Clemson and LSU will kick off their respective 2026 seasons on Sept. 5, when the two teams face off at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

On Tuesday, first-year LSU head coach Lane Kiffin met with the media to recap his team’s spring workouts.

Kiffin was asked for his thoughts on playing a team like Clemson in the opening game – on LSU’s home field – and how that resonates with Kiffin’s players and staff as they prepare all summer for the matchup.

“Fair question. That just seems so far away from me, from a work standpoint, of how much we do every day compared to how long that is,” Kiffin said. “Really cool in that way to have an exciting premier program to open with at home. Not being on the road for a first game, that’s exciting, having never coached in here on the home side like many of our coaches. So, that’s exciting. But that’s a long ways to go.”

The 2026 opener will mark Clemson’s first trip to Baton Rouge and Clemson’s first time opening a season in an SEC venue since opening its 2016 national championship season with a 19-13 win at Auburn.

Of course, it will also be Kiffin’s first game as LSU’s head coach after he was hired this past November to replace Brian Kelly, who was fired in October. Kiffin came to LSU after guiding Ole Miss to double-digit wins four times in six years.

Kiffin joined LSU with a college head coaching career that spans 14 seasons and includes a 117-53 overall record across his previous stints at Tennessee (2009), Southern Cal (2010-13), Florida Atlantic (2017-19) and Ole Miss (2020-25). He’s had seven 10-win seasons and led teams to nine bowl appearances, while his teams have been ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll five times. In his six seasons in Oxford, Kiffin led the Rebels to six consecutive bowl games and a 55-19 record, including the first two 10-win regular seasons in program history in 2021 and 2023 and the first 11-win regular season in program history last year.

When the 2026 campaign kicks off, Kiffin will coach against Swinney, who has a career head coaching record of 187-53. He is Clemson’s all-time winningest coach, the winningest coach in ACC history and the first coach to lead the Tigers to multiple national championships. The Tigers have won nine ACC titles under Swinney, including eight in the last 11 seasons, while he has guided Clemson to seven College Football Playoff appearances.

“Obviously, a premier program, and Dabo’s won as much as anybody in college football,” Kiffin said. “Probably more than anybody active.”

Clemson and LSU faced one another at neutral sites in postseason play four times before the two sets of Tigers met in Clemson in the 2025 season opener for their first regular season, on-campus meeting in series history – what was a top-10 matchup that saw LSU win, 17-10, at Memorial Stadium.

LSU leads the all-time series against Clemson 4-1, with Clemson’s lone win being a dramatic 25-24 victory in the 2012 Peach Bowl.

Clemson is currently an 11.5-point underdog against LSU, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.