Lane Kiffin has been one of the best coaches in college football over the past 10 years, but that wasn’t enough to crack the top three in a recent ranking of SEC coaches.
CBS Sports ranked the LSU coach No. 4 in the conference, putting Kiffin behind three of his SEC counterparts despite the success he produced during his tenure at Ole Miss.
During that stretch, Kiffin is 50-14 (.781) overall and 28-12 in conference play while at Ole Miss, the most successful stretch for the Rebels since the 1960s. The Rebs also went to a New Year's Six Bowl game or a playoff appearance three times during his six-year tenure at Oxford.
Here’s CBS Sports’ reasoning for having Kiffin as the No. 4 head coach in the SEC:
Kiffin's climb into college football's coaching elite has been fueled by offensive innovation, roster management and an ability to keep his program relevant on the national stage. Now at LSU, the expectations rise considerably. This is a program built to chase national championships armed with elite recruiting territory, aggressive NIL support and an administration willing to provide every necessary resource. After signing the nation's No. 1 transfer portal class, this roster is as talented as any nationally.
Kiffin no longer needs to manufacture advantages from a perceived underdog position. He has the talent and financial backing to challenge the SEC's best immediately. The standard is not simply reaching the CFP. It is winning it. LSU gives him the clearest opportunity of his career to punctuate his coaching legacy with a championship.
CBS Sports’ SEC head coach rankings
- Kirby Smart, Georgia
- Steve Sarkisian, Texas
- Kalen DaBoer, Alabama
- Lane Kiffin, LSU
- Mike Elko, Texas A&M
- Josh Heupel, Tennessee
- Eli Drikwitz, Missouri
- Brent Venables, Oklahoma
- Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
- Jon Sumrall, Florida
- Shane Beamer, Virginia Tech
- Alex Golesh, Auburn
- Pete Golding, Ole Miss
- Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas
- Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
- Will Stein, Kentucky
There are only a few coaches above Kiffin on the list: Kirby Smart at No. 1, Steve Sarkisian at No. 2 and Kalen DeBoer at No. 3. Smart’s ranking as the top coach in the SEC is no surprise because he is the only coach in the conference to win a national championship, which he did in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022.
However, you can make a case that Kiffin may be the second-best coach in the SEC. While Sarkisian led Texas to the playoffs twice, Kiffin has done more at Ole Miss than Sarkisian has in Austin, considering the massive resource gap between the two programs.
You can make the case for Kiffin being over DeBoer as well, considering DeBoer’s shakiness in SEC play despite Nick Saban leaving him a dozen Ferraris and Lamborghinis. However, I can understand why they put him at No. 3, considering his success at both Fresno State and Washington, where he coached the latter all the way to the national championship in 2023, when the Huskies ultimately lost to Michigan.
Lane Kiffin has a chance to change his standing at LSU
Now at LSU, Kiffin has more resources at his disposal to win a national championship than he did at Ole Miss and he will not have to rely on the transfer portal as much as Louisiana has a rich talent pool of high school talent.
The Tigers can offer Kiffin resources he didn't have at Ole Miss, particularly when it comes to recruiting and roster construction. LSU also sits in one of the country's richest recruiting territories, giving Kiffin access to Louisiana's high school talent and potentially reducing the program's need to rely as heavily on the transfer portal.
That doesn't mean the coach nicknamed the "Portal King" is abandoning the approach that helped him build contenders at Ole Miss. After all, he assembled the nation’s No. 1 transfer class in the country.
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