Lane Kiffin's LSU Football is READY to go 2-0 with ANOTHER DOMINANT VICTORY vs LA Tech | w Zack Nagy

Saying they're bad for the sport, they're the bad boys, which I think they should embrace. I think having that villain role is absolutely incredible. Zach, good morning. Thank you for joining us. Yeah, man. Appreciate y'all for having me on. Obviously pretty crazy the last couple of days in Baton Rouge, with everything that's going on with the SEC and all the legal battles, and then panning back to a crazy night in Tiger Stadium last Saturday night. Crazy stretch. Excited to talk about it with you guys. Yeah, we're going to focus a lot on football this morning, finally, but I do want to just get one question out of the way. The way yesterday panned out, with the lawsuit being continued, and then expulsion being taken off the agenda, what was your reaction to all of that? Were you surprised at all on how it played out from the SEC standpoint? You know, I think at the end of the day, the thought of LSU getting kicked out of the SEC just never seemed realistic, in my opinion, and I think that you guys would probably say the same thing, right? Like, it just didn't seem realistic to actually happen. And at the end of the day, you know, the saying, cooler heads prevail, and you know, all this and that. I mean, I think that's what we're seeing here. Once Lane Kiffin didn't roster those two guys last Friday, you kind of thought that things would start to de-escalate, and then Tuesday, you see them amend this lawsuit, where they're trying to seek authority to kick LSU out of the SEC. I mean, it was madness. It seemed like right when things were starting to be on the uptrend, the SEC came in and made things a little crazier again, and then you saw all these other statements and whatnot come out, and at the end of the day, the right thing happened. LSU didn't roster the guys. I guess that's the right thing. I don't know. It depends on who you ask. I think those guys certainly deserve an opportunity to play football, but, you know, Lane Kiffin and the university didn't roster them. The SEC and LSU came to terms on this, and the right thing happened at the end of the day. So I'm glad to talk actual football. It's been a crazy last couple of weeks, and LSU has a damn title contender on their hands right now, and whether you added Daquan Wright and David Harris or not, you have all the talent in the world to work with, and I think it's a really exciting time in Baton Rouge, and the talent was on full display, and, you know, you would have loved to have had those guys, but at the end of the day, this roster is absolutely elite. Is it interesting to you that going into Saturday, the conversation around the game was, you know, LSU might be distracted, and Clemson, you know, cleaned up some of their issues from a year ago and has put this together and all these things and he's trying to, you know, boost Clemson up and maybe count LSU out a little bit. I mean, Stephen A. went on air and said LSU wins 31 to 30 because of the crowd and home field advantage, and then after Saturday transpires, it is, well, I mean, obviously Clemson's just really bad and they can't keep up with the times and all these things. Is it intriguing to you at all that that's kind of how it's played out pre and post that 51 to 10 performance? Well, it's hilarious, man. Like, the national pundits are coming out and saying this, that, and the other. Before the game, like you said, they were talking crap on Lane Kiffin's name, talking about LSU, saying this, that, and the other, you know, saying they're bad for the sport, they're the bad boys, which I think they should embrace. I think that's awesome. You know, I think having that villain role is absolutely incredible. But to what you're saying, like, yeah, you know, this is something where the national pundits were coming out and talking crap on LSU's name. Fast forward to them going and taking down Clemson, you got some people like Stephen A., like you said, saying it's a horrible Clemson team. You have other people saying that LSU has the best roster in college football. You have Robert Griffin III saying they're the best team in college football. I mean, it's such a wide variety of national perspectives here. And all of them, you know, are pretty much true, in my opinion. You know, I think Clemson is a really bad football team. But I don't think that takes much away from the preparation that LSU had going into that game. You know, like you said, everybody thought they were going to be distracted, or this, that, and the other. And they were locked the hell in. I mean, two-hour weather delay. It didn't even matter. They were ready to go. And they looked sharp in pretty much every facet of the game. You take away that Sam Leavitt interception, they were pretty much flawless. There's some improvement in the passing game that they have to do, of course. But, man, that team looked dialed in. And it's funny seeing these national pundits coming out and making their statements now after that one. And the crowd, right? That atmosphere in that stadium after the rain delay and the buildup for this game. And the rain delay happens, and you're later, about two hours later than you should have been kickoff-wise. But it didn't make that crowd flinch once. Then there's an interception on the first drive. They still don't flinch. Talk about the atmosphere and kind of how impressed you were with what the Death Valley crowd pulled off. Yeah, man. It was the type of thing where you're sitting there and you're waiting for this pregame warm-up to start. You're waiting for the recruits to start taking the sideline. And all the typical pregame buzz that happens at Tiger Stadium. And you have this lightning delay, and everybody's sitting back and waiting, waiting, waiting. And then you see this torrential downpour. Man, it was a movie. I mean, you're sitting there, and everybody clears out of the stadium except for the student section in the corner of the stadium. I mean, they're jam-packed from top to bottom like sardines sitting there waving shirts, waving towels. And it's a torrential downpour, dude. It was an absolute mess, but they didn't move. Purple Rain by Prince was playing, and they were sitting there singing, dancing, doing that. I think it was awesome, and it set the stage for a really exciting night in Tiger Stadium. So I think the players fed off of it. I think the coaches fed off of it. And then once the kind of downpouring stuff stopped, the entire stadium packed up like everybody thought it would, 102,000-plus waiting for Lane Kiffin's debut. And it was an absolute movie. I think that that's a historic, historic night in Death Valley and one that I think a lot of people are going to talk about for a very, very long time. And from the recruiting standpoint, could it have gone any better with all of the football recruits they had in that stadium for the on-the-field and the off-the-field, the spectacle that it was to kind of all play out the way it did? Yeah, no, I'll tell you this. I mean, it's been rave reviews. We caught up with probably 35 different prospects that were in attendance, and one of them was Ahmad Hudson. I caught up with him on Sunday afternoon at length and just talking about the environment, the coaching staff, the new-look offense, trade-as-green in that offense, the opportunity to talk with Will Wade, who was also in attendance. You know, all these different things about the weekend was just sensational. So, Ahmad Hudson, you know, that conversation went extremely well. I mean, this is a guy who's locked in. I think there's a lot of buzz with Nebraska, as there will be until signing day. But at the end of the day, I think LSU, in my opinion, remains in position to get his signature. The opportunity to play in Louisiana, play in Baton Rouge, represent the Purple and Gold seems like it means a lot to him. So, the conversations with him after last weekend were fantastic. Look at the other recruits as well that were in attendance. You know, some quotes were that they haven't seen an environment like that before. Death Valley was rocking. You know, the saying, just different is real. You know, it just continued on and on and on with rave reviews about the environment, about the coaching staff, about the performance. And that's something that Lane Kiffin said would come to fruition if everything that they worked for became a reality. And that was winning is the number one priority, but winning in style and developing that swagger is also extremely important because that's what recruits want to come and play for. So, it became a reality. Everything that he said, Noah, was real. I mean, he was sitting there talking about getting the win was important, winning in style, and recruits would want to come. And that's absolutely true. You know, you got the win, you won in style, and these recruits are ready to roll. I mean, they are absolutely salivating at the potential of this program. And from the standpoint of Lane Kiffin, I think we all knew Lane Kiffin was a great X and O's offensive mind. He could build rosters. He could put teams together. He dominated the transfer portal. But there was something that came out that showed you maybe a different side of Coach Kiffin. My question to you is both from your viewpoint, just as someone that's paying attention to this program and maybe learning about Lane Kiffin as we all are, to hear him give that halftime speech in the manner in which he did and see a different side of him. What does it say to you? And then also what does it say to recruits that are maybe seeing the same video on social media? Yeah, he's a badass. I mean, there's no other way to put it. I mean, he is a badass guy. And I think something that we got to talk to the players about this week, like Winnie Watkins and Tamarcus Cooley, Prince William, I mean, Yellen, on Tuesday, was how do you balance the fun and the chaos and everything else and then put the preparation on top of it with Lane Kiffin? And they said that he's pretty much all business, man. Like, you know, you see a lot of the different fun things that keeps them dialed in. But they're always prepared and ready to roll. And we saw that on Saturday. So, you know, you're up 31-3. You're crushing Clemson in every facet of the game going to halftime. And Lane Kiffin is saying pretty much put a foot on their throat and crush them like a bug. Let's go. And I think that's the mentality that LSU has always had. It's vintage LSU, you know, to have that type of mentality, to go out and kill. And I think that that's what we're starting to see now with Lane Kiffin at the helm of the program, man. I don't think we've seen it in a while, so it seems kind of new and fresh. But, man, I think with Lane at the helm, you're starting to see that old vintage LSU swagger back. And it was really, really cool to see that video of him at halftime, no doubt. Are the recruits in there at half? I think some of them might be, Lloyd. I don't think all of them are. But postgame, I know a lot of them are in there. Yeah, I just didn't know if they were like, holy ----, this is how it is like in college football. Like, this is real. Because I don't think anybody really expected that from Lane, and to see it become, what, 31-3? It's like, I want to put 70 up. And he wasn't messing around whenever he was talking about that kind of thing. And I do wonder if that carries over for Tech, as it seems to be everybody's kind of, for the first time in probably four years, it feels like you can almost look past Tech because you have something looming on the other end that is turning into more and more of a spectacle. And so I would imagine that the message is not going to be all fun and games for Louisiana Tech either. No, it's not. I mean, I don't think Lane's the type of guy who overlooks any opponent. So the chance to go out and crush somebody again like a bug is super important to him. And that's what you're going to see this weekend. I mean, they're going to try to go out there and make another statement and continue to tune things up. Because next weekend, the blockbuster in Oxford, we know. But the chance to go out there and get another big-time win is super important. So you're right on the money, Lloyd. I think going out there and not overlooking an opponent, but knowing that you can go in as an LSU fan and understand that they're going to handle business, it's super important. Well, with depth being, I don't want to say such an issue, but probably your primary cause for concern, I wonder, because he played Levitt longer than I thought he would. He played the starters longer than I thought he would. And then you're going for two when you're up 40. And it's like you're kind of, Levitt gets sacked, and you're like, oh God, take him out. Because what you've just seen is something that you want to see for the rest of the year. Do you think that there's a, I don't want to say a pitch count, but is there a probably proper time that Lane pulls him, or does he do the same thing again? It's like we're actually using this as a, almost a de facto practice at some point to work on real-life situations. And that's what I think he went for, too, is like, at some point, we'll have to do this. And what better time to do it against a different opponent? Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, I think there is going to be a snap count and a pitch count for a lot of these guys. You got to stay healthy. And for me, seeing Sam Levitt just get bruised up time and time again on Saturday night was not something that I wanted to keep seeing. But that's his game plan, man. Like, he wants to smoke. He reminds me so much of Jackson Dart in a way where he's going to put his shoulder down. He's going to take hits. You know, he has that type of swagger, too, and where he's going to do anything to win. So I'd love to see Sam Levitt not take as many hits this upcoming weekend. But, you know, Lloyd, to your point about the snap counts and pitch counts and this, that, and the other, yeah, I think come the second half, you're going to see a bunch of these backups and true freshmen get the chance to play in Death Valley. It's why you come here, and a lot of them might not get big-time opportunities come to SEC play. So you want to make sure they get those opportunities right now. You know, backups were not that sensational defensively on Saturday night. And, you know, the sample size is small, and the expectations are high. So that statement might not be too, too important here, but giving up that touchdown meant a lot to this coaching staff. They did not want to see that. So, again, the chance for them to go out there and get some more reps under their belt is really important. And like you said, you want to make sure your first team comes out healthy. So from a snap count, that's real. And then you want to get some big-time reps for your backups as well, so that they're seasoned for SEC play if needed. I think there is a common feeling around the LSU fan base, in that we all need to enjoy Blake Baker this season while we have him, because after that performance on Saturday night, and all the speculation, of course, the two-lane job and everything over the offseason, him choosing to come back, and then he goes out and does that, he might just have the best defense he's ever had at LSU, and is just continuing the trend upward. What did you see from that Baker defense, and what kind of statement did he and LSU make to the country? Yeah, man, they looked ridiculous, Noah. I mean, it was unbelievable. I mean, and for me, all of the buzz going into the season, to me, was talking about what the secondary can do. You know, you got Ty Benefield to Marcus Cooley over 700 snaps a season ago. Jace Thomas is emerging. And D.J. Pickett, one of the most unique unicorn type of players in college football. P.J. Woodland, who had an amazing offseason. You know, everybody was ready to talk about the secondary and what they could do, but their jerseys were pretty much clean on Saturday night. It was all about what that front seven did, with, of course, Umami Ellen and Jordan Ross holding things down on the edge, your interior defensive line being spread around really well from a snap count perspective. So, you were wreaking havoc in the backfield all night. Negative one rushing yards at half. Got over 40, you know, in garbage time in the fourth quarter from a rushing yards perspective. So, they were not allowing anything to fly in the run game. They weren't allowing Vazina or any other quarterback, for that matter, to do anything through the air. And so, for me, it was super impressive to watch that front seven dominate. I think that's the common sentiment, right? I don't think there's any other major takeaways that you can say other than they were flawless in every facet of the game. I mean, flawless. There was nothing that I can sit back and say that I would have adjusted differently other than maybe the backups giving up a touchdown in garbage time. So, if there's one negative takeaway, it's make sure that there's a better transition from your ones to your twos, which is what Prince and Umami Ellen said on Tuesday during player interviews. But other than that, no. I mean, dude, they were flawless. And I'm not trying to sit here and be this homer or anything crazy. I mean, the proof is in the product. You go look at the stat sheet. Shit. I mean, it was nuts. The numbers that they put up. I mean, it was so spread apart, too. I think your leading tackler had six tackles, and it might have been Umami Ellen for that. So, super spread around. Everybody ate. Everybody had the opportunity to thrive. And I think it's super important for Blake Baker and company. Last thing is to have Jordan Ross emerge like that. I mean, that, to me, was the takeaway of the game for me. There was buzz that Dylan Carpenter was going to come in and take his spot. Shout out Dylan Carpenter for getting a sack during that game and playing really well. But Jordan Ross was obviously the main takeaway from that game defensively. You know, multiple tackles for loss. You know, quarterback hurries, a sack, a pick six that really rejuvenated Tiger Stadium. To me, that was the biggest takeaway of the game. And this defense has a chance to probably be top five if everything clicks like it did on Saturday. When we talked to you before week one, we asked you this game outside of LSU, you were most excited to get your eyeballs on. And it just so happens that that's the opponent LSU faces next week after Louisiana Tech and Ole Miss in a trip to Oxford. And look, LSU and Lane Kiffin can't look ahead, but we're allowed to on our side. What were your thoughts watching that game Sunday? And how difficult is it to kind of, you know, from our standpoint, to not watch it with what transpired the night prior in the back of your mind? Yeah, man, I'll say this. Louisville's no slouch, by the way. Like, I want to make sure that before what I say gets taken out of context, that I don't think Louisville's a slouch. I mean, I think that they are one hell of a program. And to battle that adversity and stay in their, you know, heavyweight fight until the clock hits zero was awesome. You know, every cliche that you want to say in the book, I think Louisville meant that to a T. But I think at the same time, Noah, it's easy to sit back and say, man, LSU can really exploit that secondary. I know Sam Leavitt's passing game wasn't, you know, up to the LSU standard, the Lane Kiffin standard, and the Sam Leavitt standard, for that matter. But, man, I think that you have a chance to really exploit that secondary if all things go accordingly. And if you can get that push in the trenches like you did in the rushing attack on Saturday night, I mean, it's hard for me to not sit back and say, like, LSU has a chance to really go out there and make a statement. Earlier during the offseason, a bold prediction of mine was, you know, LSU goes to Oxford and gets a win and does this and that. But that doesn't seem that bold in my opinion anymore. I really do think that LSU has the team to go up there and compete. You know, I think Trinidad Chambliss is a dude. But at the end of the day, like, not having Charlie Weiss in his headset is going to be something that he's going to have to adjust to on the fly. I saw a tweet, you know, during that Louisville Ole Miss game saying Chambliss not having the voice of God in his headset is going to impact him. And I completely agree with that. I truthfully do. I think it's going to be an adjustment for him. So, to end the monologue, I think that Ole Miss is a really good team. I think they beat a really good team in Louisville. But LSU has a ton of defensive talent, a bunch of positional versatility that can slow down that offense. And then speaking of LSU's offense, I think you can get that passing attack clicking. And you roll into Oxford feeling pretty confident in your chances in that one. And the one part of that Ole Miss defense that I did – I was somewhat impressed with was that defensive front. I thought their front, that defensive line, did perform well. And they've got some big body strong guys up there. But at the same time, and my question to you is about that LSU offensive line. Because I felt similarly about the edge rushers for Clemson. I thought they were extremely talented. And LSU kind of made them a non-factor. Both the offensive line and Sam Levitt's ability to escape the pocket and get out and make plays. What did you think of Jordan Seaton, who I think is announcing himself as a top ten pick, in the remainder of that LSU offensive line of week one? I think they were fantastic. The proof's in the numbers. Like you said, I mean, Sam Levitt thrives in chaos. So, even if the pocket's clear, he's going to roll out and create chaos and thrive in it. Like I was saying, I mean, to do what he did in that game on the ground was ridiculous. LSU hadn't had a 100-yard rusher since October of 2024. And he had that at halftime. So, he was thriving in chaos. But to primarily stick on the offensive line, like you were asking about, Jordan Seaton comes in and wins SEC Offensive Player of the Week, his first week in the purple and gold. You look at the other guys on the left side. Bo Bortolon, in my opinion, really stood out like a sore thumb. I think everybody was sitting back waiting to see how he would perform now that he's been given the keys to the left guard spot. I thought it was awesome. Braylon Moore is the engine that allows that car to go in the trenches. And Weston Davis had a couple hiccups here and there. But, you know, it was way more consistent than we've seen in the past. Aliouba had a penalty. But at the end of the day, I'm not buying too much stock in that. I think he's a dude. So, your first team offensive line looked awesome. Not many complaints from me when you're talking about an offense that rushed for over 300 yards and then had, what, 600-plus yards total offensively. They really allowed this team to go. When you look at the running back room, which I think is probably the one that was the most, I don't want to say scrutinized, but the one that came in with the most question marks in terms of who you brought in versus who remained on the roster. And for my money, it feels like Lane Kiffin, when he makes an evaluation and his staff, they're going to get somebody for a reason. It's not just to go get the best player in the pool, or the most offensive player in the pool. It's they went and identified Dylan Jones and got him, and you saw that he was going to play. And he played a lot, and he played great. But from the rest of the running, like you saw Stacey Gage get run. But for the other guys, obviously Caden Durham, Harlan Berry, do you think this is a case-by-case basis? Or is this the way it's going to be moving forward, where they're going to be lucky to get maybe two or three carries a game? Lloyd, I think you're asking a million-dollar question. I think for me, I did not have Harlan Berry taking garbage-time snaps only on my bingo card. I didn't. I mean, everything that I led to believe going into that game, everything that I saw during fall camp, would have pointed in the direction of him being your clear-cut RB2 and ready to roll, splitting reps with Dylan Jones. I mean, Dylan Jones is your RB1. I'm not taking anything away from him. That is definitive. He was awesome. And we knew that going into that game, like you just said. Lane Kiffin identified him. They thought he could be a dude, and he's that. So we knew that with Dylan Jones. But talking about RB2, 3, or 4, I did not have Harlan Berry taking that limited amount of snaps on my bingo card. And that's nothing to take away, again, from Stacey Gage. There was intel pointing in the direction that he was going to get some snaps under his belt as well. But the limited amount of touches from Harlan Berry was what really caught me off guard. Did not have it on my bingo card. And to that last point of your question, do I think this is going to be a common theme moving forward? I don't. Part of me thinks that there's something deeper than performance-based, whether it's this, that, or the other. I don't want to speculate at all. But for me, I don't think this is going to be a common theme. I have to sit back in my mind and assume that Harlan Berry is going to get some big-time reps under his belt. And who knows? Maybe this weekend against Louisiana Tech will give him the chance to thrive and show this coaching staff, hey, I'm still here. I'm ready to roll. Let me get some big-time reps under my belt in SEC play. But, Lloyd, that was definitely the one thing offensively that caught me off guard in a big-time way. It was that running back rotation. Last thing I've got for you, you have a score prediction for what this weekend has? Dude, I mean, if they score 51 against Clemson, I mean, ----. Shit. I mean, you've got to assume they score 63 to 13. No, they're not going to score 63 to 10. You know, I think it's going to be – I'm not going to take anything away from Louisiana Tech. I mean, they scored 80 last week. They have some firepower. Right. And I'm excited to see the secondary get tested in a big-time way this weekend. You know, they've got to get their jerseys dirty at some point. Right. But I think it'll be this weekend. So 63 to 10 is probably what I'll sit with right now. I think the backups will give up some points in garbage time. But I think LSU goes out there and handles business. And a shout out to Louisiana Tech. I mean, to go ahead and have a really good performance last weekend. They have momentum in their corner. Last year, obviously, they competed really hard against LSU and Tiger Stadium. Different leadership, different quarterback, different offense. We know that this year. But, you know, they have a lot in their favor going into this one. I think Louisiana Tech is going to come in here with some juice. But I think the Tiger Stadium crowd and Lane Kiffin will shut it down pretty early. So 63 to 10 is probably what I'm going to sit with right now. There we go. Well, Zach, we appreciate you making some time for us. What do you all have going on over there with Go 24-7? Yeah, it's a lot of recruiting buzz right now. Like you were asking earlier, these recruits are raving about what Lane Kiffin is doing in this new era of LSU football. The chance to play in that offense, to see what they're doing defensively. Tiger Stadium, obviously, absolutely rocking. I mean, there needs no introduction there. So we got a lot of recruiting buzz right there. A lot of other stuff, of course, cooking right now on the team front as well. Check us out. It's $5.84 for a month for a year. A 50% off VIP special. Come check us out. Give us a little look. I don't think you'll regret it. Got a lot of stuff cooking. And then I say every time I'm on here, man, if you're not subbed to Tingle & Co., you all got to do it right now. A lot of really good stuff happening on this page right now. I'm really, really happy with what you guys have been doing, man. You all have been absolutely cooking. So, you know, obviously sub. That's a good 247. But sub to Tingle & Co., too, man. They're cooking up some really, really awesome stuff. We appreciate you, Zach, as always. And we'll talk to you again soon. Awesome, fellas. I appreciate you all. You all have a good one. Thank you. There he is, Zach Nagy.