Lane Kiffin rode in the Baton Rouge St. Patrick's Day parade today.

I want you to understand that sentence completely. Lane Kiffin — the head football coach of the LSU Tigers, one of the most scrutinized jobs in college football, in his first spring in Baton Rouge with 51 new players on his roster and a quarterback recovering from a Lisfranc injury — got on a float in a parade and rode through a city that has been waiting for him to arrive for four months.

That is a man who understands where he is and who he is coaching for. He is coaching for the people on that parade route. He is coaching for the city that gave him the job and means it personally when they say they want to win. He is not spending March 17 buried in a film room pretending the world outside does not exist. He is in Baton Rouge being the head football coach of LSU on St. Patrick's Day in Louisiana.

And spring practice starts in seven days. He will be in that film room soon enough.

That is the thing about this game in the spring. It is not yet about wins and losses. It is about possibility. It is about a coach getting on a float and a city believing in something that has not happened yet. You want to give the people something to believe in before they find out whether it is real. Kiffin gave Baton Rouge something this afternoon that no spring practice rep can provide.

The reps start March 24. Today was for the city.

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Meanwhile, forty-five minutes up I-10, Kirby Smart opened the gates at Sanford Stadium this morning and Gunner Stockton ran onto a practice field as the undisputed starting quarterback at the University of Georgia for the first time.

Let me tell you something about what that means.

Stockton has been playing football in Georgia since he was old enough to understand the state took it seriously. He came to Athens knowing what it meant. He sat behind Stetson Bennett's legacy and Carson Beck's tenure and he waited and he developed and he played in games that mattered and he finished seventh in Heisman voting last year. And today, in the first real practice of the 2026 season, he walked out to the huddle and there was no question about whose huddle it was.

That is what a football player works for. Not the award. Not the ranking. The moment when the team knows, and he knows, and nobody has to say anything about it.

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Ten things I'm watching this week:

1. Gunner Stockton working against eight returning defensive starters. Georgia's defense is going to test him every day this spring. What he does when that defense takes something away is the whole evaluation. Watch what the spring game on April 18 shows.

2. Lane Kiffin's first practice in Baton Rouge on March 24. Sam Leavitt is recovering from a Lisfranc injury and won't fully participate. Who emerges at quarterback in his absence tells you everything about the LSU spring.

3. Tennessee's offensive line. Robert Saleh spent $275 million in Day 1 on skill players and pass rushers. The offensive line in front of Cam Ward needs to be better than it was last year. Watch whether that investment is coming in the draft.

4. Aaron Rodgers. He said there is no deadline. Pittsburgh said they want him back. Jamel Dean said he expects him. Every day that goes by without a decision is a day the Steelers' offense exists only on paper. This resolves soon.

5. What Jaelan Phillips looks like in Carolina's scheme. Dave Canales is asking him to be a full-down edge rusher, not a situational pass rusher. The spring will tell you whether the 2025 version — the one who was healthy and developing the run-defense side — is the real version.

6. The Bears stadium vote in Springfield. The Illinois House returned from recess Wednesday. A vote could happen any day. Indiana has already signed their bill. Watch what happens in Springfield this week.

7. A.J. Brown's preferred destination. His preferred teams are the Bills, the Chargers, and the Chiefs. Those teams have not been named as the ones Philadelphia talked to seriously. The gap between where Brown wants to go and where the Eagles' asking price makes sense is the whole story.

8. The Falcons' offensive rebuild. Kevin Stefanski has Tua as the bridge, Jahan Dotson for speed, and a returning Michael Penix Jr. on the timeline. The offensive line under Bill Callahan is what I'm most curious about. Callahan has turned offensive lines into functional units everywhere he's been.

9. Jacksonville's draft direction. Liam Coen was conservative in free agency — re-signed depth, let key players walk. That is either a team that knows what it's doing or a team that is going to need the draft to do heavy lifting. The combine boards will tell you which.

10. The CFL Combine is ten days away. Every team in the league is finalizing their evaluation priorities. The player who walks into Edmonton as an unknown and walks out as a first-round pick is already out there somewhere. That is the best story in football that nobody is paying enough attention to.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Go find the parade clips from Baton Rouge. Lane Kiffin is waving at people who love football. This is the best time of year.