By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU has a football game this week.
Lane Kiffin, the most polarizing football coach in the country in college or pro and most sought after in college late last year, makes his LSU debut on Saturday as his No. 11 Tigers host No. 23 Clemson at 6:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium.
But on Thursday in a courtroom in Baton Rouge, a judge will hold a hearing concerning a previous temporary restraining order that freed members of the class of 2022 suing the NCAA in an eligibility case – including those on NFL teams – to transfer back to college teams.
Kiffin was the first in college football history to gain commitments from players previously signed to NFL rosters this summer. He got two of those just last week in tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who had dressed out for a Cleveland Browns preseason game on Aug. 22, and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, whom the Saints cut on Aug. 8. Both players were able to enter the transfer portal only because East Baton Rouge Parish 19th District Court Judge William Jorden’s Aug. 19 temporary restraining order (TRO) against the NCAA – and by definition the Southeastern Conference and all other NCAA-member conferences.
Jorden will hold a follow-up hearing on Thursday to his TRO, possibly extending the eligibility of the players in the lawsuit or ending that. There are a multitude of other similar cases and TROs granting eligibility across the country.
Wright, Harris and a host of other 2022 college entries in all sports are among many players across the country suing for a fifth year of eligibility in 2026 after the NCAA’s new rule in June that allows five years of eligibility instead of four. But that rule begins with the 2023 class. The plaintiffs from the 2022 class and their attorneys feel they also deserve that extra year. Wright and Harris both played for Kiffin last season at Ole Miss and are in the suit being handeld by Jorden.
A third, but very recent former NFL roster member in that same lawsuit is about to commit to LSU as well in former Tiger edge rusher Jack Pyburn, who just collected two sacks for the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday night in a preseason game at Jacksonville. Tampa Bay cut him on Sunday, and if he clears waivers by other other NFL teams today, he has said he will commit and sign with LSU, pending the outcome Jorden’s hearing on Thursday.
LSU will also practice on Thursday. None of the possible three new LSU signees from the “NFL Portal” will be able to play against Clemson because of NCAA rules that dictate an acclimation process for such late additions to rosters.
In the meantime, while not following court proceedings, Kiffin is trying to get his team ready for a nationally televised game. Oh, and ESPN’s College GameDay will be on campus Saturday, and will no doubt cover the reboot of L.A. Law – La. Law.
Will Kiffin and LSU be distracted on Saturday because of the new NFL Transfer Portal and its court cases and so much drama.
“It’s brand new to college football,” LSU transfer wide receiver Eugene Wilson III said last week when asked about his potential new teammates from the NFL. “So, I don’t really have nothing to say to it. I don’t really know too much about it.”
Many do not understand it either. Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey seemed confused about it last Tuesday when he and his conference announced a ban on all players who have signed with NFL, NBA or WNBA teams with various, high-minded punishments. But he backed off of that on Saturday and decided to abide by Jorden’s TRO, which was amended last week to include Sankey as a defendant. The SEC is under the NCAA umbrella, and therefore must adhere to any judges’ rulings concerning the eligibility case.
The case is likely a one-time situation as well. There will not be a mad dash of NFL players cut this week to try to go back to school. They would have to be in the college class of 2022 and in one of the lawsuits, or a new one.
Did Lane Kiffin call? 😂😂 https://t.co/29b5eah55i
— Bobby (@BobbyWilson1004) August 30, 2026
Cute, but Tua is not a 2022 college signee and not in the lawsuit vs. NCAA and its member conferences like the SEC. And therefore, he can’t go back to college in this unique, legal, eligibility situation as others can – barring another judge’s ruling.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) August 30, 2026
Kiffin was asked last week if there will be future eligibility cases between college football and the NFL, or would those be contained to the 2022 class.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I think this is a totally unique circumstance that came about becaue of the five-for-five rule, and the plaeyrs feeling like they should have know about it (the NCAA’s new rule for five years of eligibility instead of four passed last June) before. And that they should have had it, too. And then all the cases around the country and all the attention on that happened. And they were granted this (eligibility) – the ones that have won restraining orders or injunctions – have been granted this. So, this is an extremely unique situation that I don’t think you’ll have this again.”
So, after Thursday, focus could be solely on football?
“We’re all focused on football,” LSU cornerback PJ Woodland said last week. “We’re just going through day-by-day, trying to prepare for Clemson.”
So is Kiffin. But he will also always remain focused on the most time consuming part of college football coach in present day – roster procurement during game weeks and non-game weeks, no matter if or when a new portal window opens up.
“I believe that my job is to LSU and the LSU people that hired me and the fans,” he said. “And if players are available to recruit and are made eligible, I’m recruiting them.”
They don’t call him the Portal King for nothing. Kiffin signed the No. 1 portal class in the country with 41 last January. It has grown to 44 over the last two weeks because of the players just entering the portal after the court rulings making them eligible – for now. In addition to Wright and Harris, Kiffin also gained a commitment from 2022 class member Junior Tuihalamaka, a senior edge rusher from Notre Dame who has not been on any NFL rosters.
LSU FOOTBALL UPDATED TRANSFER PORTAL CLASS
“These guys have been told that they can play,” Kiffin said. “They hired an attorney. They won a case (for now) and were told they can play. And then they enter the portal. They’re available to be recruited. So, I feel in those situations, that’s my job.”
If he doesn’t recruit them and try to sign them, conceivably they could beat him.
“I wouldn’t like to be my boss who hired me who says, ‘Why aren’t we recruiting them? Here’s these guys around the country playing and making teams better from the ruling, and we may end up playing against them,'” Kiffin said. “So, that’s just the way I look at it. And I don’t think I’m very unique. I think these kids are being recruited by a lot of coaches around the country. We’re always going to be trying to get better in every area, no matter what. And any time portal or acquisitions come up, that’s what we’re going to do.”
In the meantime, the national glare is on Kiffin, who turned down interest from Florida, Florida State and Penn State after last regular season when he left Ole Miss for LSU.
“Yeah, I mean, I think that’s probably easy to figure out,” he said. “That’s the combination of the head coach, LSU, everything. So, I understand that, and it is what it is. And any time someone’s first out of the gate with something (NFL players coming to LSU), here comes the attention. Sometimes, when you’re the beneficiary of a player choosing you, you’re going to get all the attention of it, because they chose you when a lot of people were trying.”
In the end, and in the beginning of this season, LSU may be just more “different” than Kiffin ever imagined.
“I don’t know that you could ever predict that there’d be a job taken and so much stuff around it,” Kiffin said. “The magnitude of it being LSU and then the leaving (from Ole Miss) and the timing of it (just before the Rebels went to the College Football Playoff). Would the players be coming to LSU or not? It’s been a lot – a lot of stuff. Now, this newer stuff coming, where all of a sudden there are some players in a new portal two weeks before the game.”
Could Kiffin himself be distracted? There’s always his hot yoga each morning to give him focus.
“We take each day and try to do the best at it and put together the best team, so those Saturdays go the right way,” he said. “Because that’s really all that we’re doing all this stuff for. It’s for those 12 Saturdays, and hopefully more Saturdays (in the playoffs).”
And the next portal window, whenever that may be.
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