Lane Kiffin Drops By LSU Softball Practice; Beth Torina Discusses Bama Coach Leaving Her The LSU Job On Tiger Rag Radio

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU football coach Lane Kiffin made a surprise appearance at the LSU softball team’s practice on Tuesday before the No. 16 Tigers (40-17) play at No. 1 overall seed Alabama (52-7) in an NCAA Super Regional beginning Friday (6 p.m., ESPN2).

Game two will be at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. A third game – if necessary – will be on Sunday at an unnamed time. The winner advances to the College World Series in Oklahoma City.

“Speaking of Lane Kiffin, he was out here playing ball on the field today, playing a little slow pitch game,” LSU softball coach Beth Torina said on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night. “And he wasn’t too bad. Surprise.”

Listen to Torina’s appearance on Tiger Rag Radio via the link below:

Torina had just been praising Alabama’s home game environments at 3,940-seat Rhoads Stadium when she commented on her own Tiger Park.

“It’s the toughest one,” she said of Alabama’s park. “They bring in a lot of fans. But our place is loud, too. Our fans are a little bit different. We can hang with anybody.”

When told she was using a version of Kiffin’s patented “It’s just different” phrase about LSU, she brought up his softball practice.

LSU Advances To Super At No. 1 Seed Alabama After Beating Virginia Tech And Dominating NCAA Regional

Torina was also asked about Alabama coach Patrick Murphy, whom she replaced as LSU’s head softball coach after the 2011 season. Murphy, who had been Alabama’s coach since 1999, had accepted the LSU job and came to campus for a press conference. But three days later, he changed his mind and returned to Alabama.

Then LSU athletic director reached out to Torina, who was the Florida International head coach at the time, and hired her.

“I don’t know if they made any calls other than to Patrick Murphy when it first happened,” Torina said when asked if she had been contacted before LSU named Murphy the coach. “It was like a one and done. When he decided not to take the job, I made sure to take him out to dinner in the summer and thank him for the opportunity, because it’s been life changing for me and my family, that’s for sure.”

Murphy will be going for his 16th trip to the College World Series at the Super Regional. He won the national championship at Alabama in the 2012 season – one year after becoming LSU’s coach – and finished as runner-up in 2014. Torina has taken LSU to the World Series four times and is looking for her first return trip since 2017.