Days before Ole Miss clashed with Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, standout defensive lineman Zxavian Harris was asked about Lane Kiffin's chaotic departure from Ole Miss to LSU. "We are going to troll him," Harris said. "We got something for him.
He was just trying to steal our shine. That's all he tried to do. That's all he's been trying to do." Nearly nine months later, Harris exited a NFL training camp, hopped in the transfer portal after a successful lawsuit in Louisiana and joined Kiffin in Baton Rouge.
It's all part of the Kiffin experience. As college football faces its latest court-manufactured crisis -- some might argue the NCAA's rule implementation is to blame -- the person at the center of the latest controversy is Kiffin. To be clear, LSU wasn't the first school to pursue this path of signing former professional players.
Texas added fifth-year offensive lineman Cole Hutson, who had participated in NFL minicamps but wasn't signed to a contract, following a lawsuit in Texas. A sweeping rule in Colorado also, for a time, allowed the class of 2022 players to return for a fifth year of eligibility. But that did not include former professional athletes.
Kiffin and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters or their representation in an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school, per sources. This includes some of the players who ended up in the Louisiana lawsuit, which sources have pointed out wasn't tried in Baton Rouge by accident. The Tigers have signed three former NFL players so far -- Harris, former Ole Miss tight end Dae'quan Wright and former Notre Dame EDGE Junior Tuihalamaka -- and have had conversations with others who remain in NFL camps ahead of the league's cut day on Aug. 30.
LSU isn't the only SEC program doing it. But the Tigers led the initial movement, which tipped over dominoes for other teams in the league. "At the end of the day, through these injunctions, they're going to play for you or play somewhere else around the country," Kiffin said.
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