The celebrities were impossible to miss around LSU on Saturday, but Lane Kiffin doesn’t see them as the reason the Tigers came up short against Alabama.
Kevin Costner was the headliner in the scene around Tiger Stadium, and Kiffin said he has known the movie star for a few years. He also connected Costner with Raising Cane’s owner Todd Graves, who helped the “JFK” star get through the weekend.
Costner wasn’t the only big name in the mix, either. Shaquille O’Neal, Paul Skenes, Angel Reese and Olivia Dunne all joined Kiffin and Costner on the walk to the stadium, while first lady Melania Trump was also in attendance.
The game itself was the main event, but the celebrity presence gave the day another layer. LSU lost 31-13, a result that hurt its College Football Playoff chances and opened the door for questions about whether all the pageantry around the program had become a distraction.
Kiffin isn’t buying that line of thinking. He said he doesn’t believe the stars around the program, the basketball goal on the sideline that players dunk on after touchdowns, or the fire extinguisher Cookie - his nephew - sprays after each LSU touchdown have had any impact on how the team plays.
“(Costner) and I are sitting in the locker room together, and I was like, ‘It’s just so different,’ ” Kiffin said. “ ‘I told you (about) the south and the fall and the tailgating and the passion for it,’ and so he really enjoyed it.”
He made clear that the point of all of it is bigger than a single Saturday. The celebrity visits, the hoop, and the extinguisher are all part of the same push to shape LSU’s image and help with recruiting. Kiffin wants high school players around the country to see the program on TV and think, “That place is cool; I want to go there.”
“We played great at home for years,” Kiffin said, also referring to his success in home games at Ole Miss, “and we’ve done the same thing.”
What Kiffin does want, though, is for his players to tune out everything else. He doesn’t want them getting caught up in the media, the fans or the criticism that comes with losing, and he put that message on screens throughout the LSU Football Operations Center on Monday.
“When you win, everybody loves you. When you lose, everybody has an opinion,” the message read.
“The media questions you. People who have never done what you do tell you what you can’t do.
WELCOME TO LSU and THE DARK SIDE OF BEING A VILLAIN.”
That’s the reality LSU is living in now, after almost a year of headlines and controversy around the program. From Kiffin’s messy divorce with Ole Miss to Gov. Jeff Landry’s involvement with the team to the attempt to add NFL players to the roster, the spotlight has followed LSU ever since Kiffin arrived in Baton Rouge on a private jet last November.
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