Lane Kiffin does not care about pearl-clutching from media members or fellow coaches. His job at LSU is to acquire talent, win football games and hunt championships, and his pursuit of Cleveland Browns tight end and former Ole Miss standout Dae'Quan Wright is another reminder that few coaches navigate college football's lawless landscape better. Kiffin will probably retweet the criticism and keep working.
Wright's decision to enter the transfer portal after reaching the NFL would have sounded absurd not long ago. Now, amid courtroom victories, temporary restraining orders and eligibility rulings that continue to erase the sport's old boundaries, it represents another opportunity. Kiffin is not responsible for cleaning up the NCAA's mess.
He is responsible for building LSU's roster, and if the rules — or a judge — allow him to pursue an NFL player, he likely sees it as negligent not to make the call. That is the uncomfortable truth for Kiffin's critics. He is not breaking the system.
He is reading it faster than everyone else. And that doesn't mean they have to like it. "It used to be once you had an agent or once you went and did the combine," Oregon coach Dan Lanning said.
"All those things qualified as you were no longer an amateur. You're a professional now, once you declare for the draft. So to let any of those players come back, fair or unfair to them, it's unfair to the sport, and I think it's unfair to the players that are on current teams for those guys to be coming back." College football's new era rewards aggression, creativity and a willingness to explore every available loophole.
Kiffin has never needed permission to push the envelope. At LSU, with championship expectations and every resource imaginable, he is simply doing what he does best: winning the transaction. "I wondered why Lane Kiffin reached out a week ago; now I know," Browns coach Todd Monken said over the weekend.
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