The return to college football for a pair of former Ole Miss players won’t be happening after all.
At least today it won’t. Things may change tomorrow.
But with the SEC implementing a rule prohibiting professional players from returning to college, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris must go back to pursuing their professional careers.
Wright and Harris had both, reportedly, committed to LSU after a recent ruling from a Louisiana state judge opened the door (and transfer portal) for players like them to return to college sports.
If you connected the two dots in the above sentence, congratulations, you’re smarter than a fifth grader.
However, there’s another question that needs to be asked.
Why did LSU and Lane Kiffin feel the need to pursue NFL players in the first place? Because if they believed their current roster was good enough to win championships, none of this would have happened.
Its fairly obvious LSU and Lane Kiffin started all of this. And now CBS Sports is reporting that is what happened.
CBS Sports is reporting that “Kiffin and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters or their representation in an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school, per sources. This includes some of the players who ended up in the Louisiana lawsuit, which sources have pointed out wasn’t tried in Baton Rouge by accident.”
Let’s be clear. LSU wasn’t the first school to bring back a player who spent time with a professional team. Texas added fifth-year offensive lineman Cole Hutson, who had participated in NFL minicamps but wasn’t signed to a contract. The sweeping ruling in Colorado allowed that, but that specific ruling did not open the door for athletes who had signed a professional contract.
The one in Louisiana did. And as the CBS sports report eluded to, the filing location was strategically chosen by LSU.
Don’t be fooled by what Kiffin has been saying this week, either.
“At the end of the day, because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” Kiffin said at a news conference Monday. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit them like probably most people are.”
The problem with that statement is that LSU’s decision to recruit them was what spurred the players to file the lawsuit. Of course, LSU and Kiffin won’t admit to that and it’ll be a while before the general consensus is they recruited NFL players to file the lawsuit to play at LSU.
None of that, though, is the important question. Why did LSU and Kiffin feel the need to pursue NFL players?
Is it because they don’t believe the current roster is good enough to win championships? What else could the reason be?
No door was open for NFL players to come back until the Louisiana case. So, taking the stance of “they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else” is hogwash.
Was this decision the result of what every coach is pursuing, the best roster possible? Even if that’s the case, NFL players coming back wasn’t an option until last week. So, is it simply the Colorado ruling was made, the idea to bring back NFL players clicked and LSU spent a month convincing players to file a lawsuit designed to give them a path back to college?
Maybe the thought was someone else might do it first and get those players? Was that when the “decision to recruit them” was made?
If so, it means this next Kiffin quote is what comes out of a bull’s backside.
“In general, should NFL players come back to college? I believe – it doesn’t matter necessarily what I believe – that answer would be no,” Kiffin said. “I think every circumstance should be looked at differently.”
That bring us back to the question of does LSU and Kiffin not think their current roster is good enough to win championships?
The answer is simple: no, they do not.
That’s not the same as saying LSU has a bad roster. It doesn’t. The Tigers are ranked No. 11 in the preseason AP poll. That’s a ranking that puts a team in the championship contender tier.
But championship‑contender tier isn’t championship‑winner tier. LSU and Kiffin may believe they have a good roster. Their actions make it clear they don’t believe it’s good enough.
And you don’t recruit NFL players unless you think you need them.
