Josh Pate Identifies the Biggest Wild Card in 2026 College Football Season

Josh Pate believes this SEC program fields the most unpredictable team ahead of the 2026 season.

Jul 23, 2026; Tampa, FL, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin speaks to the press during SEC Football Kickoff Media Day at the Tampa Marriott. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Controversy surrounded LSU the moment it hired Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin was in the midst of coaching Ole Miss to a College Football Playoff run before he took the job with the Rebels' archrival. Many criticized Kiffin for his poorly timed exit, while others defended him by emphasizing the need to correct the college football calendar to avoid this poor timing.

The off-field controversy is still raging in late July as Ole Miss works to secure buyouts of defensive end Princewill Umanmielen and offensive lineman Devin Harper, both of whom signed NIL extensions with the Rebels before joining Kiffin in Baton Rouge.

Projecting the Tigers' 2026 fate also yields controversial results. Many across the college football media landscape are confident in LSU to take a step forward in 2026, but not confident enough to call it a contender to win the SEC in Kiffin's first year on the job.

College football media personality Josh Pate echoed that sentiment on a recent edition of "Bussin With the Boys" with Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, classifying the Tigers as a major wild card entering the 2026 season.

Why does Pate believe LSU is a wild card?

There is always skepticism surrounding teams that acquire the majority of their starting talent from the transfer portal.

That skepticism has begun to quiet down in the wake of Indiana's national championship victory with a roster full of portal acquisitions, but coaches still have to be sharp in their talent evaluation. Lane Kiffin did not reach the same heights as Curt Cignetti while at Ole Miss, but he crafted four teams that won 10 or more games that were full of portal additions.

"(With) any portal-heavy team, you're always going to ask 'How does this talent mesh together?'" Pate said. "It feels like that's a little bit of an overused doubting point these days. It's going to work to some degree, I think."

The gelling process can last several few weeks into the season. Kiffin's 2024 Ole Miss team is a perfect example; the Rebels were unchallenged in non-conference play but underwent a growing pain in the form of a loss to Kentucky to end September.

"Is this the kind of team that needs a long runway to get up to speed? Because they don't really have it," Pate said. "They play three losable games in their first four weeks. I count Clemson as a losable game (because) you have no idea what Week 1 could bring."

The other "losable" games in the first month of the season are at Ole Miss and at home against Texas A&M. Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will be nothing short of a hornet's nest after Kiffin's messy exit at the end of November, and the Tigers are looking to get back to their winning ways against the Aggies in Death Valley after a total meltdown last season.