BATON ROUGE – As LSU opens its preseason football practice today under head savior Lane Kiffin, let’s rewind how we got here.
Three quarterback injuries.
July 31, 2025: On the second day of preseason practice LSU senior starting QB Garrett Nussmeier suddenly has a stabbing pain in his abdomen. Team doctors never precisely diagnose the injury. He is a shell of his 2024 version that made him a 2025 Heisman Trophy candidate. The Tigers’ offense is toothless. Head coach Brian Kelly is fired after the eighth game, a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M. Nussmeier plays one more game (vs. Alabama) and then is shut down for the season. Tests at the NFL combine in February revealed a cyst on Nusssmeir’s spine was pressing against a nerve to cause the persistent oblique pain.
Sept. 6, 2025: In his second college start, Ole Miss sophomore QB Austin Simmons suffered an ankle injury on a third-down carry with 6:32 left to play in Game 2 at Kentucky. Then-Ole Miss coach Kiffin subs in senior Trinidad Chambliss, a late summer portal find from Division 2 national championship team Ferris State. Chambliss proceeds to burn down the SEC. He starts the next 13 games, leads the Rebs to a 13-2 record and to the CFP semifinals totaling 4,464 offensive yards (more than LSU’s season total) and 30 TDs. Kiffin leaves Ole Miss and is announced as LSU’s coach on Nov. 30. Simmons never starts again and transfers to Missouri almost seven months on Jan. 6. A friendly Mississippi state judge grants Chambliss a preliminary injunction allowing to return to Ole Miss for a sixth college season.
Sept 20, 2025: Arizona State sophomore starting quarterback Sam Leavitt, who was the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year when he led ASU to the 2024 Big 12 title and to College Football Playoffs, suffers a Lisfranc injury of his right mid-foot vs. Baylor. He battles through pain for four weeks, starting in three games, before undergoing surgery on Halloween. He enters the transfer portal on Jan. 2 and signs with LSU on Jan. 12.
So what if:
•Nussmeier stays healthy, LSU finishes 9-3 or 10-2 in the regular season and Kelly isn’t fired.
•Simmons returns from injury, isn’t as effective as Chambliss, Ole Miss finishes 8-4 and Kiffin isn’t a wanted commodity.
•Leavitt stays healthy, has another great year and enters the NFL Draft.
Instead, LSU now has a $13 million per year head coach armed with a $40 million plus NIL cash bag the size of a Mexican drug cartel, and a $5 million starting QB (less than Chambliss’ new deal) who missed all of spring practice still recovering from last October’s trick or treat surgery. And Brian Kelly was hired by CBS as an analyst who will be on a sound loop repeating the phrase “technical and tactical” to the point it will become a drinking game for viewers.
Kiffin has roughly 21 preseason practices (including two scrimmages) and four walk-throughs before his team featuring 59 new players (43 transfers, 16 freshmen) takes the field for a Sept. 5 opener vs. Clemson in Tiger Stadium.
There is no learning curve. In the first four games, Games 3 and 4 are against 2025 playoff teams (Ole Miss, Texas A&M). Three of the last four are against playoff teams from the last two years (Alabama 2025, Texas (2024/2025) and Tennessee (2024).
Playing a Power 4 Conference team in the opener is not unusual for LSU. It’s the only team in the FBS that has done it for the past six seasons.
Kiffin’s openers have been store-bought from the cupcake rack.
His last four openers at Ole Miss – Troy, Mercer, Furman and Georgia State – were unmerciful beatdowns. The Rebels went 4-0 by a combined score of 240-24.
His first LSU signing class features the best portal buys in the nation. Colorado left tackle Jordan Seaton is a massive blind protector. The Tigers’ top six receivers are portal pass grabbers. Five of LSU’s front seven defensive players are all Power 4 transfers with impressive resumes. Boise State free safety Ty Benefield is a heat-seeking missile.
“This ain’t no like first-year build thing,” Ole Miss transfer defensive end Prince Umanmielen said during the Tigers’ spring practice. “This ain’t the place we try and go all the way. We try and go all the way. That’s our mindset right now.”
Yet for all the talent galore, reaching the playoffs or falling short rests on the shoulders of Leavitt, the highest paid player on the team.
Obviously, quarterbacks are the heartbeat of most teams. But in Kiffin’s Speedy Gonzales-fast tempo, they’re even more important.
The QB has to process everything quicker, from getting the playcalls from the coaching booth to reading defenses and making adjustments.
“Our offense is very much pushed by the quarterback because of the tempo of it,” Kiffin said.
In some respects, Leavitt is an unknown commodity. His freshman year was fabulous, Last season was a washout.
Yes, he has played good competition. But in the only games he played against an SEC opponent — a home and home against Mississippi State the last two seasons – his combined stats (244 total offense yards, one TD pass, two interceptions, two TD runs) are vastly underwhelming.
Leavitt said recently the reason he came to LSU (besides the obvious payday) was to be developed.
Kiffin is one of college football’s premier offensive minds, a quarterback whisperer. Chambliss says Kiffin sees “things on film other people don’t see.”
In his six seasons at Ole Miss, Kiffin’s primary starting QBs (Matt Corral 2020-2021, Jaxson Dart 2022-23-24 and Chambliss 2025) averaged a combined 405.9 total offense. yards and 29.7 TDs (passing and rushing each season).
It’s a high bar that has been set. For LSU to have any chance of a 9-3 record or better, Leavitt must flirt with those numbers.
He’s going to have a better first (and possibly only) season with the Tigers than LSU’s eventual Heisman Trophy QBs Joe Burrow (2019) and Jayden Daniels (2023) did in 2018 and 2022 respectively.
Hope that right foot is good to go, Sammy.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com