The No. 21 LSU Tigers were playing for their College Football Playoff lives on Saturday against the No. 6 Texas Longhorns.
LSU held a 21-16 lead in the fourth quarter before Arch Manning and the Texas offense found a way to score a go-ahead touchdown with just three seconds left on the clock.
Texas went on to win 22-21, and LSU will likely fall out of the Top 25 rankings. The Tigers will also drop to 6-4 in Lane Kiffin’s first year as the team’s head coach.
Kiffin Believes LSU Will Have Better Rosters
Despite actively recruiting players and dipping into the transfer portal to assemble a roster worth more than $50 million, Kiffin believes LSU will naturally have better rosters moving forward. He pointed to this being his first year in Baton Rouge as a major factor.
“We’ll have better rosters, and that’s no poor reflection upon these players. We just will,” Kiffin said, via On3. “We will have been here. We’ll have built depth. We will. We won’t have senior days with two scholarship players.”
NEW: Lane Kiffin on LSU’s foundation for the future following its loss to Texas:
“We’ll have better rosters, and that’s no poor reflection upon these players. We just will. We will have been here. We’ll have built depth. We will. We won’t have senior days with two scholarship players.”
(via @BengalTigerOn3)
https://t.co/IL5nyhSpVK
— On3 (@On3) November 15, 2026
While Kiffin probably isn’t wrong, this LSU roster is still quite talented in terms of prospect rankings and the money the program spent to assemble it. As we know, four-loss seasons in Baton Rouge won’t cut it.
Kiffin Faces Backlash for Comments
Kiffin’s comments sparked major backlash from college football fans who believe he’s throwing his players under the bus instead of taking accountability.
“And just like that the players go under the bus. Season one and Lane is prime Kiffining,” a fan said.
Someone else added, “He’ll do anything but look in the mirror.”
Another person wrote, “This LSU team has good players. They have poor execution. Which is a coaching metric, not a player metric.”
“A narcissist never takes responsibility or accountability because in his mind he is infallible,” a fan shared.
One more person commented, “Just threw the whole team under the bus. No one should be surprised by this.”
LSU’s Lane Kiffin Faces Backlash for What He Said After Loss to Texas