Kiffin, Leavitt Debut for LSU as No. 23 Clemson Visits Death Valley

LSU opens the Lane Kiffin era on Saturday night against Clemson, hosting the Tigers at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge in a game kicking off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the two programs in Death Valley, with LSU entering ranked No. 11 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll, while Clemson is No. 23 in the Coaches Poll and unranked in the AP Top 25.

LSU leads the all-time series 4-1, including a 17-10 win at Clemson in last year’s season opener. Both teams enter Saturday 0-0.

Kiffin takes over at LSU after guiding Ole Miss to four 10-win seasons and 55 total victories over six years in Oxford, including an 11-1 regular season in 2025 that included wins over No. 4 LSU and No. 13 Oklahoma. He carries a 116-53 overall head coaching record across stops at Tennessee (2009), USC (2010-13), Florida Atlantic (2017-19) and Ole Miss (2020-25). Saturday will be his first game as LSU’s head coach, and it will be played in Tiger Stadium — the first time an LSU coach has debuted at home since Nick Saban in 2000 (a 58-0 win over Western Carolina). Kiffin is 10-4 in season openers across his career (5-1 at Ole Miss, 0-3 at Florida Atlantic, 4-0 at USC, 1-0 at Tennessee).

The game also marks the debut of transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt, who joins LSU from Arizona State with 20 career starts. It’s just the fourth time since the early 1960s that LSU has opened a season with both a first-year head coach and a first-year starting quarterback; the last instance came in 2022 when Brian Kelly and Jayden Daniels debuted together against Florida State.

Kiffin assembled the nation’s No. 1-ranked transfer portal class at LSU, headlined by Leavitt, offensive tackle Jordan Seaton (the No. 1-ranked tackle in the portal, arriving after 22 starts at Colorado), linebacker TJ Dottery and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen (the No. 1-ranked edge rusher in the portal, joining from Ole Miss). LSU’s roster also returns 13 players who started at least one game in 2025, led by linebacker Whit Weeks, tight end Trey’Dez Green and cornerback DJ Pickett.

Green, Seaton and safety Ty Benefield (a transfer from Boise State) were all named to the Associated Press Preseason All-America team — Green as a first-teamer, Seaton second-team and Benefield third-team. Green enters his third season at LSU holding the program record for touchdown receptions by a tight end (11), including a single-season record of seven last year; he has 46 career catches for 534 yards and 11 touchdowns. Benefield arrives with 33 career starts and 235 tackles from three seasons at Boise State, where he helped the Broncos to three Mountain West titles and a College Football Playoff appearance, earning MVP of the 2024 Mountain West Championship Game.

Kiffin has personal history in Tiger Stadium: Saturday will be his sixth time coaching there, all against LSU. He went 2-0 there as Alabama’s offensive coordinator (2014, 2016) but is 0-3 in the building as an opposing head coach, having dropped three straight visits with Ole Miss.

For Clemson, Saturday’s game is part of a stretch of high-profile season openers under 19th-year head coach Dabo Swinney, who enters the year with a 187-53 record. This will be the third straight season Clemson has opened against an AP-ranked opponent, and the Tigers would become the only program in the nation to have faced four AP Top 11 opponents in season openers since 2021 with a win over LSU. Clemson is also making its first-ever visit to Tiger Stadium; the Tigers are trying to become the first team to win their first-ever game there since UAB beat Nick Saban’s LSU squad 13-10 on Sept. 23, 2000.

Clemson’s roster is led on offense by running back Gideon Davidson, who was named to the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy Watch List and Athlon’s Third-Team All-ACC, and defensive tackle Amare Adams, a Third-Team All-ACC selection (Phil Steele). Wide receiver T.J. Moore enters the season with 97 career catches for 1,488 yards, needing 45 receptions and 645 yards to enter the top 15 in school history in those categories, while receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. has 1,245 career receiving yards.

The teams met a year ago in the 2025 season opener at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, with then-No. 9 LSU defeating then-No. 4 Clemson 17-10. Clemson led 10-3 at halftime before LSU scored the game’s final two touchdowns, the go-ahead score coming on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Nussmeier to Trey’Dez Green with 12:18 remaining.

LSU has won 21 consecutive non-conference regular-season games in Tiger Stadium, a streak dating to 2018, and is 39-6 overall at home since the 2019 national championship season (31-5 in night games). Saturday will also be the first Top 25 season-opening matchup in Tiger Stadium since 1988, when No. 18 LSU beat No. 10 Texas A&M 27-0.