LSU 2026 SEASON PREVIEW & PREDICTIONS
- Lonn Phillips Sullivan
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
Well, here we are...staring down yet another season of LSU football, and it's not just any other year....going through the motions (which is what the Brian Kelly or Les Miles eras turned into), this is Year 1 under Head Coach Lane Kiffin, and things appear to have changed in an exciting direction across LSU Football.
Retaining head coaching candidate Blake Baker as defensive coordinator, keeping Jake Olsen away from the NFL, installing playcaller extraordinaire Charlie Weis Jr, bringing 2019 Joe Moore Award-winning LSU OL Coach James Cregg on as an analyst, as well as ushering in the return of Ed Orgeron (taking on a DL assistant role), all as Lane delivered a #1 transfer portal class & kept the Tigers' best 2025 players, Coach Kiffin has pulled out all the stops off the field during his first 9 months in Baton Rouge.
The controversial longtime offensive genius carved himself out a fantastic head coaching career over the past 7 years at both Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss, and now he takes his balanced, aggressive, fast paced offensive ethos to a program coming off one of its worst ever offensive seasons, aiming to cure LSU's running game, offensive line mistakes, and ability to feed their best players in space.....all while introducing a new starting quarterback...
Sam Leavitt enters Year 1 at LSU facing plenty of questions himself, even concerns over his 2025 LisFranc injury and his absence from Spring Camp dominated the conversation surrounding the Tigers' latest starting signal caller.
But now as Fall Camp heads for crunch time in the final 2 weeks of preparation before LSU's opening rematch vs Clemson, Leavitt is fit and firing as a passer, speaking publicly for the first few times as a Tiger, and acclimating fine within the squad.
However, the main question centers around the readiness of Sam Leavitt's dual threat rushing prowess.
Luckily, he's been able to alleviate any immediate fears over his foot injury by running a few quarterback keepers and looking like he's saving the juice for Week 1.
Leavitt will have plenty of weapons on hand, from an upgraded, utterly loaded cavalcade of varying pass catching profiles, including plenty of length and speed, separation kings (Winnie Watkins), contested catch sultans (Trey'Dez Green, Malik Elzy), critical down crunchmen (Jackson Harris), and over the middle burners (Jayce Brown, Tre Wilson), all in all, QB Sam Leavitt will have more options than he's ever had on a football field.
Even Kevin Smith's running back room retained 2025's two best backs (Caden Durham, Harlem Berry), plus added a true star in the making in Dilin Jones, as well as solid key depth that vastly upgrades LSU's 2022-2025 rushing corps (Stacey Gage, Raycine Guillory Jr, and Rod Gainey Jr).
Then you take a gander at the O-line, the ground zero of LSU's most critical collapse of 2025, and it's great to see Eric Wolford and James Cregg reshaping, revamping, and revitalizing their unit.
Featuring 3 starters with 1,000 snaps to their name (Braelin Moore, Aliou Bah and Jordan Seaton), a potential 1st round pick at left tackle (Seaton), alongside more promising depth than Brad Davis could develop (Brysten Martinez, Devin Harper, Darren Strey, Solomon Thomas), LSU's O-line could be an actual strength of the time, helping the Tigers control games & protect Leavitt.
Defensively, Blake Baker returns for Year 3 following his offseason sweepstakes between Memphis and Tulane. Somehow, Lane and Chris Kiffin were instrumental in convincing the head coaching candidate to stay for one more campaign....and for good reason:
Baker resurrected LSU's defense from 108th the year prior to his hiring, all the way to 23rd last season, winning 4 or 5 games almost singlehandedly against the likes of Clemson and Florida....and yet they still had much to improve upon, from their inability to stop a killer RPO / dual threat QB ground game, or cash pressures into sacks (27 total, 5 fewer than Matt House's abysmal 2023 defense).
Now that captain Whit Weeks has returned to full health, coupled with the signings of premier talents like Ty Benefield, Princewill Umanmielen, Jordan Ross, and TJ Dottery, joined by the rise of an elite youth brigade along the defensive line.....coached by minds from Baker to Chris Kiffin, NFL-in-demand Jake Olsen, DBU mastermind Corey Raymond, and of course, the return of Ed Orgeron, LSU's 2026 defense holds a fantastic chance of becoming the first top 10 Tigers defense since 2017.
Overall, 2026 LSU feels....just different...
Faster, stronger, hungrier, and more competitive (both individually and collectively) than many Tiger squads we've seen since 2019.
Everywhere you look, this squad is replete with leaders, swaggering youth, grizzled vets, ball hawks, bulldozers, wrecking balls, and playmakers, highlighting just how much LSU have maximized their depth.
But games aren't won on paper....they're won inside the mercurial hell of the grind itself...an ultimate week to week fight that should take clear until mid January to finish......
Buckle up....
The long road is about to unfurl and stretch out before our eyes like a ribbon highway, and with all the pieces to the equation right there (stunning talents on roster, strong characters, pinnacle leaders, a hefty coaching backbone, depth at most key areas, plus, a team, staff, university and fanbase all aligned), 2026 has every chance to become one of the most exciting LSU Tiger seasons in the history of LSU Football.
WEEK 1
vs CLEMSON
LSU WIN
31-6
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WEEK 2
vs LOUISIANA TECH
LSU WIN
54-0
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WEEK 3
@ OLE MISS
LSU WIN
35-24
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WEEK 4
@ TEXAS A&M
LSU WIN
27-17
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WEEK 5
vs MCNEESE
LSU WIN
45-0
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WEEK 6
@ KENTUCKY
LSU LOSE
23-21
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WEEK 7
vs MISS STATE
LSU WIN
38-10
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WEEK 8
@ AUBURN
LSU LOSE
28-25
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WEEK 9
vs ALABAMA
LSU WIN
34-30
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WEEK 10
vs TEXAS
LSU WIN
21-13
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WEEK 11
@ TENNESSEE
LSU WIN
41-17
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WEEK 12
@ ARKANSAS
LSU WIN
44-9
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LSU FINISH THE REGULAR SEASON (10-2) & MAKE THE PLAYOFFS W/ A 7TH SEED. GAME BY GAME EXPLANATIONS & POSTSEASON PICKS COMING UP ON THE NEXT EDITION OF
LSUODYSSEY LIVE!!!!
WATCH OUR 2026 SEASON PREVIEW & PREDICTIONS
HOSTED BY BUFFED IN PRIME
OUR PROFILES:
-2026 DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK 👇
-LSU RUNNING BACKS ROOM DEEP DIVE
-LSU'S D-LINE YOUTH RENAISSANCE AND ED ORGERON'S INFLUENCE
-SAM LEAVITT IN DEPTH
-LSU WIDE RECEIVERS FILM STUDY
-THE FATHER OF WHIT & ZACH WEEKS REVEALS ALL, RETURNING TO THE SHOW FOR THE 4TH TIME👇
-2026 OFFENSIVE LINE: A FEW ANCHORS + MAJOR QUESTIONS
by LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
©️ 2026 Uninterrupted Writings Inc
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