Sports

Lane Kiffin Stalked Transfer Portal QB Sam Leavitt Across State Lines To Try And Close Deal

#College Football
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Lane Kiffin LSU

© SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images


New LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin has a problem on his hands.

When Kiffin dumped Ole Miss for the allegedly greener pastures in Baton Rouge, most college football fans, and likely Kiffin himself, believed that he’d raid the Rebels’ roster for talent.

However, that hasn’t happened.

In fact, at the time being, not a single Ole Miss player has left for LSU. However, the Rebels’ season ended just two days ago with a loss to Miami in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

Most notably, Kiffin is without a clear starting quarterback for the 2026 season.

Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss appears to be out of eligibility after the NCAA denied him a waiver for a sixth-year of eligibility. And even if he had received one, Chambliss looked set to remain in Oxford.

So Kiffin turned his attention. He first struck out on Cincinnati Brendan Sorsby, who instead landed at Texas Tech. He then whiffed on Washington’s Demond Williams, who is returning to the Huskies after recently signing an apparently ironclad contract.

Now Kiffin is honing in on former Arizona State star Sam Leavitt.

Lane Kiffin Is Bending Over Backward To Land Sam Leavitt In The Transfer Portal

Leavitt is undeniably talented. He’s listed as one of the top quarterbacks available in the portal almost everywhere you look. But it’s far from a done deal that he signs with the Tigers.

The former Sun Devils’ signal caller visited Baton Rouge last week and left without agreeing to a deal. He then set up visits to both Tennessee and Miami, and it looked at if Kiffin would pivot to Williams instead.

But when Williams fell through, Kiffin got desperate.

Matt Moscona of LousianaSports.net reports that Kiffin followed Leavitt to Knoxville in hopes that he could seal the deal with the QB target.

And while that may sound insane, Kiffin’s own social media posts appear to back up that reporting.

Ole Miss fell just short of a national championship. So Kiffin could still certainly save face if he gets LSU up and running at its full potential in the coming years. But it sure seems as if things are off to a rough start, and he’s going to extreme lengths to keep the train on the tracks.