Opinions are mixed on the number drama involving former LSU star quarterback Jayden Daniels and sophomore safety DJ Pickett.

Pickett is being allowed to wear Daniels’ old number this fall, and that’s made Daniels feel disrespected.

LSU head coach Lane Kiffin told reporters earlier this month that he felt he didn’t have a choice but to let Pickett wear the number because it was promised during the recruiting process under previous head coach Brian Kelly (Kelly didn’t let Pickett wear the number as a true freshman last season because LSU didn’t have a “full commitment” from Daniels).

“DJ is in [No.] 5, and that was a situation that was promised to him in recruiting here, for him to sign here,” said Kiffin earlier this month. “I’ve done a lot of research on that with the family and the representatives and the people, so really I didn’t have a decision to make. It was promised to the kid. It wasn’t done for whatever [reason]. I’m not going to get into that.

“I’m not going to judge something [that was done] when I wasn’t here. But when a kid is promised something to come to a school, he should wear it. So at that point, I don’t think that’s really my decision. We should honor what he was told.”

According to Matt Moscona of LouisianaSports.Net, Pickett getting to wear the No. 5 is in his contract with LSU, but it wasn’t added until he renegotiated his contract after the 2025 season (which was after Kiffin was hired).

“When Pickett was negotiating his contract to return to LSU, money was not the source of the negotiation, but rather the jersey number, LSU sources confirmed,” wrote Moscona.

Some promises were made to Jayden Daniels, too

Kiffin’s main reason for giving Pickett the number was the promise made during his recruitment.

Well, it turns out that a promise was reportedly made to Daniels, too.

According to TigerBait.com’s Preston Guy, Daniels hasn’t asked for his jersey to be retired, but LSU initially promised to retire the jersey.

“Daniels never requested LSU retire his jersey, but rather LSU promised to do so initially of its own volition, per sources,” wrote Guy. “However, since then, LSU has attempted to offer the number to two separate players.”

It seems that two different promises were made to two different players concerning the same number. I’m guessing that the promises were made by different people (better communication probably could’ve prevented this entire situation).

If you believe that Pickett has a right to the number because of the promise, then it stands to reason that Daniels has a right to be upset because of the promise made to him.

I believe the best way to handle this — because it’s not realistic to keep retiring numbers given the size of college football rosters — is to let players wear a patch honoring the player who made the number famous. This is something we’ve seen recently at Miami with Malachi Toney and the No. 10 (and a patch honoring George Mira Sr).

Hopefully this all gets resolved soon. Daniels is a legend in Baton Rouge, and the last thing anyone wants to see is a strained relationship with LSU.