Lane Kiffin has become college football’s favorite lightning rod again, and this time the noise is coming from everywhere at once.
The latest storm centers on LSU’s push to sign 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 anger across the sport, with fans and pundits piling on and the SEC responding by voting on a new rule that would threaten stiff penalties for any school adding 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 tried to defend the approach by saying his players’ leadership committee was excited about bringing in NFL players. Paul Finebaum didn’t buy it, calling that explanation a “flat-out lie.”
But the loudest shots haven’t all come from the usual Kiffin critics. This week, some of his coaching peers have started firing off their own little digs, and they’ve done it with just enough subtlety to keep it fun.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian opened the door on Monday with comments that sounded a lot like they were aimed squarely at the current mess around college football’s eligibility fights.
“... 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.”
Then he kept going.
“... 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.”
That “somebody out there” line didn’t exactly hide the target.
Dabo Swinney followed with an even sharper jab. Clemson opens the season on the road against Kiffin’s LSU team, and Swinney made clear how he feels about the idea of NFL players returning to college.
“... 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 added another pointed line while discussing LSU’s preparation: he 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.
Finebaum blasting Kiffin is nothing new. The courts circling LSU is old ground, too.
But the side-eye from Sarkisian and Swinney gives this whole thing a different flavor. It’s not just legal wrangling and TV outrage anymore.
It’s coaches tossing little verbal grenades across the sport and making sure everyone knows exactly where they stand without always saying the name.
And with Clemson and LSU set to meet in Baton Rouge on Saturday night, the background noise is only going to get louder. The second Saturday in November is there too, waiting to turn the temperature up even more.
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