Lane Kiffin’s telling lack of focus is exactly what Texas A&M needs for LSU matchup

Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford for LSU’s week three matchup with the Ole Miss Rebels has long been circled on every single college football fan’s calendar as one of the biggest games of this season— and it was a game that lived up to the hype in every single way. Now, though, the Tigers are getting ready to take on a reeling Texas A&M Aggies team in Baton Rouge this week— but LSU’s head man may still be living a little bit in the past.

While the Aggies have their own regrets from this previous weekend— a heck of a lot of them, as a matter of fact— it really seems like this A&M program has done what they can to flush those and move on. Kiffin, on the other hand, has been doing a little bit of carrying on about what went down this past weekend in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium— and I can’t help but wonder if that’s a little bit telling about his current mental state.

The sniping between the Rebel and Tiger fanbases has continued into this week as well, and there was an eye-catching interchange from one of these back-and-forth that well summarized just what the vibe has been with Kiffin this week. Take a look at this post from Brennon Chapman about Kiffin’s words in his public appearances this week:

This is him returning fire to an LSU fan, yes, but where the Aggies’ staff has treated their loss to Kentucky as a wake-up call to what they need to do to get this season back on track, it seems like LSU— the fanbase and the program, if Kiffin is anything to judge by— has been hung up on missed opportunities against the Rebels.

Lane Kiffin’s focus may still be in the past despite huge game vs Texas A&M this weekend

Kiffin called the game against Ole Miss their “Super Bowl” a few days ago. He’s been making complaints about things that happened in that game all week. That doesn’t exactly sound like a guy who is locked in.

Elko was asked about several things having to do with last week’s game in his presser, of course, but he’s clearly been pretty forward-looking in his overall demeanor after Saturday. In one sense, you can’t blame him— that’s not a game that any Aggie fan or coach would want to dwell on for a long period of time— but while he’s looking to fix what went wrong, he’s not hung up on what happened in that game.

Is this a surefire, knock down, drag out certainty that the Aggies are going to come out with their collective hair on fire while the Tigers will be lethargic? No, not with certainty. It’s a distinct possibility that that’s what we see— and this seems like a point in favor of that theory— but Kiffin is also a guy that has had his team playing pretty well in the last few years despite the distractions that he himself often manufactures.

If nothing else, though, it’s a moment that we could look back on late Saturday night, if the Aggies do win, as a herald of what was coming up. It’s a point for Aggie fans who are looking for any kind of optimism heading into a game that no one in the nation expects them to win.

The timing of this game for the Aggies relative to LSU’s trip to Oxford has been a talking point for me since this schedule came out— it’s never easy to win in Death Valley, but it’s obviously easier if the home team is distracted or going through the motions. That’s what happened with Kentucky in Kyle Field last week— is it what is going to happen this weekend for the Aggies in Tiger Stadium? We’ll have to wait and see, but at least to this point, Kiffin certainly isn’t projecting as a coach who is zeroed in on this upcoming opponent— hopefully, that’s where his team is mentally, as well.

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