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AIPROPX ReportYahoo Sports · 29m ago
Five questions: How will Lane Kiffin fare at LSU in hotly contested SEC?
While Georgia pursues another SEC title, the conference is not as dominant as it once was and looks to reestablish itself as the nations’ best. Here are five burning questions:
Can the SEC snap the Big Ten’s national title stranglehold?
The nation’s toughest football conference has fallen on hard times, at least by its lofty standards. After winning 13 of 17 national championships, dating to Florida’s 2006 title through Georgia’s back-to-back crowns in 2021-22, the SEC has failed to even reach the past three title games, while the Big Ten has won each one.
The SEC might still be deeper from top to bottom, draw larger TV audiences and send more players to the NFL. Yet, those advantages increasingly sound like desperate talking points from commissioner Greg Sankey. Adding a ninth conference game in the age of the transfer portal could make the road even tougher, requiring teams to display the depth to survive a 16- or 17-game gauntlet to win a national championship.
Isn’t it time Texas delivered?
The school has captured 14 SEC championships across six sports since joining the league in 2024. But Sankey lured the Longhorns away from the Big 12 — and helped trigger conference realignment — because of their football program.
Now it’s time for Steve Sarkisian’s team to take the next step and compete for a national championship. Quarterback Arch Manning, SEC sacks leader Colin Simmons and a high-priced transfer class led by Auburn receiver Cam Coleman could give Texas a talent edge every week.
Widely regarded as an elite play-caller, Sarkisian has yet to deliver in the biggest moments. The Longhorns ranked 10th in the SEC in red-zone efficiency and averaged a pedestrian 4.1 yards per carry. Defensively, they struggled mightily against some of the worst teams in the SEC — hardly the profile of championship defense.
Is Lane Kiffin equipped to survive long term at LSU?
Kiffin’s clumsy, caustic exit at Ole Miss was on brand for a restless coach who finally seemed to have settled down. No stranger to drama, LSU is banking on the 51-year-old, $13 million coach to bring both championships and stability to a program accustomed to the former but rarely the latter.
Kiffin is almost certain to field explosive offenses and stockpile talent through the transfer portal. If Arizona State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt is fully healthy, the Tigers could contend for their first SEC title since Joe Burrow’s national championship season in 2019.
The schedule won’t make life easy. LSU opens SEC play Sept. 19 at Ole Miss and also hosts Texas A&M, Alabama and Texas. Headwinds are inevitable in Baton Rouge. Kiffin, whose only stop longer than three full seasons came at Ole Miss, must prove he can withstand them.
Is Ole Miss’ Pete Golding the first-year coach best positioned to win now?
Kiffin left his former defensive coordinator the league’s top returning quarterback in Trindidad Chambliss, one of the top tailbacks in Kewan Lacy and playmaking defenders Will Echoles and Suntarine Perkins.
The Rebels are likely to be favored when Golding hosts his former boss in Week 3. Two College Football Playoff wins, along with a near-upset of Miami, left Ole Miss fans wondering whether they might be better off without all the distractions Kiffin often created.
With new coaches also taking over at Auburn, Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky, no first-year coach may be better positioned than Golding to succeed immediately.
Has Kalen DeBoer risen too far, too fast?
Alabama’s coach was an NAIA legend at Sioux Falls, winning three national championship in five seasons. He won nine games in his lone full season at Fresno State before leading Washington to the national title game in just his second year.
But the SEC is a different challenge, especially in Tuscaloosa following Nick Saban’s unprecedented run . DeBoer has as many losses in two seasons as Saban did during his final five with the Crimson Tide.
DeBoer briefly regained some goodwill by beating Oklahoma to open the College Football Playoffs after a 28-3 drubbing by Georgia in the SEC Championship. But Bama followed with a 38-3 quarterfinal flop to Indiana, erasing any momentum and placing DeBoer squarely under the microscope entering a pivotal third season.
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