Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney leaves no doubt on how he feels about LSU and Baton Rouge
The LSU Tigers will open the 2026 college football season at home against the Clemson Tigers.
The Lane Kiffin era in Baton Rouge will get underway when LSU opens the season at home against Clemson on September 5.
LSU won 17-10 at Clemson to open the 2025 season. This season’s matchup will be the first time that Clemson has played LSU in Baton Rouge.
Ahead of the season-opening matchup, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked for his thoughts on LSU.
“Man, I got so much respect for that place, first of all,” said Swinney. “It’s one of the great places in college football to play a football game. They’re on you from the time you land at the airport. And then a night game on top of it. There’s a little juice in that lemonade, they’re waiting on you. So it’s awesome.
“It’s, again, one of the great places to play a game. Lane’s done an unbelievable job. They’ve got dudes for dudes for dudes. They’re all over the place. So it’ll be a fun way to kick it off.”
Swinney added that preparing for the September heat in Baton Rouge will be a challenge for his team.
“I would say it’s a disadvantage when you can’t prepare your team for the elements they’re going to face, so it is what it is,” said Swinney of preparing for the Louisiana heat. “We do wet ball drills and things like that to try to prepare for rain. But you can’t just do a heat drill.”
“I’ve been to Baton Rouge seven times,” added Swinney. “It’s hot — it’ll be hot down there at night. It’s early September. It’d be hot here if we were playing here. It’d be freaking hot. … You can’t simulate that. Then the crowd noise, it is what it is — you’ve gotta be able to operate. Our defense has to function that way at home all the time. They’ve gotta be able to communicate.”
Clemson is unranked in the preseason Top 25, so this will be a pivotal game for LSU (which is ranked No. 7). The last thing Kiffin needs is a loss to an unranked team at home in his debut.
