Both Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin have spent time this week explaining that Saturday’s game is about more than the two coaches standing on the sideline.
“Pete isn’t going to tackle anybody. I’m not going to throw any touchdowns,” Kiffin said.
“There’s so much on the line just from what the game means in conference play and being a Top 10 matchup,” Golding said at his press conference.
They’re right. Saturday is a big game between two teams in the top 10 with two great quarterbacks, two great defenses, a plethora of big playmaking receivers and the result will have an impact on each team’s College Football Playoff resume.
And yet, what’s happened off the field keeps obscuring all of that. The latest development in the rivalry happened Wednesday outside of the LSU team facilities.
According to an ESPN report citing court records, defensive end Princewill Umanmielen was served with court documents related to the lawsuit filed by Ole Miss in July.
Four days before the biggest of the college football season? Yeah, this will only stoke the flames on both sides of the rivalry. Devin Harper, another former Rebel who is also part of the Ole Miss lawsuit, was not reportedly served
ESPN reports that LSU officials knew attempts to serve Umanmielen would be made. The report also stated that “According to court records in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County in Oxford, Mississippi, Umanmielen was served with the plaintiff’s first set of interrogatories, requests for production of documents and requests for admission on Tuesday.”
For those who may have forgotten, Ole Miss sued Umanmielen and Harper in late July seeking nearly $1 million in penalties ) $550,000 from Umanmielen and $400,000 from Harper, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs) for leaving the school for LSU after signing revenue-sharing deals.
It’s not very surprising this development is occurring this week. A lot of attention from across the nation is being given to Saturday’s game. But for the players, it’s still a game and distractions keep players from focusing fully on preparations for the game.
This is certainly a distraction for Umanmielen, Harper and LSU as a whole.
The ESPN article also reports that Ole Miss is more concerned about forcing LSU to account for the buyout money in its revenue sharing cap than it is recouping money from former players.
If true, that’s not surprising either. Although considering there’s a general consensus belief most college football programs surpassed that $20 million cap, it’s unclear if there’s actually any harm done to LSU with that.
Either way, the papers have been served to one of the two former Rebels in Baton Rouge. It wasn’t done as Umanmielen was getting off the bus in Oxford, but this should still fan the flames nicely.
