30 kickoff.
Comments