By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Lane Kiffin’s debut as LSU’s football coach Saturday night will be fresh, clean and free of controversy after all.
Kiffin has decided – or been advised to – not keep poking the bear of the Southeastern Conference – commissioner Greg Sankey – and will not add a pair of former signed NFL roster players to his roster for Saturday’s season opener against Clemson in Tiger Stadium (6:30 p.m., ABC), according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Adding the two players would be against SEC rules, according to the SEC. Kiffin, by law though, could have added the two players after receiving a preliminary injunction on Thursday, allowing him to do so by Baton Rouge District Court Judge William Jorden. Jorden’s ruling also banned the SEC from punishing SEC schools for adding former NFL roster members to their rosters.
But Kiffin, always a controversial maverick of sorts, is going to be a straight arrow for now with the SEC and Sankey. He may still disagree with Sankey’s stance, but it is likely a wise, self-preservation move. He has to live with Sankey more than the various friendly local judges and attorneys available with strong ties to LSU.
Senior tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who was on the Cleveland Browns roster and dressed out for a preseason game on Aug. 22, had committed to LSU on Aug. 23 after being cut that day and has been practicing with the Tigers since Monday. But he will not be on the roster for the game, and neither will defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, who was briefly on the Saints’ roster this summer before being cut. Both players were regular starters for Kiffin last season when he was Ole Miss’ head coach.
Kiffin still could add both to his team later this season as they are both enrolled in school, depending on how the eligibility lawsuit involving the two players against the NCAA and the SEC develops. LSU has 103 players on its roster as of this week without Wright and Harris with a 105 limit.
For now, though, this will appease Sankey, who has been vehemently against LSU adding players, who have signed with NFL teams, no matter how brief their stays were with those teams or the special circumstances of such players because of the lawsuit. Hosts of players, like Wright and Harris, who began their college careers in 2022 have been involved in lawsuits against the NCAA over its new fifth year of eligibility rule that was enacted on June 16, but the new rule starts with players enrolling in 2023 and excluded the 2022 entries. Hence the lawsuits by so many players just missing the chance for a fifth year by weeks.
Sankey reiterated his stance on NFL roster members joining LSU’s roster on Friday after losing at the hearing on Thursday.
“We disagree with the court’s decision,” Sankey’s SEC office said Friday. “The SEC’s presidents and chancellors unanimously adopted a clear and reasonable standard: member universities should not place former professional athletes on their rosters. The conference and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed.”
Not according to Baton Rouge District Court Judge William Jorden, who made the ruling Thursday. But the SEC statement went on.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey continues to be not very presidential and at times embarrassingly ill-prepared. Column by @racertodd https://t.co/CNel8nuWef
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 4, 2026
“The SEC will continue to defend this standard, the principle of fair competition, and the conference’s authority to govern competition among its member universities,” the statement said.
By not adding the players to the roster for Saturday, though, LSU could conceivably be disobeying Jordan’s court order, and conceivably LSU could be charged with contempt of court. But LSU has chosen to obey the SEC over the court for the time being.
LSU may be cozying up to the SEC as it is also dealing with a federal lawsuit filed by the SEC in Birmingham, Alabama, against LSU president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry and Kiffin, accusing them of orchestrating the lawsuit in Jorden’s court so it could add Wright and Harris to its roster. That lawsuit alleges that LSU engaged in a “deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit pro players.”
In the end, at least for now, Kiffin was wrong about a major part of his argument for signing the two former NFL roster members, which was – everyone else will be doing it.
“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 on Monday. “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.”
But as of now, Kiffin remains the only college football coach to add to players who were signed members of NFL rosters in Wright and Harris. The other college teams who have added players from the eligibility lawsuit have not signed former NFL roster members. The players they signed were in mini-camps or tryouts, but never signed. Texas offensive lineman Cole Hutson is one of many such examples. He recently rejoined the Longhorns’ roster via another temporary restraining order (TRO) related to nationwide eligibility court cases, but he only participated in mini-camps in the NFL. He never signed to an NFL roster as Wright and Harris did.
That is the line of demarcation that Sankey is standing on. It is clearly splitting hairs as there is not a large difference between Wright and Harris being officially on a roster for a few weeks before being cut and hosts of other players trying out, particularly because they couldn’t have kept their eligibility in the past doing that. And other coaches, such as Ohio State’s Ryan Day, may have considered recruiting or recruited cut members of NFL rosters from the TROs as Kiffin did, but they never signed any. Kiffin is alone in this regard.
Before LSU’s decision on Friday not to put Wright and Harris on the roster from NFL rosters, Wright thought he would be playing on Saturday against Clemson. He would have had the prerequisite five practices in with the Tigers after Friday, according to the NCAA’s acclimatization protocol.
When asked if he would play Saturday on Thursday, Wright said, “Most definitely.” And he added, “I’m definitely well prepared.”
Harris also expected to be added to the roster, but because of an injury, he said he doesn’t expect to play until LSU’s third game on Sept. 19 at Ole Miss.
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