One of the biggest stories in college football over the last month is about whether players who have been part of NFL rosters should be allowed to return to college after gaining a fifth year of eligibility. LSU is the main team pushing this.
LSU Won’t Add Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris
The Tigers have been trying to get tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris to play college football this season after spending time on an NFL roster during the offseason. However, it doesn’t look like LSU will be pursuing that any further.
On Tuesday night, On3’s Wilson Alexander and Pete Nakos reported that LSU is adding two players to its 105-player roster limit, and it’s not Wright or Harris, which means they won’t be part of the Tigers.
“LSU is moving forward with no former NFL players on its roster,” Nakos wrote on X. “Comes in the wake of a meeting scheduled for Thursday to “decide whether to terminate LSU as an SEC member institution pursuant to Section 3.1.5 of the SEC Constitution and Bylaws,” per an amended complaint filed today in federal court.”
Nakos also mentioned that the two players LSU is adding are Aiden Anding and Gabriel Reliford.
The Southeastern Conference implemented a rule at the end of August that prohibits players who have played in the NFL from returning to the conference. However, LSU was not initially inclined to comply with this rule until now, because it feared the school might be expelled from the conference after a special vote was scheduled for Thursday.
Lane Kiffin Didn’t Need Pro Players in Week 1
The Tigers definitely didn’t need any former NFL players on Saturday night against Clemson. LSU defeated the Tigers 51-10, which prompted head coach Lane Kiffin to make a humorous comment at halftime.
As Kiffin was running back to the locker room at the half, ESPN’s Holly Rowe caught up with him, and he had something to say to the college football world: “Imagine if we had pro players.”
Kiffin makes comments like that from time to time, and he said he had no regrets.
“It’s just my personality. It is what it is,” Kiffin said after the game, via NOLA.com’s Jon Blau. “What’s the difference? Everybody hates you. They can’t hate you that much more.”
Kiffin is in his first season as LSU’s head coach, and he is one of the most disliked figures in sports due to how he left Ole Miss last season. The Rebels were on the verge of heading into the College Football Playoffs when Kiffin decided to jump ship and take the head coaching job at LSU, leaving Ole Miss without a coach in the playoffs.
Despite this, the Rebels performed well, winning two playoff games—one against Tulane and the other against Georgia—but fell to Miami in the semifinals.
Kiffin will head back to Oxford on Sept. 19 to take on Ole Miss at 7:30 p.m ET on ABC.
LSU Backs Away From Signing Ex-NFL Players Amid Danger of SEC Expulsion:Report