When LSU ripped Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss in a highly dramatic coaching carousel move before the College Football Playoff last season, the Tigers did so because they wanted the man they perceived as the best to turn the program around.

It didn’t matter how far LSU had to go or the feelings it had to hurt along the way. Kiffin was the guy the Tigers paid roughly $13 million a year. He’s also the guy they initially planned to give $25 million in NIL to spend on roster rebuilding.

Those figures turned out to be light. According to On3’s Wilson Alexander, LSU actually spent around $40 million, which isn’t surprising given the number of new players and star power signed, including quarterback Sam Leavitt, offensive tackle Jordan Seaton and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen.

That’s a lot of investment in a coach and a roster. And the funny thing about investing? The people who write checks want a return.

This leads to remarks Kiffin made after LSU’s first spring practice, which included a message about the importance of patience and letting the process unfold.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Kiffin said. “I said that the first day we got here. Now that we’re into practice format, things don’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of work to get a program up to an elite-performing program level. So we’re making some first steps, but there’s a ton of work to do.

“We have assembled a good roster, but at the same time, too, there’s a ton of work that goes into that to get the program back up to everybody around here wants it to be and the reason we came here. It was 7-6 last season. Within that comes change and a lot of work because that’s a long jump to go to the level that I came here to get at and all the program around here want to be at.”

Patience? That doesn’t exist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Patience? No, LSU didn’t invest over $50 million in a coach and roster for slow, steady growth. It didn’t get involved in the Kiffin circus because they wanted gradual, healthy improvement. That money was spent because the Tigers, who haven’t been in the College Football Playoff since 2019, not only aim to return to the CFP in 2026, but also want to advance in it.

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, Kiffin isn’t an idiot. He knows what he’s signed up for. And frankly, he wouldn’t have left Ole Miss before its first-ever CFP berth to join a program that wouldn’t give him a quick shot at returning to that stage. To me, those comments were less about asking for patience and more about underpromising and overdelivering.

Everything he said makes sense because building a strong team from new pieces is naturally hard. LSU added 40 new players to the roster for 2026, and they are working to fit those pieces together into a football team. It’s a big challenge. Truly. Everyone gets that.

Josh Pate mentioned on his show earlier this week that Kiffin deserves patience. Pate compared Kiffin’s arrival at LSU to someone going to the grocery store and spending a lot of money on food. Just because that person brought home 15 bags of groceries doesn’t mean the meal will cook itself. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn the ingredients into a gourmet dish. Again, all sensible points.

But Kiffin doesn’t deserve patience. He isn’t an ordinary person heading to the grocery store. He’s a trained chef who has turned simple ingredients into gourmet dishes before. Now he’s shopping at an upscale store, buying high-quality meats, and is expected to host a swanky dinner party. Microwave? Stove? It doesn’t matter. It simply has to get done quickly and be good. That’s what the money is for.

If the meal isn’t cooked on time? That’s a problem.

“Lane Kiffin would be right if I were paying him $13 billion a year,” Pate said. “A massive salary is not some mechanism that’s a magic bypass for what it takes to win. It takes what it takes to win. You pay me $13, $13 million, 13 billion, it’s not this magic lever where when you pull it, ‘oh, we don’t have to worry about what we’d have to worry about if we were only paying him half of what we’re paying him.’

“And by the way, Lane Kiffin didn’t pay himself $13 million. You did. You could pay him whatever you want to pay him. I get how the market works. I get how Jimmy Sexton works. But the bottom line is you chose to do that.”

Which brings us back to the concept of patience and getting what you pay for.

Pate is onto something. A coach’s salary is completely separate from the rebuild timeline. But what isn’t? What was spent on the ingredients. It doesn’t matter what LSU’s record was last year or the issues the team faced under Brian Kelly. This is an entirely new team with star players, and it’s the coach’s responsibility to assemble those pieces into an elite football team.

There is nothing Kiffin is going to do to get fired after one year. The truth is, the odds are very high that he’ll be successful because Kiffin did get more out of less at Ole Miss. But the build time at Ole Miss is also irrelevant because LSU is a better job, right? Isn’t that why he chose to not coach the Rebels in the CFP last year for this opportunity?

The discussion isn’t about whether LSU will win a national title this year. The truth is, it probably won’t because winning the national title is really hard, regardless of who is on your roster and what you spent to get them there. Ohio State will have four players taken in the top 10 of this year’s NFL Draft and the Buckeyes didn’t even make the CFP semifinals. It’s hard.

This column is about patience, which Kiffin will get none of. That’s what happens when you accept the LSU job, the money it offers and how much it invests to get you those ingredients. When you take the job, you accept that patience isn’t part of the deal.

This isn’t 2018 anymore, either. Less than four months ago, a second-year head coach transformed one of the worst programs in college football history into a national title winner in just two seasons. Maybe Curt Cignetti is a wizard, and we’ll find out that what he did isn’t something that can be duplicated elsewhere. But the days of working through what you inherit and needing years of building to reach your goals are gone.

LSU is like a billionaire throwing a fancy dinner party. There are rules for what that party needs to be, and that billionaire will be insufferable and demanding the moment the invitations go out. That person spent a lot of money, and in return, they want the party to go perfectly. Good meal, presentation, atmosphere, everything.

Remember, LSU didn’t only pay for a trip to the grocery store. They paid a chef to make a high-quality meal faster than Uber Eats could deliver it. Kiffin signed up to make that happen, spurning another very good job in a very public way in the process.

LSU will likely be very good this year. It’s completely reasonable to expect the Tigers to make the CFP and maybe even advance in it. But if they don’t? Kiffin will have to answer for why.

Welcome to Baton Rouge, Lane. Enjoy your stay.