LSU has a habit of turning symbolic questions into full-blown fights, and the latest one centers on a number that once belonged to Jayden Daniels.
The flashpoint is No. 5.
DJ Pickett now has it, and that has stirred the argument over whether LSU should allow another player to wear the number that Daniels made unforgettable on his way to the Heisman Trophy in 2023. What sounds minor on the surface has become a bigger conversation about respect, consistency and what LSU chooses to honor.
That debate does not exist in a vacuum. LSU has already shown it can be selective and inconsistent when it comes to school icons, and that history hangs over the current issue.
Billy Cannon’s No. 20 has been off limits in LSU competition since his last college game in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1960.
Yet in 1987, Dennis Quaid wore 20 in Tiger Stadium while playing Cannon in “Everybody’s All American,” a choice that rubbed some purists the wrong way.
The broader question is whether LSU wants to keep making exceptions. Some schools retire Heisman numbers, some don’t retire any, and some have changed course over time.
USC has retired eight numbers. Notre Dame and Alabama retire none, which keeps their policy simple.
Steve Spurrier put his own No. 11 back in circulation at Florida after winning the 1966 Heisman Trophy, and Ohio State stopped officially retiring football numbers in 2014.
At LSU, the Daniels issue threatens to pull other names into the same fight. If No. 5 is available, it becomes harder to explain why No. 9 should be protected for Joe Burrow.
One possible fix would be to retire 5 when Pickett’s eligibility ends. Another would have been to use 05 instead of 5.
Either way, the point is the same: LSU needs a policy that treats its Heisman winners alike.
The stakes are not just symbolic. LSU has already angered parts of its own base before.
A Baton Rouge lawyer stopped donating to the school after Troy Middleton’s name was removed from the library. Many Dale Brown supporters were furious when the LSU Board lifted the only honor given to the school’s most prominent basketball coach, even after the board had voted for Brown to receive exclusive recognition on the PMAC court.
Pete Maravich has also been left out of the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame despite becoming the leading scorer in NCAA basketball history. Fifty-six years later, Pistol Pete still holds that record, but LSU says he is not eligible because he was not a college graduate.
That rule has been waived at least four times for other inductees. Albert Belle, who has a degree, is also not in the Hall, despite leaving the program 39 years ago and later putting together a major league résumé that included 381 career homers and the only 50-homer, 50-double season in baseball history.
Daniels gives LSU another test of whether it wants to stay consistent or keep inviting backlash. The school can likely beat him in a Baton Rouge court if the issue ever turns into a Name, Image & Likeness fight, but the public side of this is a different story.
Daniels was LSU’s most complete quarterback, and his 606 total yards in a 52-35 win over Florida in 2023 remain one of the most remarkable single-game performances in SEC history. He passed for 372 yards and ran for 234, becoming the only FBS player to top 350 yards through the air and 200 on the ground in the same game.
The simplest answer is for LSU to stop creating separate tiers of honor. If Cannon, Burrow and Daniels are all worthy of special recognition, then they should be treated that way in the same way. Anything else invites another needless mess.
Baton Rouge also lost one of its great adopted sons with the death of Skip Bertman in 2026. He was 88.
Bertman was born in Detroit in 1938 and spent 43 years in the same neighborhood in Baton Rouge, where he built LSU baseball into a powerhouse. In 18 seasons, he won 870 games and five national titles, turning a program that once lived in the shadows into one that commanded national attention.
Bertman and his wife Sandy were a fixture in the community. Sandy died 15 months ago at 87.
She grew up in Brooklyn, met Skip at Maddie Ives Elementary School in Miami, and they stayed together for 63 years. The couple raised four daughters and became part of the fabric of LSU and Baton Rouge.
Bertman reached the top of the sport in 1991, when he won his first College World Series title at age 53. His late-career rise has drawn comparison to Nick Saban, who won his first college football title at 52. By the time both men retired, they had combined for 12 national championships as head coaches.
There was also a stretch when LSU had an extraordinary collection of leadership and coaching talent all in one place. Mark Emmert was chancellor, Joe Dean was athletic director, Saban coached football, Pat Henry coached track and field, and Bertman ran baseball. The school had success everywhere.
Saban remains the greatest football coach in LSU history. Bertman is the standard in baseball.
One man left after making his name there. The other stayed.
Bertman’s loyalty, and the legacy he built, will be felt for generations.
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The staging only adds to what should already be a packed scene, with Rece Davis hosting, Nick Saban among the analysts and Lane Kiffin set for a live appearance as the Tigers build toward kickoff. LSU and Clemson are scheduled to meet later that night at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, giving the campus a full day to lean into the moment. [Read more 🡒]