Lane Kiffin does not care about pearl-clutching from media members or fellow coaches. His job at LSU is to acquire talent, win football games and hunt championships, and his pursuit of Cleveland Browns tight end and former Ole Miss standout Dae’Quan Wright is another reminder that few coaches navigate college football’s lawless landscape better.
Call him shameless.
Call him calculated.
Call him a filthy recruiter.
Kiffin will probably retweet the criticism and keep working.
Wright’s decision to enter the transfer portal after reaching the NFL would have sounded absurd not long ago. Now, amid courtroom victories, temporary restraining orders and eligibility rulings that continue to erase the sport’s old boundaries, it represents another opportunity.
Kiffin is not responsible for cleaning up the NCAA’s mess. He is responsible for building LSU’s roster, and if the rules — or a judge — allow him to pursue an NFL player, he likely sees it as negligent not to make the call.
That is the uncomfortable truth for Kiffin’s critics. He is not breaking the system. He is reading it faster than everyone else.
And that doesn’t mean they have to like it.
Lane Kiffin isn’t changing; college football is
“It used to be once you had an agent or once you went and did the combine,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “All those things qualified as you were no longer an amateur. You’re a professional now, once you declare for the draft. So to let any of those players come back, fair or unfair to them, it’s unfair to the sport, and I think it’s unfair to the players that are on current teams for those guys to be coming back.”
College football’s new era rewards aggression, creativity and a willingness to explore every available loophole. Kiffin has never needed permission to push the envelope.
At LSU, with championship expectations and every resource imaginable, he is simply doing what he does best: winning the transaction.
“I wondered why Lane Kiffin reached out a week ago; now I know,” Browns coach Todd Monken said over the weekend. “I mean, shit, I didn’t know. Now I know. I didn’t call him back; I guess I should’ve.”
Critics see a broken system; Kiffin sees available talent
Outrage has never altered Kiffin’s approach. If Wright is legally permitted to return to college and the NCAA cannot stop it, Kiffin sees an available player who could improve LSU’s roster. Nothing more.
Recruiting a player from his former program after that player already reached the NFL feels especially brazen, even by Kiffin’s standards. It also reinforces every negative perception attached to his Ole Miss exit.
Still, Kiffin’s responsibility is to win at LSU, not satisfy a national morality test. In this era, restraint earns applause. Aggression acquires talent — and Kiffin knows that, not that he cares about outside opinion.
“NFL players should not be allowed to go back to play college football. It’s gross negligence,” former Heisman winner Robert Griffin III wrote on social media. “It’s a disservice to the current college players on any roster. Any coach or school who allows it should be ashamed of themselves.”
And Wright’s not the only former college player the Tigers are looking to add before the start of the 2026 season.
LSU embracing the eligibility chaos
LSU also recently landed a commitment from former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, who made seven starts over four seasons with the Fighting Irish. Tuihalamaka was granted another season of eligibility as part of the Louisiana court ruling for Class of 2022 athletes.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman wanted no part of an unexpected late addition.
“For us at Notre Dame, it’s just too late [with] the graduate admissions process, and I don’t think it would put a person in a good situation this late — school starts on Monday — to have success in the classroom and on the field, so that’s been our stance on it,” Freeman said Friday. “Our admissions has already done their admissions and cycles. That’s where the university and the athletic program stand right now.”
Kiffin has never cared about his naysayers, especially after messy exits at Tennessee and Ole Miss. And he certainly is not going to start now because college football’s latest eligibility twist has people screaming that the sport has become a joke.
The process is slimy, and many are calling the sport broken, but Kiffin has heard worse throughout a career spent testing boundaries and irritating traditionalists. He has repeatedly made clear that national perception does not drive his decisions.
Kiffin’s critics are concerned about what college football has become. LSU’s coach is focused on winning within it. In this no-holds-barred era, yelling at your smartphone does not secure championships. Talent does.
