David Pollack blasts Lane Kiffin for promoting second portal window: 'Do we want this madness?'

Lane Kiffin just wrapped his first Spring as LSU‘s new head football coach last weekend and already wants another opportunity in the transfer portal. Kiffin, among the sport’s most active coaches with 40 new transfer additions during January’s two-week portal window, recently doubled down on his desire for a second post-Spring window.

“I’ve been very open about that, I wish there was another (portal window),” Kiffin said April 28. “I’ve talked to other coaches about that, and coaches that have been somewhere 2-3 years feel differently because they like that they have their whole roster. … But in your first year, yeah, I don’t think many coaches would say that, but if they were honest, they’d probably say they wished there was (another) one.”

Kiffin’s wish for a second portal window comes less than six months after the NCAA formally established a single Jan. 2-16 transfer window last October. That move came a month after the NCAA Division I committee eliminated the chaotic Spring window that most of Kiffin’s coaching colleagues maligned for how it negatively impacted their rosters following Spring practice.

And while a second portal window isn’t seriously being considered — at least at the moment — the fact that Kiffin is even suggesting such a move has already ruffled some feathers around the sport. In fact, former ESPN analyst and Georgia legend David Pollack even called out the new LSU coach for proposing such a move.

“Here’s the thing, man, I get it, and Lane’s the Portal King regardless, and his budget was unlimited this year, … but no,” Pollack said on last week’s See Ball, Get Ball podcast. “Nobody wants this. Lane does, and maybe some (first-year) coaches do. But do we want this madness? How would that work? (First-year coaches) can go pillage other rosters, but nobody else can replenish their rosters? That doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t want any part of that.

“Lane, love you bud, but I’m not on board with that,” Pollack continued. “I want one transfer portal window. I could be talked into May. But I don’t want (a second window), because the moment we open this box, the moment we get more and more confusing, more and more lawsuits, just more things that can go haywire. And we want less haywire, we want more consistency, we want more guys staying in the same spot.”

While Kiffin won’t get a second portal window to work with, the first-year LSU coach certainly made the most of his initial opportunity after hauling in the nation’s fifth-ranked 2026 portal class, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Team Rankings.

Kiffin’s inaugural portal class was highlighted by several players who were the top-ranked at their respective positions, led by five-star transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt (Arizona State), the No. 1 overall player in the portal. LSU also signed four-star offensive tackle Jordan Seaton (Colorado), the top-ranked offensive tackle and No. 4 player overall, and four-star pass rushers Princewell Umanmielen (Ole Miss) and Jordan Ross (Tennessee), the No. 1 and 5-ranked EDGEs in the class.