Anyone who has ever played a football game in Tiger Stadium – an LSU player or an opponent – is playing amid one of the greatest attractions and distractions in all of college football.
Particularly in a season opener as No. 11 LSU and No. 23 Clemson, which plays in the other “Death Valley,” will meet on Saturday night (6:30 p.m., ABC).
Playing amid the raucous LSU fan base and the football-crazy culture of Louisiana can also be distracting. LSU players are used to it.
So, it is hard to believe that anyone, particularly LSU fans themselves, would think that LSU coach Lane Kiffin trying to add a couple or three or four former short-time NFL players to his roster this week will be any more of a distraction to LSU’s players on Saturday night or to Kiffin, who tends to be a walking distraction anyway.
“I don’t think it’s really a distraction for us in this building at all,” LSU senior linebacker Whit Weeks said on Tuesday during player interviews in the football building. “And especially with the last four years how college football’s gone.”
He was laughing when he said that last part, referring to the NCAA Transfer Portal as of 2021 without players having to sit out a year between schools, and kicked into high gear in 2022. The historic Name, Image & Likeness-related payments to players also started in 2021.
Over the last week or so, Kiffin has added two transfers from a special portal window brought about by class of 2022 players suing the NCAA over its new rule allowing five seasons to athletes instead of four. The only problem was that NCAA’s rule included players beginning with the class of 2023, skipping 2022 entries who were just planning their transitions but didn’t get the option of the fifth year. And recently, various judges around the country and in Louisiana have granted temporary restraining orders to the players in the lawsuits, allowing them to play in 2026. That status is pending, though, and could be ended or prolonged at a hearing Thursday in Baton Rouge.
The new transfers practicing with LSU now are senior tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who was just cut on Aug. 23 from the Cleveland Browns roster after playing for Kiffin at Ole Miss last season, and Notre Dame senior edge rusher Junior Tuihalamaka, who was not with any NFL teams. There could potentially be others.
“You have just got to be ready to expect anything,” Weeks said. “We’re just in here doing our jobs, and it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, here’s another guy that’s added to the team. And that’s what it is.”
Weeks watched 41 guys join LSU’s team last January via the regular portal window.
“But I don’t think our team is distracted at all,” he said.
Kiffin spoke to the team’s leadership council last week about the potential new players.
“He told us if we don’t want them to come here and play, then they won’t,” Weeks said. “But we all said yes. We were like, ‘If those are the rules (and the players are in the portal), then we might as well go ahead and take these guys.'”
Wright, a starter at Ole Miss last season, and Tuihalamaka, a backup who played a lot, are both talented players and at the worst add significant depth.
“Obviously, the whole team’s been talking about it,” said LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, who suddenly has another tall target in Wright at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds who caught 39 passes for 635 yards and five touchdowns for Kiffin’s Rebels last season.
“We all were nothing but excited for the opportunity to bring guys in and help us win some games,” Leavitt said. “I don’t really know why there’s such an issue with it. Everybody gets five years in college now. Everybody’s on board with making it happen, if everything falls into place (at the hearing Thursday), and it’s legal.”
Wright is not likely to replace 6-foot-7 LSU starting tight end Trey’Dez Green, a preseason All-American who caught 33 passes for 433 yards and seven touchdowns last season.
“Coach asked us about this being a player-led team, and he asked us, ‘Was it okay,'” Green said. “We said yes. Even if it means less catches, less yards for me, I’m all about just bringing this national championship back to Baton Rouge. And Dae’Quan is amazing.”
And Weeks, a native of Watkinsville, Georgia, can’t wait for more “distractions” during what promises to be an amazing Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
“I mean, I cannot wait to get into Death Valley this Saturday, especially with all the hype that we’ve had rolling through this off-season,” he said. “It’s coach Kiffin’s first game in Death Valley as head coach. It’s going to be incredible. It’s my first opener at home as a starter. So, it’s going to be insane. I cannot wait for it.”
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