LSU spent the offseason gutting its roster and just blew the doors off Clemson in the opener — now Louisiana Tech comes to Baton Rouge to find out how real the new-look Tigers are.
+Portal-built roster already looked cohesive early
−Leavitt making just his 2nd start for the program
−40-plus new roster faces still building chemistry
−Unproven against anyone besides an overmatched Clemson start
Sam Leavitt gets his second start under center for LSU on Saturday, September 12, and the early returns from the opener were about as loud as a debut gets. The transfer, who came over from Arizona State still working back from a season-ending ankle injury, was a full go throughout fall camp and looked the part in a 51-10 rout of Clemson. Louisiana Tech, in its first season as a Sun Belt member, walks into Tiger Stadium off its own statement win — an 80-6 demolition of Northwestern State that's being called the biggest season-opening margin in program history.
Neither performance tells you much about this specific matchup. Clemson is a Power 4 opponent and Northwestern State is an FCS team, so both sides are still waiting on their first real signal of who they are in 2026. For LSU, that means finding out whether an offense stitched together from more than 40 portal additions under first-year coach Lane Kiffin holds up against a defense that isn't overmatched before the ball is snapped. For Louisiana Tech, it means discovering just how big a jump it is from the Southland-caliber roster it hung 80 on to a top-15 SEC team.
The number Vegas has hung on this one reflects exactly that gap — a market that has already decided the Bulldogs are here to cash a paycheck, not steal a game. That's the backdrop for a Tigers team that enters No. 11 in the country and hasn't had to sweat much of anything through one week.
Louisiana Tech's staff turned over its offensive coordinator job to Nathan Young this offseason and handed the keys to junior quarterback Jaden Miller over returning starter Trey Kukuk. Up front, the Bulldogs bring back some size — a 331-pound left tackle in Hayden Christman and a 312-pound guard in Ashanti Cole — but a first-year Sun Belt roster is still finding its identity, and passing efficiency has historically been the soft spot in Sonny Cumbie's offenses even with talent at the position. None of that got stress-tested against an FCS defense.
LSU's roster overhaul is the bigger story of the season regardless of what happens Saturday, but games like this are where a rebuilt program either looks the part or exposes its seams. A clean, healthy week for the Tigers against an outmatched Sun Belt newcomer is the expected script — the more interesting question is whether Leavitt and the new-look offense look sharp doing it, or whether the cracks that a ranked opponent could exploit later this month start to show against lesser competition first.
