Pro Football Focus, better known as PFF, recently released its preseason Top 50 list, and while the Tigers seems grossly under-represented, perhaps it can give LSU fans another reason to look forward to September 5 and Clemson.

Only three Tigers made the list: quarterback Sam Leavitt at No. 41, offensive tackle Jordan Seaton at No. 43, and tight end Trey’Dez Green at No. 49. PFF says its list is built using grades, advanced data and future projection, which makes LSU’s presence there an opportunity for conversation of what the roster might evolve into.

Clearly, this is not a ruling on every player who belongs, does not belong, or should be ranked higher. Summer lists like these always betray a desperate desire for anything to write on (myself included!) and leave room for argument, including around LSU’s own roster. Safety transfer Ty Benefield, for instance, may end up being far more important to the Tigers than any preseason ranking can know in July. And what about that stacked defensive line? One of the transfer backs or receivers? But the three LSU names PFF did include still say something useful about the shape of Kiffin’s first team and the vision of the program as a whole.

The players’ origins themselves tell part of the story. Leavitt is the transfer quarterback from Arizona St brought in to run Kiffin’s offense. Seaton is the transfer left tackle from Colorado expected to protect his blind side. Green is the returning LSU grenade, a massive, explosive tight end who has already showed prowess inside the red zone, making for nightmare matchups for defenses. In terms of symmetry, that is modern college football in one neat triangle: portal quarterback, portal protection, and a prodigy returning player who still gives the roster some internal continuity.

Thus the list could be important beyond the largely meaningless preseason noise. LSU does not merely need talented names. It needs a team. That sounds obvious until we remember how easy it is now to mistake the signing of high profile names for the actual building of a winning team. In this version of college football, a roster can look impressive on paper before anyone has had to sit for the good of the team, block for someone else’s highlight, or stay patient and disciplined when the ball goes somewhere else. Kiffin’s new vision, with a front office and NIL strategy, can help LSU thrive in the sport as it now exists. No serious fan can pretend otherwise. But the whole operation still has to produce something more durable than a collection of valuable parts.

Leavitt and Seaton represent the new landscape of college football. Green represents something closer to the old one, even though yes, it took quite the bag to keep him. Perhaps we throw in the topic of our last article Sai’vion Jones to give a more robust picture: The best version of LSU football in 2026 will need the mix. It will need impact transfers who can become Tigers quickly, and returning players who help make sure the traditions and habits of program character are passed on. The trick is blending the realization that the portal is paramount while making sure it does not become the soul of the program.

That is the question underneath PFF’s list, not just for LSU but for so many SEC teams the Tigers will compete against. So LSU has three of the top 50 players in college football, at least by one respected preseason measure. Great. Now Kiffin has to turn that projection into leadership, production, victories, and finally, culture. That means talented players still have to be coached, challenged, and molded into something bigger than their own market value. If college football has any chance of keeping any last vestige of what always made it what it was, that chance has to be the emphasis and motivation placed on we over I.

Sure, LSU has pieces. It always does.

The trick in this playoff and NIL era will continue to be if LSU can build the right team.