Kiffin intent on recruiting shift toward high school ranks

By Hunt Palmer

LSU will add more than 20 players from the transfer portal in the next few weeks.

Lane Kiffin isn’t solely focused on the portal to build his roster, though. It’s not that he’s unfamiliar with the process or uncomfortable with it. Quite the opposite. At Ole Miss, he routinely hauled in highly regarded portal classes including the best in the country in 2024.

During his ESPN interview from the Texas Bowl television booth, he was asked by color analyst Cole Cubelic if that changes at LSU.

“It definitely does,” Kiffin said. “I think you have an individual plan for wherever you’re at. LSU being LSU in the state of Louisiana, like, you know, down there with Malik Nabers just 15 minutes ago. You’ve got so many great in-state players in Louisiana. Like (Nick) Saban said, more per capita than any other state when it comes to NFL players. So, to keep those guys home is a huge priority to build through high school and add to the portal, different than what we had to do in the state of Mississippi.”

Louisiana is talent rich, unquestionably. The state produced a pair of five-star talents in the Class of 2026. Kiffin and LSU nabbed signatures from Richard Anderson and Lamar Brown. The 2027 class features four five-stars.

Under Kiffin, Ole Miss only signed one of the three total five-stars in seven signing classes from the state of Mississippi according to On3. That was Suntarine Perkins in 2023. Deuce Knight went to Auburn in 2025, and Tristen Keys signed with Tennessee earlier this month in the 2026 class.

“At Ole Miss, no significant players on that offense at all, which is probably the best offense in college football, were from Mississippi,” Kiffin told ESPN. “All those guys came in (from out of state) to be part of what we were doing.”

Despite only signing 14 players in December’s early signing period, LSU’s class still ranked No. 11 according to On3. That’s due to a 92.37 average player rating, the highest in the country. No other team in the top 11 had fewer than 21 commitments.

Kiffin and his staff signed four of the top five players in the state and five of the top seven. The cream of the Louisiana crop will be the priority. Whatever needs show up beyond that can be addressed with transfers.

“Keep the high school players here and then add like we did (at Ole Miss),” Kiffin said. “The sky’s the limit.”