By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – In the 20 minutes of viewing allotted to the media horde covering Lane Kiffin’s first preseason practice as LSU’s head football coach, most eyes searched for Sam Leavitt.
Until Wednesday, Leavitt, the Arizona State junior transfer paid $5 million to quarterback the Tigers this season, was more of a mythical figure. He basically didn’t participate physically in spring practice, still recovering from last Halloween’s Lisfranc surgery on his right foot.
There were positive reports all summer about Leavitt’s work in the weight room. And while the media didn’t see Leavitt take off and run in the Tigers’ first practice, Kiffin was satisfied about what he observed.
“I thought Sam had a great day today,” said Kiffin, who was peppered with questions at his post practice press conference. “It’s really looked the best he’s looked, and that was exciting to see. Looks like he’s even more comfortable with the receivers.
“Sam’s been moving around really well. If you just went out today and saw him, I don’t think you’d think there was ever an injury. I think he’s all the way back from that. Now it’s just getting up with the timing of everything.”
Kiffin said Leavitt’s mental preparation in the spring paid off in his smooth transition to preseason practice, even in dealing with Kiffin’s speedy tempo attack.
“We had started at Alabama to do fast stuff,” said Kiffin, who was the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator for Nick Saban from 2014 to 2016 before taking over as Florida Atlantic head coach for three seasons starting in 2017. “When we went to FAU, and we brought in Kendall Briles (as offensive coordinator), we started adding the Baylor elements for the ultra-tempo.
“For a system to go that fast, you have to simplify what you do terminology-wise because it’s part of how you get everybody to go fast. There’s not a lot of signals. There’s not a lot of verbiage. We made a system that players could come in and learn really fast.
“A lot of that has to do with how we made the system, the terminology, and then now with the helmet-to-helmet communication, it’s taken it to even another level where it’s easier for someone to play early.”
Kiffin’s attack led the SEC in total offense yardage in four of his six seasons at Ole Miss. But to be that effective, his starting quarterbacks were good runners.
Matt Corrall (2020-21), Jaxson Dart (2022-24) and Trinidad Chambliss (2025) averaged a combined 52.4 rushing yards and 5.8 TDs per season.
Kiffin is physically slowly ramping up Leavitt and the rest of the Tigers towards the Sept. 5 season opener. Will Leavitt be ready to shoulder a chunk of the running game?
“That’s too hard to answer,” Kiffin said. “That’s just how I think. We don’t just do what we do. That’s not how we run systems, programs, whatever. It’s always evolving, changing to our specific needs for who we’re playing.”
Here’s Kiffin on other subjects:
On how his large numbers of transfers adapt so quickly to form a cohesive unit:
“We’ve just done it for a long time now. We have so much figured out now about how we do things that it’s easier for us to bring people from all over and bring them into the systems. When they come visit, they see how you run a program, see the discipline, the accountability, the toughness, how much work goes into it, how much fun they have and that it’s going to be really, really demanding, that’s when it starts to choose them. We’re really open in recruiting. This is who we are. What you see in recruiting is what you’re going to get. We don’t make empty promises and not follow through on them.”
On starting cornerback DJ Pickett changing to jersey No. 5:
“That (jersey) was promised to him in recruiting for him to sign here. And I’ve done a lot of research on that with the family and the representatives and the people. And so, really, I didn’t have a decision to make. When a kid’s promised something to come to school, he should wear it.”
On having an effective running game, something LSU lacked in the last two seasons under Brian Kelly:
“It’s important that your team has a physicality up front. We’ve tried to recruit that. We’re not where we will be someday. Even though we go fast on offense, and at times we use big splits, and so people kind of think we’re a passing team, I think when we’ve been really good we’ve got to be able to run the ball in critical situations. This conference is going to have a lot of one-score games. We (Ole Miss) had a lot last year. I think six. There’s going to be more and more because of the balance in the conference.
“And so, to me, that comes down to your final possessions. Can you run the ball to make the last one or two first downs in games?”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com