LSU has been among the programs seemingly at the forefront of recruiting veteran transfers recently ruled as — potentially — receiving an additional year of eligibility.
Former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka announced his commitment Friday, and ESPN senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported Sunday afternoon that former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright had been waived by the Cleveland Browns and had an agreement in place to join the Tigers if he cleared the league’s waivers.
Wright would potentially became the first player to be a part of an NFL team and then return to play college football, a dynamic that has made the unusual landscape amid the NCAA’s shifting eligibility rules an understandably hot-button issue around the country.
But “at the end of the day, because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play somewhere else around the country,” Lane Kiffin said Monday as he explained his and LSU’s decision to recruit late additions to the roster under the circumstances.
[ READ MORE: LSU, LANE KIFFIN POTENTIALLY ADD TWO FORMER OLE MISS PLAYERS FROM THE NFL ]
The opportunity for players to utilize a newly granted fifth season of eligibility was more fair than controversial in the coach’s opinion, and the Tigers are clearly not shying away from bolstering their roster with the newly available veterans.
“I think situations are different,” he said. “So, in general, should NFL players come back to college? I believe — and it doesn’t matter necessarily what I believe — that answer would be no. I think that every circumstance should be looked at differently. This is a very unique circumstance. Again, because I think there’s not a lot of education on this, how this all happened: The judge found that these players should have been told and should have known that they were gonna be eligible for a fifth year year, which every player moving forward and every player moving forward in all sports has.
“They should’ve known that in December when they were making decisions. Had they known that, they would’ve stayed. They had no eligibility. So this is not many other circumstances that have been discussed over the years about professionals coming back. They did not know they had a year. Since then, the judges said, ‘You do have a year,’ and so because of that, this is a different situation in that they’re just wanting to go back to play the year that they’ve been granted — not an individual case where one player went somewhere to try to win a case. This is a lot of athletes, and a lot of these around the country that, from my information, isn’t stopping.”
Kiffin declined to comment on specific athletes or timelines of potential arrivals to join the university and program, citing NCAA rules prohibiting discussing recruits and the ongoing “gray area” being dealt with, first and foremost, through court systems around the country.
The NCAA overhauled its eligibility system this summer, moving from a longtime system allowing only four years of eligibility outside of certain exceptions and waivers to instead a new “five-for-five” format in which student-athletes enrolling in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday would be eligible to participate in up to five years of competition during the next five years.
A series of lawsuits have followed around the country challenging that the athletes who graduated high school in the 2022 class and had expired their eligibility under the previous system should now be able to return to the college game for another year.
And a Louisiana judge granted a temporary restraining order last Wednesday that opened that door and a week-long window to enter the transfer portal with an upcoming court date now set for Aug. 31.
Kiffin had spoken numerous times this month about his perspective on the potential late-developing availability of a new group of transfer players and, while consistently declined to delve into specifics, emphasized that he considered the granting of another year of eligibility the fair resolution and that he and the LSU staff would be well-prepared to navigate their circumstances as they gained clarity.
During the past 72 hours, the Tigers have been as proactive as any program in the country in pursuing key roster additions ahead of the fast-approaching season, which kicks off Sept. 5 against Clemson.
“These guys have been told that they can play, and these athletes in all these sports — and again, it’s not just football — are being told they can play,” Kiffin said. “They hired an attorney, they go and win a case and get told they can play. And then they enter the portal, so they’re available to be recruited. So I feel like, in those situations, that’s my job. I wouldn’t like to be my boss that hired me and then come and say, ‘Hey, here’s these guys going around the country the country playing, making teams better and they’re going to play from the ruling. Why aren’t we recruiting them?’ Because we may end up playing against them.
“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.”
The coach emphasized that the current players in the spotlight are far from the first to win additional eligibility by way of legal challenges to NCAA rulings
“This happens all the time around the country,” he said. “This is not new that this happens. Normally they’re individual cases as you’ve seen through time very significant quarterbacks last season and this coming season that were ineligible by the NCAA and made eligible by injunctions. So this is really not new. I just think some people aren’t realizing how similar the situations are because of that.”
Former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia earned an injunction following the 2024 season to return for another year this past fall, and Kiffin’s quarterback last season at Ole Miss, Trinidad Chambliss, did so earlier this year to return in 2026.
Kiffin said he does not expect to see the NFL-specific dynamic currently playing out for players such as Wright or former Ole Miss defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, who has entered the transfer portal after spending time with the New Orleans Saints, to be a sign of similar returns to college in future years.
“I think this is a totally unique circumstance that came about because of the ‘five-for-five’ and the players feeling that they should’ve known about it before and that they should’ve had it and then all the cases around the country and all the attention on that,” the coach said. “And they were granted this. The ones that have won the restraining orders or injunctions have been granted this. So I think this is extremely unique situation that I can’t predict the future, but I don’t think you’d have this again.”
But, within the current landscape, Kiffin said recruiting the available veterans on the abnormal timeline was his decision based on his responsibility to LSU, its administrators that hired him and its fanbase to pursue success by all legal means — regardless of outside criticism.
He said he has emphasized that mindset to the Tigers’ players as well, and that they understand his commitment to improving the roster whenever possible.
“Our guys know we’re in a relentless pursuit of excellence. I tell them that all the time,” he said. “That’s how I live, that’s how I think, that’s how I run the team and that we’re always going to look at every avenue to give you the best team, to give you the best players so that you have the best chance to win. And we’re always going to be trying to get better in every area no matter what, and any time the portal or acquisitions come up, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
