BATON ROUGE — If the football gods wanted to send Lane Kiffin a message, it’s hard to argue with both the method and the voracity of it just before the sun began to set on the first full Saturday of the 2026 season.
The new LSU head coach, who is on a zealous quest to be the main character in college football every second of every day, had just shed his celebrity escort of notable locals (Brooks Nader, Livvy Dunne) and hangers-on (Theo Von) to make it through the throngs of purple, white and yellow–clad fans 10 deep and into the locker room at Tiger Stadium. Just minutes after Kiffin disappeared behind a set of doors, the video boards at opposite ends of the fortress rising high above the Louisiana bayous flashed a lightning delay to push back kickoff against Clemson.
