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Outside Looking In: The good and bad with Kiffin’s staff

Dec 24, 2025 | 12:00 PM
Kevin Smith

Ole Miss Athletics

By Chris Marler 

LSU announced 11 new hires this week for Lane Kiffin’s staff. It’s been a difficult thing to navigate this December since he was announced as the new head coach and most of his staff has continued to coach through the CFP at Ole Miss.

Zooming out on the staff as a whole, there’s plenty to be excited about moving forward. Some hires are clear upgrades, while others still raise questions for LSU.

The Headliner – Kevin Smith 

Any time you choose to move on from Frank Wilson by hiring a new coach for his position group, you’re making a calculated, and potentially risky, decision. 

Wilson has been the glue that held the team together after Brian Kelly was fired, and he’s also been essential in recruiting Louisiana and the city of New Orleans. Those last two things are incredibly important to not just the fans of this team, but also to the overall success of this program. When LSU has been at its best, it’s done so with a roster largely comprising Louisiana kids. 

But, here’s the other side of that – you still have to be able to coach. And while I absolutely love Frank Wilson, and wish he was somehow on this new staff, one of the most underwhelming units (probably second to the offensive line) over the last two seasons has been the running backs. There has been talent in that room, but it hasn’t translated to the field. 

Insert Kevin Smith. Smith is only 40 years old, and already shown how huge of an asset he can be at multiple stops in his career. He started at Ole Miss with Kiffin before leaving for Miami in 2022, where he turned Henry Parrish Jr. into an All-ACC back. Then, he returned to Ole Miss and turned Quinshon Judkins into a freshman All-American, and his work with Kewan Lacy this year has been outstanding. 

Whether people want to admit it or not, he checks far more boxes as a coach than just the familiar label of “recruits well in-state.”

The Actual Prize – Sterling Lucas 

Getting Sterling Lucas from South Carolina is the best hire of all 11 new hires. Kevin Smith and Charlie Weis Jr. will steal the headlines, but landing Lucas was huge. When it comes to coaches that can identify talent, recruit talent and develop talent, nobody else on this staff is as elite at doing all three as Lucas. Period. 

Lucas was the OL/DE coach at South Carolina. Not only did he have one of the best units at that position in the entire SEC over the past two seasons, he also had the SEC defensive player of the year and Nagurski Award winner a season ago in Kyle Kennard. He produced two All-SEC players this year as well, but what he does better than almost anyone is recruit elite talent from outside the footprint of his school. 

The DMV (D.C., Maryland and Virginia) has been a recruiting hotbed for decades without a true hometown power, allowing programs nationwide to freely pick talent from the region. 

Alabama did a tremendous job there under Nick Saban, and schools like Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State have been outstanding, as well. South Carolina rostered three five-star players last season, and two of them, Dylan Stewart and Nyck Harbor, were Lucas’ DMV recruits. He also served as the primary recruiter for LaNorris Sellers.

The three best players on that team all came from Lucas. While he wasn’t able to convince Stewart to come with him to Baton Rouge, he still has a lot of great relationships in that area and throughout the footprint of the SEC. 

The Concern – Eric Wolford 

Full transparency, the initial title of this section was The Liability, not The Concern, and Eric Wolford may very well be both. I hope he proves me wrong, but it’s difficult to be excited about the hire given Wolford’s track record and his responsibility for last season’s most disappointing and underachieving position group.

Wolford isn’t lacking in experience, as he has been a coach at South Carolina, Kentucky and Alabama, all within the last decade. The numbers aren’t great. 

The line at Kentucky finished 10th and 11th in the SEC in sacks allowed over the last two seasons, and the 2023 offensive line at Alabama was the worst in the history of the program. That unit allowed 49 sacks, which was the most in program history. That was more than Oregon, Washington, Georgia and Michigan combined that season. They also allowed four sacks or more in six consecutive games, which was the most of any FBS team in the last 20 years. 

The unit that needs the most help at LSU is the offensive line. I hope Kiffin found the right guy to do so, but based on the numbers from his previous units, it’s hard to get too excited and anticipate that he will.

Chris Marler

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