To state the obvious, college football is not a popularity contest. Reviled coaches have reached the mountain top of the sport, scandal and bad press be damned.
That brings us to the most hated man in college football — or at least in the state of Mississippi.
There’s burning bridges, and then there’s what Lane Kiffin did at Ole Miss last year. Becoming the first coach to abandon a team during a College Football Playoff run, Kiffin napalmed his relationships at Ole Miss, proving both heartless and ruthless in equal proportion.
The maelstrom that followed Kiffin from Oxford to Baton Rouge has made it difficult for oddsmakers and pundits to agree on LSU’s ceiling. No team has a wider gap from best odds to worst in the national title futures market (15-1 to 22-1).
An analyst might call that kind of disparity “noise,” but what I call it is an opportunity. Let's dive into my college football picks and NCAAF predictions for the LSU Tigers in 2026.
College Football Picks, Predictions
LSU to Win National Championship
Odds: +2200 · FanDuel
The Portal King landed the top transfer class by a country mile. As reported by Brett Ciancia of Pick Six Previews, LSU reeled in 29% more blue-chip recruits than the second-best class this cycle.
And this historic class starts with the three most important positions in the sport — quarterback, offensive tackle and edge rusher. The Tigers secured the top recruit at all three spots.
Sam Leavitt considered offers from Kentucky, Miami and Tennessee before signing with the Tigers. When healthy, Leavitt is a perfect fit for Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr.’s offensive system.
LSU Offense
Assuming he returns from Lisfranc surgery at 100%, Leavitt has the athleticism to create off-script and the experience as a high-end starter to consistently make the right choices while operating within an RPO-heavy scheme.
At Arizona State, he led the Sun Devils to the College Football Playoff, leaning on Cam Skattebo and Jordyn Tyson along the way.
This season, he has the top running back in the class of 2025, Harlem Berry, to defer to in the read game and an embarrassment of riches in the pass-catching department.
Kiffin nabbed complementary pieces in the portal like the shifty All-Big 12 Jayce Brown from Kansas State and the big-bodied Jackson Harris from Hawaii, just to name a few. And the biggest mismatch in the entire SEC, 6-foot-7 tight end Trey’Dez Green, is in line for a massive target upgrade over last season’s modest total.
Blocking for Leavitt will be preseason All-SEC left tackle Jordan Seaton, Maryland import Aliou Bah (24 starts, 0 sacks allowed) at right guard and a two-deep littered with talent and previous starting experience.
All the pieces are in place for this offense to hit the ground running.
LSU Defense
Defensively, there are game-breakers at all three levels and an elite play-caller pulling the strings.
Kiffin’s offseason recruiting coups extended to his coaching staff, and none was more important than the retention of defensive coordinator Blake Baker.
He’ll have Princewill Umanmielen wreaking havoc on the edge, Whit Weeks and Davhon Keys cleaning things up at linebacker, and DJ Pickett and PJ Woodland ready to take on the DBU mantle this fall.
Just like the offense, the defense’s talent is undeniable. From a personnel perspective, there are no appreciable weaknesses in this unit, but it will need to improve in the red zone (92nd in touchdown rate) and Havoc (72nd).
LSU Schedule Analysis
According to ESPN’s strength of schedule metric, LSU is staring down the barrel of a gun, with the 11th-most difficult slate awaiting the Tigers. But the good news is that their slate breaks up neatly into three stanzas.
They host Clemson in the opener before back-to-back showdowns with Ole Miss and Texas A&M in late September. Then, they’ll likely be favored by double digits in three straight games.
November brings three straight against Alabama, Texas and Tennessee. But even with five or six ranked opponents on the docket, LSU is projected to be favored in 11 games.
This price is too good to pass up for a team that will be granted not one but two mulligans. At 10-2, with a powerful Kiffin offense clicking in December, 22-1 to win it all will feel like an early Christmas present in your stocking.
Pick: LSU to Win National Championship (+2200 · FanDuel)
