Lane Kiffin’s LSU plays Clemson in one of the marquee games of the college football season’s first week. However, a primary focus is on a couple of players who will not see the field.
The Baton Rouge-based institution’s team boasts a pair of returnees from the NFL in tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris. Neither of them, however, has been rostered, and according to Kiffin, making that decision “wasn’t easy”, as he put it on Saturday’s episode of College GameDay:
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“I believe that you fight for what you believe in, and I believe these kids have an opportunity to play. Just like all the other kids around the country that are winning court cases and being put on rosters. But at the same time, I’m the head coach of LSU, and I had to make a decision that is for the big picture of LSU and the LSU football program.”
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LSU and Kiffin’s recruitment of ex-NFL players has sparked much controversy. Texas’ Steve Sarkisian called the approach “morally wrong” during his press conference on Monday:
“I just can’t spend all day long looking at Twitter or X to see what the next court ruling is. 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 to go kick rocks, that doesn’t sit well with me.”
Clemson counterpart Dabo Swinney concurred with him the next day:
“Rarely am I at a loss for words. But I’m at kind of a loss of words. I would just say it’s kind of embarrassing. 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.”
Lightning strike delays Lane Kiffin’s LSU debut
Lane Kiffin’s first game as LSU head coach was supposed to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT. However, something unwelcome has happened.
Around 45 minutes before kickoff, a lightning strike was reported in the vicinity of Tiger Stadium, forcing the game’s opening to be delayed. It had been raining heavily beforehand, as evidenced by this video:
LSU’s social media joked about the weather soon after, even referencing the title of a book about Oregon:
Edited by Andre Castillo
