Kiffin dumpster diving for players?

Ouch

As Lane Kiffin prepares to dive knee deep into the dumpster and bob for NFL castoffs to add to his LSU roster, I’ve got but one question:

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

Kiffin would like to add to LSU a couple of his former Mississippi players who signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents, before later getting cut from pro training camps. Leave it to the “Portal King” to mull an NFL-to-LSU portal pipeline.

The SEC’s chancellors and presidents say there’ll be hell to pay if LSU plays tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, as NFL rejects turned fifth-year seniors.

A judge — there’s always a judge, isn’t there? — is tasked with being referee, and a legal battle that now includes Greg Sankey, the SEC and the NCAA as defendants continues in Louisiana.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry wandered waist deep into this, too, because he’s never seen a squabble he could resist.

“This whole thing is ridiculous,” Landry said in a statement to the Baton Rouge Advocate.

On that, Guv, we can agree.

This is a carnival, and because every carnival needs a barker, here’s Kiffin saying, step right up, NFL castaways, to play for ol’ LSU.

“They’re either going to play for you, or they're going to play for someone else,” Kiffin said earlier this week, as he laid out his justification for dumpster diving.

The question I keep coming back to is this: If you’re Kiffin and LSU, is this worth the fight?

Wright and Harris are solid players, but we’re not talking about NFL Hall of Famers.

Would adding Wright and Harris significantly alter the outlook of LSU’s season? I doubt it.

This just doesn’t seem like a worthy hill on which to die.

Wright caught 39 passes last season at Ole Miss. He’s a good tight end, but LSU already has a premier tight end in Trey’Dez Green.

Is adding a couple of guys off the NFL waiver wire worth kicking a hornet’s nest all the way to the SEC home office’s doorstep? No crying if you get stung.

And, for what? For a couple of guys Kiffin could plug into a two-deep that already should be in fine shape, after LSU poured tens of millions of dollars into building this roster.

Is juice worth the squeeze for Lane Kiffin in this situation?

Kiffin doesn’t need advice on how to torch his image or torpedo goodwill. He’s made an art of doing exactly that. Normally, though, whenever Kiffin grabs a gas can, lights a match, and ignites an inferno of controversy, I at least can see the potential upside for him.

Let’s rewind to his traitorous bolt from Tennessee after one season. Sure, that exit was controversial. Bad form, even. But, Kiffin wasn’t leaving Knoxville (in flames) for grins. He vamoosed to accept his dream job, Southern Cal, and to replace his mentor, Pete Carroll. Kiffin's move didn’t work out, and his USC firing set his career back, but I understand the desire to try to pick up the torch of Carroll’s dynasty.

Most of us can appreciate the urge to chase one’s dream, come what may.

Years later, after Kiffin rebuilt his career and polished his reputation to a level of shine he’d never before enjoyed, he burned it all down again to take the LSU job.

Ole Miss made Kiffin choose. Either re-up to a sweetened deal, stay with the Rebels, and coach them in the playoff and beyond, or take the LSU job. He couldn’t do both. So, Kiffin torched his Ole Miss legacy for a renegade's exit and traded in his playoff team for the better job.

Another bad form exit? You bet. Plenty of other coaches wouldn’t have had the nerve to walk away for a playoff team, but nobody would deny LSU is a tremendous opportunity. The juice might prove to have been worth the squeeze of Kiffin's messy exit from Mississippi.

Controversial though Kiffin is, up ‘til now, I’ve not often thought he stirs up controversy for controversy’s sake. He’ll light the powder keg, but he’ll be able to say during his internal monologues the payoff will be worth it.

Not this time.

There’s a time to fight, there’s a time to light the powder keg and absorb the blowback, and there’s a time to stand down. Maturity is recognizing the difference.

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