Since LSU hired former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin to kick-start a new era of football at the Ole War Skule, it’s almost felt like the program has been in a larval state.

Part of this had to do with the fact that Kiffin’s Ole Miss team won a couple of games in the college football playoffs, and as a result of that a bunch of the offensive assistant coaches Kiffin was bringing with him to Baton Rouge were doing double duty working for their 2025 team. That ended on Thursday night when Ole Miss lost a close game to Miami in the semifinal round of the playoffs.

But another part of it was that Kiffin had spent most of December and early January doing more subtraction than addition where LSU’s football roster was concerned. A very large number of players from the 2025 team have gone into the transfer portal since it opened – 32, by our last count, though some of them might re-sign with LSU – and so it’s been exceptionally difficult to assess what kind of team the new coach would put on the field this fall.

That changed over the weekend, though. And this morning the cocoon seems to have opened.

Sam Leavitt, ranked as the top player in the transfer portal by most services, signed with LSU as the starting quarterback for the 2026 Tigers. Leavitt made a name for himself in 2024 by leading Arizona State to the Big 12 conference championship and the college football playoffs where the Sun Devils almost knocked off Texas in the quarterfinals, though his 2025 season was hampered by a lis franc injury he tried to play through but ultimately needed surgery for. Leavitt is a career 61 percent passer, having thrown for over 4,600 yards in 20 career starts with a 36-11 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He’s also very mobile, having rushed for more than 800 yards and 10 touchdowns in his career. The 6-2, 205-pound junior will potentially be the third major transfer quarterback to start at LSU in the past eight years, following in the footsteps of Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels – the latter having also transferred to LSU from Arizona State.

Leavitt’s recruitment was a madcap saga, taking him through visits to Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee and Miami. Exactly what happened on his visit to LSU hasn’t been confirmed, but in the middle of his trip to Baton Rouge the news broke that Washington quarterback Demond Williams was entering the portal and LSU was a prime suitor for Williams. That seemed to short-circuit things for Leavitt – Williams was seen as slightly more desirable owing to the fact that he’s healthy and Leavitt is still recovering from the lis franc injury. But after the Williams rumors died down, owing to the fact that it would cost some $4 million to buy Williams out of the NIL contract he had just signed at Washington before going into the portal, Kiffin boarded a plane and met with Leavitt in Knoxville following his Tennessee visit.

That seemed to put things right. Leavitt visited Miami, then returned to Arizona on Sunday. And this morning he signed with LSU.

Leavitt’s addition came a day after Kiffin landed a commitment from LSU’s likely future quarterback – Landen Clark, who had an impressive freshman season at Elon University in North Carolina. Clark, who stands 6-0 and 185 pounds, started every game for Elon, showing off a big arm and great mobility in throwing for 2,321 yards (57 percent completion rate) and an 18-8 touchdown-to-interception ratio, while also running for 614 yards and 11 touchdowns for a 6-6 team. He isn’t very big and he’ll need to add some bulk over the offseason, but watching Clark on film cannot fail to remind the viewer of Trinidad Chambliss, Kiffin’s quarterback at Ole Miss this year who likely played himself into the first round of the NFL draft despite having transferred from Division II Ferris State.

With Leavitt and Clark, LSU has gone from zero scholarship quarterbacks to a very solid room. Preferred walkon Emile Picarella, who redshirted this past year, appears to be the 3rd string signal-caller, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if LSU added one more quarterback either in the portal or from the rather shallow pool of high school senior recruits yet unsigned.

LSU’s haul in the transfer portal is now 28 players, and that puts the Tigers at No. 2 in the 247 Sports transfer portal rankings just behind Texas. There is room for at least another half-dozen additions, though Kiffin has his roster filling up quickly.

Probably just as big an addition as Leavitt was the news that freshman tackle Darrin Strey, who redshirted this year at Kentucky, had signed with LSU. Strey, 6-7 and 322 pounds, was a major recruit for Kentucky last year; he’s following Kentucky’s offensive line coach Eric Wolford to LSU and is likely to anchor the offensive line at right tackle. It’s not unlikely that Kiffin will add three offensive linemen from Ole Miss – starting left guard Delano Townsend and backups Ethan Fields and Jude Foster, both of whom hail from the Baton Rouge area – to replenish the offensive line which was gutted by portal departures after perhaps the worst showing by an offensive line in modern LSU history last year.

Completing the rebuild of the line is just about the only major job Kiffin has left to do, though it’s foreseeable that he’ll pick up a defensive back or two, he’s after Missouri star defensive end Damon Wilson, he’d like a tight end and another running back and he might take one more quarterback for depth.

It’s been a whirlwind of activity, and it’s ongoing. But with Leavitt’s addition the fog seems to be clearing, and it appears LSU’s 2026 team will bear a distinctive Lane Kiffin stamp in only the coach’s first year.

So far, athletic director Verge Ausberry is getting what he paid for. If Kiffin’s recent track record is any indication, that’s likely going to continue this fall.