LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin was one of the most active coaches in the transfer portal after controversially leaving Ole Miss to take the Tigers’ job in November last year. Kiffin flipped the Tigers’ roster, losing 34 players while bringing in 41 players to secure the No. 1-ranked portal class in the country.
Amid the topsy-turvy coaching carousel last year, college football had to deal with a frenzied transfer portal in January after the spring portal was canceled and limited to a single window this year.
Why Analyst David Pollack Blasted Lane Kiffin’s Transfer Portal Idea
On Tuesday, Kiffin, who was reportedly one of the biggest spenders in the January window, called for the return of the spring transfer portal, especially to help first-year coaches recalibrate their rosters in time for the season.
During Wednesday’s segment of the “See Ball, Get Ball” podcast, analyst David Pollack blasted Kiffin’s portal idea, outlining the various ways that it could fail in the current college football environment.
“Here’s the thing, I get it and Lane is the portal king regardless and his budget was unlimited this year and God bless LSU, but no, nobody wants this,” Pollack said. “Lane does and maybe some coaches do, but again, do we want this madness? How does this work? They can go pillage other rosters and nobody else can replenish their rosters?
“If I’m Lane Kiffin, of course, if I’m a new coach, I want some of that. Lane, love you bud, but I’m not on board with that. I want one transfer window. The moment we open this box, we get more and more confusing. We want more consistency and guys staying in the same spot.”
According to On3, 3,647 student-athletes entered the chaotic transfer portal in January, with 75% committing to new programs and 1.7% withdrawing their names and returning to their original programs.
In the past, coaches bemoaned the presence of the spring portal, leading several elite teams to cancel their spring games due to poaching concerns after completing spring practices and settling on their rosters.
How Lane Kiffin Justifies an Extra Transfer Portal Window in College Football
While speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kiffin justified the return of two transfer portals to college football to differentiate the sport from the NFL.
“You’ve got to look at it more like old college football, not the NFL,” Kiffin said. “Which, otherwise, it’s become like the NFL, meaning you’re moving through free agency trying to improve your roster, where the old college way was this is what you had, period. There was no portal, and you’ve got to develop those guys.”
After being a slick operator in the age of NIL and open transfers colliding, Kiffin earned the moniker “portal king,” and he showed off his nous once again when he managed to convince four former Rebels players to ditch Oxford for Baton Rouge after his messy Ole Miss exit.
