LSU’s quarterback search has been one of the most fascinating storylines of this portal season. When the Tigers hired Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss, the assumption was that LSU would become a go-to destination for quarterbacks based on Kiffin’s stellar track record coaching the position.
Kiffin and the Tigers will still probably land a high-end quarterback, but they’re going to end up taking quite a circuitous path to get there.
Who started for LSU in 2025?
Redshirt senior Garrett Nussmeier opened the season as the starter and was expected to lead the Tigers to the College Football Playoff, but the offense was a mess and Nussmeier dealt with an abdominal injury that hampered his play.
Head coach Brian Kelly was fired in late October, and Nussmeier played in just one more game because of the injury.
Sophomore Michael Van Buren started the final four games of the season, including a Texas Bowl loss to Houston, but his play did nothing to suggest he’d be a legitimate contender for the role next season. And once Kiffin was hired, there were no guarantees for Van Buren’s future because the new staff had no ties to him.
Van Buren entered the transfer portal last week.
Who were Kiffin’s initial targets?
It wouldn’t have been a surprise if Kiffin had brought Ole Miss starter Trinidad Chambliss along with him to Baton Rouge after the two teamed up for the best regular season in program history. In recent years, it has become common for coach-quarterback tandems to switch locations, including this offseason with Matt Campbell and Rocco Becht at Penn State and Eric Morris and Drew Mestemaker at Oklahoma State.
But the Rebels stunned Georgia in the Sugar Bowl last Thursday — without Kiffin, who left for LSU at the end of the regular season — to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff semifinals. And on Monday, Chambliss announced he’d return to Ole Miss in 2026, pending an NCAA waiver that would grant him an extra year of eligibility.
Cincinnati transfer Brendan Sorsby is the No. 1 quarterback in The Athletic’s transfer portal rankings. Even though the prevailing thought was that Sorsby, a Texas native, would end up at Texas Tech, LSU still hosted him on a visit over the weekend.
It wasn’t enough to land Sorsby, though, who signed with Texas Tech.
Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt is the No. 2 quarterback in The Athletic’s rankings. He was the starter on the Sun Devils’ 2024 Big 12 championship team and figured to be highly coveted during this transfer window since his intent to leave Arizona State became public in mid-November.
Leavitt visited Kentucky this past weekend and was on LSU’s campus on Tuesday. He’s experienced and possesses the athleticism Kiffin clearly valued from his quarterbacks while he was the head coach at Ole Miss.
Leavitt was seen sitting courtside next to Kiffin on Tuesday night at LSU’s men’s basketball game against South Carolina.
Things seemed to be lining up well until …
The Demond Williams circus
While Leavitt was at the LSU basketball game, Washington sophomore quarterback Demond Williams, who passed for 3,065 yards, rushed for 611 and accounted for 31 total touchdowns in his first year as the starter, announced that he intends to enter the transfer portal.
The Athletic reported that Williams had already signed a deal with Washington to return for his junior season and that the program has no intention of releasing Williams from his contract. Williams is not in the portal yet, and this situation could result in legal action.
Demond Williams Jr. averaged 282.8 yards of total offense in 2025. (Troy Wayrynen / Imagn Images)
It’s very, very, very difficult to envision a scenario in which Williams is the Huskies’ starting quarterback next fall, though. The two sides appear well past the point of no return.
Kiffin and new LSU offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. recruited Williams heavily in high school, and he was committed to Ole Miss from December 2022 to July 2023.
He eventually flipped and signed with Arizona and coach Jedd Fisch in December 2023. Williams followed his coach to Washington a month later when Fisch took the head coaching job in Seattle.
If you want more signs pointing toward Williams heading to LSU, Leavitt is reportedly visiting Tennessee Wednesday.
Williams has immense potential, but most of his best games have come against Group of 5 opponents and bad Big Ten defenses. He struggled against the best defenses he faced (Ohio State, Oregon and Michigan) and in a stunning loss to Wisconsin, which finished in the top 40 nationally in scoring defense despite a 4-8 record.
Kiffin has done a great job developing his quarterbacks, whether it was Matt Corral, Jaxson Dart or Chambliss, who went from a Division II transfer and backup quarterback to an overnight sensation.
It hasn’t been the most linear path, but Kiffin might be on the verge of finally finding the quarterback who will take the first snap when his LSU tenure begins against Clemson Sept. 5.
