Lane Kiffin Believes This LSU Football Staffer Was a 'No-Brainer' to Keep With Tigers

Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers continue navigating a chaotic offseason in Baton Rouge with the program being rebuilt from top to button under new leadership.

LSU has reconstructed the roster with over 60 newcomers joining the program along with a slew of coaches making their way to the Bayou State with a star-studded coaching staff now assembled.

Once Kiffin accepted the head coaching gig at LSU, he brought over multiple offensive staffers from Ole Miss while also retaining critical staffers on defense - headlined by coordinator Blake Baker and secondary coach Corey Raymond.

Across the 2025 season under Baker's watch at LSU, he brought the Tigers into the Top-25 of total defense while also sitting among the Top-15 in turnovers gained with 21 in total over 12 games this fall.

LSU’s defense ranked in the top half of the SEC across the 2025 campaign after allowing 319.7 yards per game.

Bakers unit also held teams to 18.3 points on average, which ranked fourth in the conference.

LSU Tigers Football: Blake Baker. — Courtesy of Blake Baker's Instragram.

Kiffin dove into the importance of having Raymond and Baker in Baton Rouge as the new era unfolds this offseason.

Kiffin's Take: Corey Raymond a 'No Brainer'

"I think consistency. You know, they played well when we'd played in the last two years on defense. I look at things in the big picture and say, 'Okay, well you knew where the defense was three years ago. To see what Blake came in and was able to do in that first year of changing that and how dramatically that shifted, that's good coaching.'

"I thought it was important to keep him. I'd always liked him, always heard good things about him, even talked about him somewhere else we were at and had conversations with him before. Corey, that's just a no-brainer. When you're able to recruit people to someone, Saban used to say this— to me.

"Even if they're older and they coach these certain players along the way, they become really easy to recruit to. So Corey, you get a really unique combination because you have somebody you can recruit to that has had great players after great players, after great players. But then somebody that also still recruits that way. It's a really good combination.

"If I get in front of a corner, I get to say, 'Hey, you get to go play for him.' But then he recruits the same way that he did 20 years ago. The reason why I keep signing great players is they want to come play for them. That was an easy one.

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