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LSU's Lane Kiffin says NFL players shouldn't come back to college football
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- LSU's Lane Kiffin says NFL players shouldn't come back to college football
LSU football coach Lane Kiffin, appearing on the "Pat McAfee Show," defended adding former NFL tight end Dae'Quan Wright to the Tigers ' roster on Tuesday, Aug, 25.
Wright, who signed deals as an undrafted free agent with both the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns this offseason, was granted another season of eligibility with the ability to enter the transfer portal after being named in a lawsuit filed in Louisiana state court. The former All-SEC tight end at Ole Miss has since signed with LSU and Kiffin, who coached at Ole Miss from 2020-25.
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Wright's lawsuit became possible after a Colorado state judge issued a temporary restraining order for all class of 2022 athletes to gain an extra season of eligibility after being held out of the new 5-for-5 eligibility rule put in place by the NCAA for the 2026 season and beyond.
While Kiffin disagrees with NFL players being able to return to college football, he said Wright and the others named in the Louisiana lawsuit are an exception.
"There's a lot of parts of this I don't like," Kiffin said. "I don't think professionals should come back to college sports and college football. But in this instance, these are not players who have gone on to play seasons professionally or randomly filed an injunction. This is part of a specific class that was ruled wrong by the NCAA that was supposed to be 5-for-5."
The Big Ten created a rule on Aug. 25 that bars future players from declaring for the NFL draft and returning to college football, unless they withdrew by the deadline. The SEC hasn't quite adopted a similar ruling yet, although the conference came out in opposition of the situation with a statement on Aug. 24 that read "college sports are for college athletes."
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Kiffin told McAfee he's unsure where conferences can draw the line with lawsuits and temporary restraining orders for eligibility, with the conference allowing players to play with TROs for other eligibility situations.
"I think you're going to get in an interesting situation where, as a conference, you're saying 'We're going to follow this court order but these kids that got that other court order, we're going to say, 'No you can't,'" Kiffin said.
There are numerous other players also seeking a home in college football after signing NFL deals as undrafted free agents. Wright, though, alongside former Ole Miss defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Notre Dame defensive lineman Junior Tuihalamaka, who both signed with LSU, were the first dominos to fall from the lawsuit.
Kiffin also said LSU wasn't the only school to recruit Wright.
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"There's all kinds of schools that recruited him," Kiffin said. "Ask Drew Rosenhaus, his agent, how many schools called and offered him a lot including in our conference and his previous school. But he chose us."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU's Lane Kiffin says NFL players shouldn't come back to college football
