Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers have made headlines over the last week for their attempts to add former NFL players to the roster. 

The assumption from many has been that Kiffin felt LSU needed more talent to compete for a College Football Playoff spot this season.

That assumption is wrong.

This isn’t about LSU’s roster being insufficient. Kiffin went into the summer believing his $50 million roster was good enough to compete. And sure, he probably thinks these former NFL players can make LSU even better, but this isn’t a situation where he believes the Tigers have to have former NFL talent in order to truly contend. This is about something much simpler: Kiffin trying to prove he can do something the SEC is telling him he can’t.

Lane Kiffin has always been driven by defiance

People close to Kiffin have pointed out that he is driven by this kind of thing. When someone tells him he can’t do it, it makes him want to do it even more, regardless of whether it’s worth it. 

“Those who know Kiffin best swear he wouldn’t want it any other way,” wrote On3’s Chris Low this week. “The more he’s told he can’t do something, the more hell-bent he is on doing it, even when the risk doesn’t seem to be worth the reward.”

“He’s one of the best coaches in the game, and for some reason, that’s not good enough for him. He lets things drive him sometimes that shouldn’t drive him,” added somebody who’s known Kiffin for decades to Low. 

It’s not just those around Kiffin saying this. Kiffin himself told reporters earlier this year, while discussing his trip to Knoxville to woo quarterback Sam Leavitt to LSU instead of Tennessee, that he doesn’t do well with being told no.

“I don’t know. I just know how I do things,” said Kiffin. “There’s a good and bad to it. I’m extremely competitive, and I don’t really do well with no — that just makes me more competitive when someone says no. So sometimes that happens in recruiting, they say no. But I think that’s my job. That’s my job to LSU.”

There’s no doubt that the NCAA screwed this situation up with the class of 2022 players. None of this should have ever happened. The NCAA completely botched the entire situation. It could have been easily avoidable by passing the five-for-five rule immediately after the 2025 season or waiting until later this fall to do it. 

I understand some of the arguments for letting NFL players from the 2022 class come back to college because of the NCAA’s screw-up – even though I don’t think it would be the best idea to cross that line.

But even if LSU wins this fight, what damage will have been done? Relationships within the conference matter, and Kiffin doesn’t seem to have any concern about that. Because let’s be honest: LSU is going along with this only because they’re backing their guy. If Kiffin said let’s back off of this and not pursue this any further, you wouldn’t have any more bizarre court cases and showdowns between lawyers and the SEC. It would be done.

This is about Kiffin’s ego. I know LSU fans aren’t going to like hearing that, but everybody who has been around this guy for the past 20 years knows that’s what this is. It’s who he’s always been.

He may win a lot of games at LSU. In fact, I think he will – he’s a good coach. But he’s got to put the ego aside if he’s going to be the best version of himself for the Tigers.

Otherwise, his stop in Baton Rouge will end just like every stop on his coaching journey has (disastrously).