Less than two weeks after Lane Kiffin’s abrupt departure from Ole Miss to become LSU’s head coach, Kiffin has moved quickly to assemble his Tigers staff.
Kiffin accepted LSU’s offer on November 30 and left Ole Miss before the Rebels’ College Football Playoff; that timing triggered institutional pushback and a coaching reshuffle in Oxford.
Kiffin himself brought key Ole Miss staffers with him to Baton Rouge, including offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., tight ends coach Joe Cox, wide receivers coach George McDonald, assistant quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens, and slot receivers coach Sawyer Jordan.
Now, LSU is adding another reputable SEC figure, Joe Houston, the former Florida special-teams analyst and ex-Alabama analyst under Nick Saban.
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A former USC kicker who moved into coaching, Houston spent significant early years at Iowa State (including a 2018 season as special-teams coordinator), worked as a special-teams analyst at Alabama in 2019, coached in New England from 2020-23 and then joined Florida as a senior analyst in 2024 before being elevated to run special teams.
He’s been credited with helping Florida’s late-season push and wins over ranked opponents during his tenure.
LSU’s new head coach needs assistants who can recruit regionally and coach in a conference where field position, kicking, and return play routinely decide close games.
Houston’s NFL resume and SEC experience add credibility in player development and in selling pro pathways to recruits — valuable currency during a staff transition and a busy transfer-portal window.
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Kiffin and Saban have a well-documented, consequential partnership that began when Kiffin served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator and helped lead the Tide to a national championship in 2015.
Before Kiffin took the LSU job, reports say he reached out to Nick Saban and Pete Carroll, and Saban has since addressed his advisory role.
Houston’s hiring is not splashy headline-making in the way a coordinator hire would be, but it is precisely the kind of hire that matters during turbulence.
In the short term, it helps smooth the transition and contributes to Kiffin’s broader project to rebuild LSU’s roster and on-field consistency in a swift, high-stakes SEC landscape.
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