By SCOTT FELTS
The Opponent: LSU Tigers
When: Saturday, November 21st, 3:30 EST or later.
Where: Neyland Stadium, Knoxville TN
As the leaves finish falling and senior night arrives in Knoxville, Tennessee hosts LSU in what should be one of the most intriguing late-season matchups in the SEC. Lane Kiffin makes his first trip to Neyland Stadium since the mustard bottle and golf ball game with Ole Miss in 2021.
Coach Background
Kiffin is in his first season at LSU after leaving Ole Miss at the end of the 2025 regular season. He’s reunited with several former assistants and brought in a massive 43-man transfer portal class to rebuild the roster quickly.
Kiffin’s coaching philosophy is heavily influenced by his father, the late Monte Kiffin, along with Pete Carroll and Nick Saban. He’s known for running a fast-paced, up-tempo spread offense that blends elements of the Air Raid, Briles-style RPOs, and pro concepts. He’s especially strong at quarterback development and creating explosive, high-scoring offenses that stress defenses horizontally and vertically.
Staff Facts
Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. followed Kiffin to LSU from Ole Miss. He’s the son of the former New England Patriots play-caller and Notre Dame head coach. Weis’ approach is very similar to Kiffin’s: adapt the system to the quarterback and skill players rather than forcing players into a rigid scheme. The offense is quarterback-centric where the system molds around the QB’s strengths. Weis is known for having a sharp football mind, strong quarterback development skills, and the ability to call plays while managing multiple responsibilities. During his time at Ole Miss, his offenses consistently ranked among the best in the SEC in total offense, passing efficiency, and scoring.
Defensive coordinator Blake Baker is a holdover from the Brian Kelly staff at LSU who returns for his third season. His presence provides some much-needed continuity on that side of the ball.
Baker’s philosophy focuses on aggression, physicality, and mindset. He wants a defense that plays with a nasty attitude, swarms to the football, and creates constant pressure and turnovers. Baker’s defenses are physical, opportunistic, and built to create havoc while maintaining discipline.
Baker likes to work with alignments that disrupt the vision of opposing quarterbacks. He’ll show one look and then throw something quite different at the opposing offense to try and force mistakes.
Quarterback Preview
Going into the fall, LSU’s quarterback room had a complete overhaul. The leading candidate to be the starter is redshirt junior Sam Leavitt (6-2, 216), a transfer from Arizona State who missed spring practice recovering from November foot surgery but is back at full speed. Redshirt freshman Husan Longstreet (6-1, 195), a transfer from USC, is the other option. Both are mobile, experienced quarterbacks who fit Kiffin’s tempo-based, spread attack. Whoever takes snaps will be asked to push the ball downfield early and often.
Leavitt throws with excellent velocity and accuracy on deep passes. He can drive the ball to both sidelines and fits throws into tight windows downfield. He’s elusive outside the pocket and can make off-platform throws while moving. Extremely careful with the football, he had very low interception numbers in his time at Arizona State, throwing nine picks in 20 total starts for the Sun Devils.
Where does Leavitt need work? He’s inconsistent on short and intermediate throws and has a history of injuries. One thing that new Vols coordinator Jim Knowles will certainly know about Leavitt going in is that the QB can struggle to read defenses quickly and tends to get happy feet or bail too early from clean pockets. Look for Knowles to bring pressure.
Key Offensive Player
Junior TE Trey’Dez Green (6-7, 237) is one of the top returning playmakers at his position in the Southeastern Conference. That’s probably why he was voted first-team tight end on the preseason All-SEC team released during SEC Media Days. Green is a dynamic player with physical matchup problems for defenders and should be a major focal point in Kiffin’s offense. In 2025 he logged 33 catches for 433 yards and seven touchdowns.
With long arms and a basketball background, Green creates massive mismatches. He has surprising speed and can stretch the field like a wide receiver while still being a nightmare in the red zone. He’s very difficult to tackle after the catch. In 2025, 176 of his 433 receiving yards came after contact, and he often required multiple defenders to bring him down. He already holds the LSU career record for receiving touchdowns by a tight end with 11.
As an overall tight end prospect, he needs to work on his run blocking and route running but Kiffin won’t let those weaknesses keep a weapon like Green off the field.
Key Defensive Player
Senior Edge Princewill Umanmielen (6-4, 244), a transfer from Ole Miss, is a veteran pass rusher who brings size, length, and production off the edge. Another first-team All-SEC preseason choice, Umanmielen is expected to be one of the leaders on Baker’s defensive front. He was tied for third in the SEC with 9.0 sacks in 2025.
With an explosive first step and burst, Umanmielen possesses elite linear explosion off the snap, which allows him to beat offensive tackles consistently. He uses his long arms and raw physicality to overpower blockers, stack them at the point of attack, and create disruption. He can play multiple alignments, pursues well, and plays with high effort and instincts.
On the other hand, he can be one-dimensional and overly aggressive at times. He needs to develop better counters, hand usage, and a more diverse set of moves. He excels in pass defense but still struggles to set the edge against the run, which has him leaving the field in certain short yardage situations.
X-Factor
Can Leavitt stay healthy? He was a highly coveted quarterback in the transfer portal for a reason – Tennessee came after him hard, and Leavitt actually was in Knoxville when he finalized his commitment to Kiffin and the Tigers. With Leavitt at full strength and full speed, LSU could live up to the hype. Without him… ?
The Schedule
This is a classic late-season SEC showdown with major implications for both teams’ postseason hopes. Tennessee will look to send its seniors out with a big win at home, while Kiffin tries to make a statement in his first year at LSU. The Vols return home after a tough road game against the Aggies but LSU will have just come off of two tough home games against Alabama and Texas.
How the Tigers Can Win
LSU wins by leaning on its speed and tempo on offense, spreading Tennessee’s defense thin, and letting Blake Baker’s unit create negative plays and turnovers. Meanwhile, if LSU gets efficient quarterback play and the skill guys get into space, Kiffin’s offense can be very difficult to stop.
How the Tigers Can Lose
LSU loses if the back-to-back games with Alabama and Texas leave the Tigers worn down. Or if the offensive transition is rocky, turnovers plague the new quarterback, and Tennessee’s tempo attack wears down a defense that’s still finding its identity. If Neyland Stadium gets rocking early, Kiffin’s group might not be able to handle the hostile environment.
Prediction: LSU 42, Tennessee 40
This is going to be a high-scoring, chaotic night in Neyland Stadium. Tennessee’s electric home atmosphere provides plenty of incentive, but LSU counters with a new offense that should have plenty of explosive play potential. The young secondary could have communication issues against Kiffin’s fast-tempo and motion-heavy attack, especially if the Tigers get caught out of position.
Still, there’s just something about Kiffin where he finds a way to win when his opponents are emotional. The current staff and players at Tennessee are removed from the drama of him leaving Knoxville – which was more than 16 years ago, somehow – but beating Kiffin still means plenty to the Vol fans. If a crowd could ever will a team to victory, it will be for this game against this opponent. It shapes up as one of the most entertaining games of the entire season.
Predicted Vols Record: 8-3 (5-3)