Lane Kiffin brings another veteran SEC coach to LSU

LSU head coach Lane Kiffin locked in another on-field staffer, and he’s an SEC veteran tasked with rebuilding a key position in Baton Rouge.

There was arguably no unit that struggled more for the Tigers across a 7-5 season than the offensive line.

It’s a position group coached by longtime LSU assistant Brad Davis, and considered an area expertise for one of college football’s winningest coaches Brian Kelly.

In late-October, Kelly was fired.

Now, it appears Davis is on his way out and Kiffin is bringing in former Kentucky offensive line coach Eric Wolford, The Bengal Tiger staff confirmed.

Kentucky parted ways with head coach Mark Stoops, and despite Wolford being the third highest-paid assistant on the UK staff at $900,000 per year, he was one just a one-year contract with the Wildcats.

Now, the transition from Lexington to Baton Rouge has been given the green light.

Wolford has been an SEC offensive line coach since 2017, which included four season at South Carolina from 2017-20 before spending the 2021 season with the Wildcats.

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban offered him the same job with the Tide, and Wolford left Kentucky for Tuscaloosa. He spent the next two seasons working as the Crimson Tide offensive line coach until Saban’s retirement following the 2023-24 season.

Stoops hired Wolford back at Kentucky ahead of the 2024 season, where he has coached the offensive line for the Wildcats since.

Kiffin secured Blake Baker as the program’s defensive coordinator despite heavy interest from multiple schools to potentially become a head coach, and in turn locked up much of an LSU defensive staff that improved the unit in a major way this past season.

On offense, Wolford is just part of the shakeup.

When Kiffin flew to Baton Rouge from Oxford a week ago to begin his first day as LSU Football’s new head coach, he was joined by a handful of staff members, including four assistant coaches from the Ole Miss offense.

The Advocate’s Wilson Alexander report of signed term sheets for the four on-field coaches brought the first news of what LSU’s new-look staff might look like, and though official titles have not been released by LSU’s Athletics Department, it’s likely the assistants remain in similar roles in Baton Rouge.

The coaches with the first term sheets signed: Offensive Coordinator Charlie Weiss Jr., Tight Ends Coach/Co-Offensive Coordinator Joe Cox, Passing Game Coordinator George McDonald, and Inside Wide Receivers Coach Sawyer Jordan.

Later in the week, Kiffin added Ole Miss Passing Game Specialist Dane Stevens to the staff in Baton Rouge, per multiple reports. Reports also surfaced earlier in the week of Kiffin’s plans to hire Wolford.

LSU has not announced any of the hires by Kiffin, and there have been no reports yet as to the plans for a running backs coach. LSU’s current running backs coach is Frank Wilson, who is also serving as interim head coach through the program’s Texas Bowl matchup with Houston on December 27.

*** Read about Lane Kiffin’s entire staff that’s in place after Week 1 at LSU ***