By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
The way LSU football coach Lane Kiffin sees it – athletic director Verge Ausberry is his boss.
Not Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, who last week tried to block Kiffin from signing players just cut from NFL teams via the NCAA Transfer Portal, even though judges have made such players eligible through temporary restraining orders (TROs).
Kiffin is also not concerned with being the persona non grata of college football, among many media members and fans.
“I probably am in the minority of how I make decisions,” Kiffin said Monday at his first weekly press conference of the season, leading into the Tigers’ season opener against Clemson on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
“Probably not what most coaches do,” he said. “I feel like my decision should always be made in the best interest of the players that sit in this team room, and not for my reputation and how the decisions play in the national media or other fan bases. I’ve never been that way, and that could be wrong. That’s probably part of my story, why it is the way it is. But those players and the people who hired me (Ausberry) know I’m always trying to do the best thing for them.”
LSU may have another former NFL roster member soon. https://t.co/zcghDb8rop
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) August 31, 2026
But Kiffin did not make a rash decision about signing, for example, tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who was cut from the Cleveland Browns roster on Aug. 23 and signed last week with the Tigers. Wright was able to sign because he is one of hundreds of players from across the country from the class of 2022 suing the NCAA in an eligibility case. The NCAA passed a new rule in June allowing players from the class of 2023 on to have a fifth year of eligibility instead of four, which had been the case. The basis of the lawsuit is that the class of 2022 players should have had a chance for a fifth year since they unfairly missed an opportunity to decide to stay for the 2026-27 sports year by a matter of weeks.
Judges have since granted such players TROs to play. A hearing Thursday in Baton Rouge could decide the fate of many of those players, including Wright and fellow LSU commitment Zxavian Harris, who was cut by the Saints in August. Wright and Harris both played for Kiffin last season at Ole Miss.
Kiffin went back and forth on his decision in August to recruit players like Wright and Harris fresh off NFL rosters.
“I struggled with it a lot,” he said. “There are a lot of factors into it and different things and one that I also struggled with too is because it’s this late, even though that’s what you do in the NFL. And there’s an argument that (college) players are paid like that. That’s what happened yesterday in the NFL (cut players being picked up on waivers by other NFL teams). New players come in and take people’s spots, they’re added to rosters and other guys have been there working.”
Before making his decision to recruit NFL players, Kiffin met with the leadership council of his team.
“I asked them, ‘If these players are allowed to be added to our roster, what do yout want to do?'” Kiffin said. “And every one of them was emphatic about it. ‘If they can help us win, bring them.’ And we understand that we have a team that’s practiced together and worked together all off-season. But this is how it works at the next level, and this is how the real world works. You can bring in employees to certain jobs to help the company, so that made me feel a little better in the struggle and being torn back and forth.”
Kiffin said he has been in connection with the SEC office concerning transfers from the NFL.
“So we’ll wait to hear for more guidance,” he said. “The SEC said that they’ll follow court orders, and so we’ll wait until (Thursday) to see if there’s any more guidance. I’ve been asked whether myself, as the head coach of football, will football follow SEC orders? Of course we will.”
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