BATON ROUGE — LSU football head coach Lane Kiffin spoke to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge at Tiger Stadium on Wednesday.

Before his address, Kiffin was gifted a "Peace Pole" by Rotary members and was proceeded by a small brass band playing LSU fan favorites. 

Kiffin said the last time he was in the room was when he was announced as head coach of the Tigers. 

"It's been a crazy and wild seven months," he said. 

Kiffin, who left Ole Miss to come to LSU in 2026, thanked the community for its warmth, saying the kindness of Baton Rouge is helping his recruiting. 

"They say, 'Wow, it was amazing going around the university, going around the town and feeling so welcome,'" Kiffin said. "Whether it was at the hotel they stayed at, whether it was at the different restaurants that they went to. And that everybody knew who they were, and everybody was excited about the potential of them coming here. They felt a really home feeling, even though they're on their visit for 48 hours."

Everyone has different draws to LSU. Kiffin said some defensive players chose to stick around specifically to be coached by defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who is heading into his third season with the Tigers. 

"A number of those players probably would have went into the portal," he said. "He's done a great job with these guys. The players love to play for him and we have a really good defensive staff."

On the other side of the ball, LSU's offensive staff was overhauled. Kiffin brought in offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., along with 10 other coaches from Ole Miss. 

"That's important to me, because it worked," he said, getting a laugh from the crowd. 

After leading the Rebels through a historic 11-1 season, Kiffin left the program while his players were in the postseason playoffs to take the position at LSU. The public breakup sparked legislation that would prohibit coaches from leaving a team to take a new job in the middle of a season. 

Kiffin discussed a different change to the league: name, image and likeness. He said NIL rules and payment of players are changing the game to resemble professional football, but without the contracts that work to lock players in. 

"That's the world that we live in. With money comes other things. And so with money now, makes it more like the NFL, decisions have to be made and players are basically cut nowadays. I know they don't use that word, but that's really what happens around the country as you come into this world where they have the portal."

The coach said his staff has moved in stride with the new era, having some coaches specifically watching high school and other college players throughout the year to build something that resembles a draft board and a free agent board. 

"If you just try to coach the old school way, you'll get left behind in that." 

"It's really critical that we can develop the depth in our team. Not just the front-line guys, so that we can play well from week to week and rotate guys. This is an extremely physical schedule."

Kiffin is set to coach his first game as the Tigers' head coach on Sept. 5 against the Clemson Tigers in Death Valley. That game will air on WBRZ, with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.