A Baton Rouge judge’s ruling on Wednesday could send a handful of familiar faces back into the college football mix, including three former Ole Miss starters from Lane Kiffin’s final Rebels team and former LSU edge rusher Jack Pyburn.
Judge William Jorden of Baton Rouge 19th District Court granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit involving 30 college athletes across the country, opening the door for those players to return to school for one more season. Among them are tight end Dae’Quan Wright, defensive tackle Zxavian Harris and safety Wydett Williams - all starters for Kiffin at Ole Miss last season before he left for LSU.
Wright is now with the Cleveland Browns, Harris was with the Saints before being cut two weeks ago, and Williams is with the Arizona Cardinals. All three signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents, but under the ruling they could still head back to Ole Miss or transfer elsewhere.
Kiffin’s Rebels went 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the SEC last season, and the roster ripple could reach LSU as well. Pyburn, who was part of LSU’s 2025 class, is also in the group of 30 athletes and just posted two sacks over the weekend for Tampa Bay in a preseason game.
The ruling is part of a summer-long surge of legal challenges against the NCAA. More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed this summer by more than 100 athletes, many of them landing temporary restraining orders as they push for a fifth season after starting college in 2022. The argument centers on the NCAA’s new rule allowing current and future athletes to play five seasons in five years instead of four in five, with the athletes claiming the association broke a “covenant of good faith” by not extending the same chance to their class.
Before Wednesday’s order in Baton Rouge, the most notable win for the athletes came July 31, when Colorado federal Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a restraining order in a class action against the NCAA. The NCAA has pushed back hard, and its lawyer, Scott Bearby, called the Sweeney ruling “egregious.” He said it “invites further chaos in college sports and irreparably harms thousands of student-athletes already on campus.”
For now, the chaos keeps rolling.
Wright, listed at 6-4 and 255 pounds, started 15 games for Ole Miss and caught 39 passes for 635 yards and five touchdowns. Harris, at 6-8 and 330, made 58 tackles in 15 starts, including nine for losses and three sacks. Williams, from General Trass High in Lake Providence, Louisiana, started 14 games, picked off three passes, totaled 73 tackles and broke up 13 passes.
Kiffin said earlier this month that he wasn’t sure what to make of the possibility of adding players under the Sweeney ruling, though he made clear Ole Miss would at least be ready.
“We look at everything, so we would be prepared for that,” Kiffin said. “I don’t know what that would mean. You’ve always got to look at who they are, and will they learn your systems and all those things coming that late?”
LSU has already been on the field for more than two weeks and opens the season in just over two weeks against No. 23 Clemson on Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
“And where some are, the coaches have changed at a number of them,” Kiffin said, possibly speaking of himself. “And there are places that don’t want them back, because they’re full at that position, or there are new coaches there.”
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