Lane Kiffin is one of the hottest talking points in college football right now.
The LSU Tigers head coach has had one whirlwind year after leading the Ole Miss Rebels to a College Football Playoff appearance, only to leave for the Tigers before the Rebels’ playoff run last season. Kiffin inked a seven-year deal that will pay him $13 million annually and he’s taking over a college football powerhouse that has been starving to be a contender for years.
The Tigers haven’t ended the season as a top contender since the 2023 campaign when they ended the year ranked No. 12 in the polls. That was the last time they had a double-digit win season.
Kiffin will be tasked with the expectation of molding the Tigers into a national championship squad, something they haven’t been since Joe Burrow led the team to a championship during the 2019 season.
It won’t be easy considering the SEC is more loaded than ever beyond just the Alabama Crimson Tide of the Nick Saban era. The Texas Longhorns are now in the SEC along with the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas A&M Aggies. Not to mention the usual SEC teams such as the Georgia Bulldogs and Kiffin’s former team, Ole Miss.
When asked what it’ll take to run through the gauntlet schedule in the SEC, Kiffin answered honestly — it’ll take being healthy and a little bit of “luck.”
“Yeah, you got to stay healthy, and some of that’s out of your control, obviously” said Kiffin in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports. “Some of that’s luck from year to year. That’s always going to be a part of it. One that’s very overlooked because you see the same coaches have a different record one year, and a lot of times because of injuries. So that part, but then really consistency and not getting too high and low. We got a lot of what you would consider huge games and electric stadiums, and so it’s very much like an NFL season. You know you’re going to stay consistent for a long period of time.”
LSU Tigers Went Through Up-and-Down 2025 SeasonKiffin is pretty much accurate in what he’s saying. For example, the Tigers went 7-6 last year despite ranking No. 9 in the preseason polls and as high as No. 3 during the season.
They started out the season 4-0, including a big one over No. 4 Clemson on the road. However, they lost four consecutive games against ranked SEC opponents — Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Alabama — in a five-week span, which dropped them out of the polls.
Going through an SEC schedule is the closest resemblance you’ll get to going through an NFL schedule at the college football level. There are multiple stadiums hovering around 100,000 fans with rabid fans and heightened expectations due to the large college football budgets in the NIL era.
As Kiffin bluntly states, it’s a matter of health and a little bit of luck.
Lane Kiffin Starring in Dr. Pepper’s ‘Fansville’ Commercials for 2026 SeasonLeading into the college football season, the longtime head coach is finally partnering with Dr. Pepper for their popular Fansville commercials, which is entering season 9. The commercials feature college football legend Brian Bosworth as the sheriff and are known for its humor.
This is the first time Kiffin has done the Fansville commercials and while he admitted it took a little bit of time in adjusting to being on camera, he said he enjoyed the process and would do it again.
“It’s really exciting,” said Kiffin of being in the Fansville commercials. “They reached out and went out there, went to LA, which was great. My daughter, who goes to USC was out there and came to set and didn’t realize how much goes into it and how much time and energy it is. It was really neat to learn that and see it’s different than coaching. You can make a lot of mistakes. You just keep doing another another take. So it was a really cool experience and the people were great and just honored to be part of Fansville.”
Kiffin noted that Bosworth gave him advice on loosening up for the commercials.
“It was neat, and it got easier,” said Kiffin. “The boss helped me, Brian Bosworth. At first I was probably like a little nervous and screwing up, and he’s like, ‘Ah, just relax, Coach.'”
HeavyLSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin starring in Dr. Pepper’s Fansville commercial.
The 51-year-old head coach noted it took about “15-to-20 minutes” for him to ease his nerves and loosen up.
“Probably 15-to-20 minutes, and the producers were great,” said Kiffin. “They helped me just kind of loosen up, and then sometimes you may have had a line, and they said, ‘Okay, well, what would you have said in this otherwise?’ And then so he kind of spun off a little bit of the script, and that was really neat.”
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