Lane Kiffin is Loving Harlem Berry's Development at LSU

Lane Kiffin has his hands full of talented running backs in his first year as LSU head coach.

The Tigers two main running backs from last season, Harlem Berry and Caden Durham, returned for their sophomore and junior seasons respectively. After getting his toes in the water of SEC football, Berry was the starter for the final six games of the year.

He put up 491 yards on 104 carries, and will likely have a similar workload this year, but with an increase in yardage.

"I think he started to run the ball more physical," Kiffin said after practice Monday. "He had a good long touchdown run Saturday. So, I'm very excited about where he can get to."

A loaded running back room

Harlem Berry reacts after scoring a touchdown against Ole Miss in 2025 | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Berry was expected to be the starter and get most of the carries in Kiffin's offense, which will feature plenty of runs. But with all of the portal additions, running back Dilin Jones from Wisconsin has stood out and the starting job is his to lose.

"Dilin's been great. [He] really has had a great week too, and kind of taken off from where he did in the spring," Kiffin said on Aug. 10. "[Berry and Durham] still have a lot of work to go and improve. And so this is where they're at now, but we want to push them more."

Since Kiffin's comment a week ago, he might have come away from the past week and team's first scrimmage more impressed with Berry's game.

Kiffin's offenses at Ole Miss typically featured two or three main backs that shared a relatively similar amount of carries. While Jones will likely get the most, Berry and Durham will still be featured well on the field.

"I think we gotta remember Harlem's young, you know, when he got here one year and coming from a smaller league before that. And so there's some transition in that, and everybody nowadays just expects everybody to be an impact player immediately," Kiffin said Monday.

Kiffin has had to field a lot of questions about youth, but primarily focusing on the freshman defensive line trio of Deuce Geralds, Lamar Brown and Richard Anderson. He said that there is concern with trusting young players with such big roles.

Berry might have been one of the brighter spots in Saturday's scrimmage. It was closed from media viewing, but Kiffin said that the offense took a while to get going and was pressured by the defense. Berry could have been a standout on a struggling offensive unit.

Berry was not seen at practice Monday morning, along with three other Tigers. Kiffin was asked about it, and said "they both should be fine." His absence shouldn't be too much of a worry unless it gets prolonged.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google