LSU’s Plan B for Lane Kiffin hits dead end after major SEC coaching move

Lane Kiffin remains the top target for LSU to become its next head football coach, but nothing is certain in college football’s most consequential coaching shuffle, and now it appears the school’s Plan B is now off the table.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz had emerged as LSU’s best contingency plan in the event Kiffin says no, but their SEC rival has just made a bombshell a move that will prevent it.

Drinkwitz and Missouri came to terms on a new contract extension that gives the coach a raise to an average of $10.7 million per season, the school said in a statement.

Missouri was scheduled to have a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a potential new contract to keep Drinkwitz at the school, and in the process take him off LSU’s big board permanently.

Any meeting between a school and its football coach right before Thanksgiving naturally indicates a very strong desire on the part of administrators to make a major decision, one that comes when the school feels a rival could be interested in that coach.

Feeling pressure from LSU and Auburn from within the SEC, and potentially from Penn State in the Big Ten, to get their hands on Drinkwitz, Missouri wanted to move fast, and they did.

What the markets were saying

The decision by Missouri to award Drinkwitz with a new deal comes as bettors were projecting that another SEC school could realistically pounce on him.

Drinkwitz had moved into second-place behind Kiffin to become the next head coach at LSU, according to figures from the prediction market Kalshi before his extension became public.

The coach had 16 percent odds to take the position, still well behind Kiffin in first place at 70 percent, but remained a subject of interest for LSU according to reports until now.

What the analysts think

Drinkwitz was a consistent name in LSU’s head coaching search and the consensus second-best option on the table behind Kiffin.

“Popular” was the word used to describe Drinkwitz’s stature among LSU’s decision makers, according to On3 Sports.

That report also connected Drinkwitz to vacancies at Penn State and Auburn.

That popularity comes on the back of what remains a proven track record and program builder at a mid-level SEC school, success that could translate at LSU.

LSU's best backup plan?

ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy has also identified Drinkwitz as LSU’s ideal contingency plan in the event they can’t land Kiffin.

“I think Lane Kiffin is going to end up at LSU. If he doesn’t, I fully expect it to be Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri, who has done a really good job in creating offense,” McElroy said then.

“They run the football at Missouri. That’s what LSU has done traditionally very well is run the football, be good along the line of scrimmage, and then if you look at it, what Eli has done over the last six years, their defense has been excellent at times throughout the last few years.”

It’s a track record that LSU may have been interested in bringing to its sideline if for some reason Lane Kiffin moves out of the picture. That is, until Missouri beat their SEC rivals to the punch.

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