Lane Kiffin knows why LSU football has spotlight after adding TRO players
· Yahoo Sports
BATON ROUGE — Lane Kiffin and LSU football aren't the first college team to benefit from picking up former college student-athletes who have been granted an extra year of eligibility due to a court ruling.
Over the last three days, Kiffin and his staff have pulled in former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka and former Ole Miss tight end Dae'Quan Wright. The latter is the one that's generating the most buzz and not because LSU and Ole Miss have seen their rivalry grow to new heights after Kiffin left Oxford for Baton Rouge before the Rebels started their College Football Playoff journey last season.
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Wright spent much of the offseason in rookie and training camps with the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, providing a new spin on the whole situation — which has placed the spotlight of the latest wrinkle in collegiate athletics squarely on Kiffin and LSU.
"I think that's easy to figure out," Kiffin said on why the spotlight has stopped on LSU. "That's the combination of the head coach at LSU, everything. So I understand that. That is what it is. Any time someone is first out of the gate with something, here comes the attention. Then, I think as you see others where that happens at other places and other kids — again, there's a lot of people trying to do the same thing. This is just what happens.
"When you're the benefit of a player choosing you, you're going to get all the attention of it because they chose you when a lot of other people were trying the same thing."
Last week, East Baton Rouge Parish Judge Will Jorden ruled in favor of 16 former college athletes in their attempt to get a fifth year of eligibility. Both Wright and Tuihalamaka were among that group that won the injunction.
But they aren't the first former college athletes to be granted a fifth year and commit to another school. Kentucky basketball landed Missouri transfer Mark Mitchell. Former Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos is rumored to be heading to Texas Tech.
Across the country, there's a more than 200 former college student-athletes looking to have injunctions ruled in that favor to open their return back to college.
While they wait for the resolution of their cases, the spotlight remains on LSU and it won't go away anytime soon.
"Because of these rulings, they're either going to play for you or they're going to play somewhere else around the country," Kiffin said.
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lane Kiffin knows why LSU football has spotlight after adding TRO players