Lane Kiffin has once again found himself at the center of college football’s latest mess, but the real fun this week hasn’t been the courtroom drama. It’s been the coaches taking veiled swings from a distance.
The latest flashpoint comes with LSU expected to add tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, both of whom were released by NFL teams in August. That move has set off a wave of outrage across the sport, and even Kiffin’s own conference responded by voting on a new rule that would carry stiff penalties for any school - LSU included - that adds a player who had previously signed a contract with a pro team. That rule, though, has already run into legal resistance from the state of Louisiana.
Kiffin defended the decision by saying his players’ leadership committee was fully behind bringing in NFL players, a line that drew a sharp response from Paul Finebaum, who called it a “flat-out lie.”
But while the lawsuits and legal threats keep piling up, the more entertaining battle has been happening in plain sight.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian got things rolling Monday, never saying Kiffin’s name but making the target obvious enough. He said, “...
And I just can’t spend all day long looking at Twitter or X to see what’s the next court ruling. I know other people do,” Sarkisian said Monday.
“I don’t know how they do it. I can only focus on what we do to put our players in the best interest to be successful.
And I think that’s the right thing. I really do.”
He kept going from there.
“... These players on all of our rosters have been working for nine months for this moment on Saturday, which then will lead into the next five-to-six months,” Sarkisian continued.
“The fact that somebody out there is going to take a player off of an NFL roster and tell somebody who’s been doing it for nine months, ‘Go kick rocks?’ That doesn’t sit well with me.
I think that’s wrong. That morally is wrong.”
Then came Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who was much less interested in subtlety. With his team set to open the season on the road against LSU, Swinney called the whole situation “embarrassing.”
“... I would just say it’s kind of embarrassing,” Swinney said of NFL players returning to college.
“I mean honestly, it’s just embarrassing that that’s where we are. I don’t blame the kids and people trying to take advantage of the system.
I just think it’s embarrassing where we are with college football.
“And we’ve been there for awhile. I just keep my energy, my focus on the things that I control and the things that matter and that’s these kids here and our team.
But all that outside stuff, I mean, we just kind of-no pun intended-we just stay in our lane here at Clemson. Try to.”
Earlier in that same presser, Swinney joked that he might get “turned in for tampering” because he watched practice footage of the Cowboys, Buccaneers, Wright’s Browns and Harris’s Saints in August.
It’s the kind of back-and-forth college football lives for. Finebaum taking shots at Kiffin is old news.
The legal fight over LSU is old news too. But coaches tossing out sly digs and half-laughing jabs?
That’s the good stuff.
And it’s not stopping anytime soon. The real collision comes in Baton Rouge, on Saturday night and again on the second Saturday in November.
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LSU also enters this one looking different under new head coach Lane Kiffin, who has reshaped the roster with a heavy transfer influx and added quarterback Sam Leavitt among the key newcomers. For Clemson, the trip is about more than a road game. It is another chance to answer an old debate on familiar ground, where the Death Valley label has been a point of pride for both programs and the winner gets a little more bragging rights to carry away. [Read more 🡒]