The college football coaching carousel has reached new heights during the 2025 season. Thus far, a total of 30 FBS head coaches have been hired during thus year's carousel. Some schools opted to big name hires with proven track records, while some went for under-the-radar hires filled with potential. Some positions are still up for grabs, but all in all, it's been a wild coaching carousel to watch unfold over the last several months.
Lane Kiffin's CFP bonus has Ole Miss fans crying even more over LSU move
LSU's hiring of Lane Kiffin was arguably the biggest move of the carousel. The Tigers lured Kiffin away from the Rebels in the midst of a National Championship run, and he has already inked an impressive recruiting class and brought in an impressive coaching staff during his early days at his new job.
Kiffin's breakup with Ole Miss was a messy one, but in the end, LSU got their man. Not surprisingly, the Tigers are receiving high praise from several major media publications for landing Kiffin.
ESPN gives high praise for LSU's hiring of Lane Kiffin
When ranking all of the coaching hires this season, ESPN's Matt Connelly gave LSU the No. 1 spot with an A+ grade. Connelly sites LSU being the best job on the market and Kiffin being the best available coach as the main reasoning for his ranking.
"We won't overthink this one. Everything about the run-up to Kiffin's departure from Ole Miss was dramatic and strung out, and it will forever be part of his coaching biography that he left an active playoff team for a school he had beaten weeks earlier. But in his past nine years as a head coach, he has won double-digit games six times (at schools without much, or any, recent history of doing that), and he engineered the Rebels' best three-year run in 60-plus years. He checks almost every box for a school that can afford to hire a guy who checks lots of boxes."Bill Connelly, ESPN
While Kiffin's departure from Ole Miss came with plenty of fireworks, LSU fans are eager to see the roster he puts together for the 2026 season. Kiffin is an offensive guru and has seen great success in Oxford on the offensive side of the ball. Kiffin has also been known to heavily utilize the transfer portal, and figures to be busy in January. With several noteworthy QBs available, it will be interesting to see what direction he decides to go.
Kiffin has already made an impact in Baton Rouge, signing 14 players during the Early Signing Period including a pair of 5-star prospects in Lamar Brown and Richard Anderson. He also flipped three recruits from Ole Miss to LSU.
After an underwhelming Brian Kelly era that included zero appearances in the College Football Playoff, Tiger fans are eager to see their team compete for another National Championship. Kiffin seems to have all the tools and resources needed to do just that, which means the start of the 2026 season can't some soon enough for LSU fans.