The 2025 LSU football season is being remembered not for the play on the field but for the circus behind the scenes. Brian Kelly was fired after a blowout loss to Texas A&M at home, and since then, the product on the field has only gotten worse. Off the field, the circus started with the Louisiana Governor getting involved, then LSU shaking up the athletic department, and now all eyes are on Lane Kiffin.
Lane Kiffin is the talk of the coaching carousel at the moment, with Florida and LSU being the two schools that are vying to pry him away from Ole Miss. The Tigers feel confident, but a decision on Kiffin's future is not expected until after Friday's Egg Bowl. On the latest episode of “The Matt Barrie Show,” Paul Finebaum was on to talk about the Lane Kiffin saga. He shared that he had heard from a friend in Washington, DC, that a few Louisiana politicians have been telling people that Kiffin is headed there, and he laughed.
Finebaum said, “My favorite, a really close friend of mine in Washington texted me yesterday and he said, I just got off the phone with some politicians in Louisiana and Lane is coming here. I’m like going, after all this, you would really trust a politician in Louisiana to know the inside, but maybe you would.”
What made Finebaum laugh was that he did not know how much he would trust a Louisiana politician to have that inside scoop. The only politician who seems tapped into this is Jeff Landry, the Louisiana Governor. Other politicians, especially in DC, appear to be on the outside looking in.
Landry inserted himself into the LSU football hiring immediately after the Texas A&M loss and was a key reason why Brian Kelly was fired. After the firing, Landry tore into athletic director Scott Woodward for the massive contract and buyout that Kelly was owed.
Next, Woodward was let go, and since then, LSU has been all-in on landing Kiffin. Whether they get him is a different story because Florida and Ole Miss are competing with the Tigers, and both are prepared to match whatever LSU offers him to coach.
This saga is far from over, but its close ties to Louisiana politics make it one of the more unique coaching searches we have seen in recent memory.
