Seaton’s body transformation is part of a buy in to a new program

By Hunt Palmer

LSU’s practice field was littered with new faces on Tuesday.

There was at least one new body, as well.

Jordan Seaton, the high-profile offensive tackle transfer from Colorado took on a noticeably different shape as LSU began spring football. The former five-star recruit was listed at 6-foot-5 and 307 pounds on LSU’s official roster. When he last played for Colorado four months ago, he was listed at 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds.

When asked about the nearly 25-pound drop, head coach Lane Kiffin lauded his new left tackle.

“Jordan has done a phenomenal job since he got here,” Kiffin said. “His body changing, his work ethic. I’ll come up here. It’ll be Sunday at 9:00pm, and he’ll be out there doing his own stuff working out. We’re trying to build here so that that becomes the norm, that mindset and the way that you work. And we’ve got some players that are there that you have that.”

Kiffin has a lot of aspects of the program to overhaul as a first-year head coach in Baton Rouge. He brought in nearly 60 new scholarship players and a completely new offensive staff. He’ll have to install a new system on offense with potentially eight or nine new starters on that side of the ball.

Beyond that, it’s about creating a standard of effort and performance that matches the goals and expectations. Those are no secret. They rest at the elite level of the sport.

“You build the culture that you’re an outlier if you just check the box, and you’re normal,” Kiffin said. “I’m happy that Jordan’s there to lead by that because if you can have your marquee name players that appear to be the best ones coming in, and that what the other kids see as they’re coming in, then that’s important because we evaluate that a lot in the process of who we take.”

Seaton is a take for just about any football program. That goes for LSU, Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia or any other program looking to win championships. It also goes for the 32 NFL franchises who will no doubt be interested in Seaton’s services this time next year for the 2027 NFL Draft.

Scouts have fawned over Seaton’s ability since he was a prep player ranked in the top 10 in the country in his class. He’s got elite size, light feet and now a college track record of dominance in the passing game. In modern football, that’s worth a lot of cash.

LSU won the intense recruiting way for Seaton in the transfer portal. That certainly came with a premium price tag, but Kiffin insists that it wasn’t just an investment in talent.

“We don’t just take because their film is this way,” Kiffin said. “We’re more like the NFL model of the evaluation of the investment that we put into the player. Who are they? Not just what player are they, especially as you’re trying to build the culture initially.”

Seaton’s drastic transformation in just a few short months has set a tone in the Tiger program. The offensive line severely underperformed a season ago, and LSU has finished dead last in the SEC in rushing in consecutive seasons.

That figures to change due to new additions to the roster up front and a system that has produced elite rushing totals for years at Ole Miss. Part of that is tempo and the conditioning that it takes to play as quickly as Kiffin prefers.

That’s tough to do at 330 pounds.

“I don’t know basketball well, but since basketball is going on, if you went in, and you were going to press all game,” Kiffin said. “You had to get players into that condition like Arkansas back in the day…40 Minutes of Hell. That’s basically what it’s like, so it’s a lot of physical conditioning but mental conditioning…There’s a ton that goes into that.”

Seaton is off to a good start.