LSU Lastly Will get Again to Soccer After a Week of Lane Kiffin Drama

OXFORD, Miss. — Possibly LSU can focus solely on soccer for some time.

The Tigers definitely hope so.

As a result of the primary three weeks of “soccer” have been sophisticated by every kind of non-football stuff. All of it got here to a climax Saturday evening with a 32-24 loss to Ole Miss.

The sport was preceded by a week-long buildup to Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin’s long-anticipated return to the place that he all however promised he’d by no means depart after which left lower than 10 months in the past because the Rebels workforce he constructed was heading to the CFP for the primary time.

The battle between Kiffin’s present No. 7 workforce and his No. 8 former workforce was secondary to Kiffin’s return, simply because the aftermath of LSU’s dominant 51-10 victory towards Clemson two weeks earlier in its opener was sophisticated by the SEC’s flirtation with kicking the Tigers out of the convention as a result of Kiffin was flirting with including to his roster a few gamers who had gone to coaching camp with NFL groups earlier than being launched and enrolling at LSU.

The sport Saturday was destined to be essentially the most hyped recreation in latest reminiscence as quickly because the SEC launched its schedule.

However the hype has been rising in latest weeks, partly as a result of the 2 recruits in query that Kiffin introduced in have been former Rebels and partly as a result of Ole Miss served one other former Insurgent, defensive finish Princewill Umanmielen, with courtroom papers associated to the college’s lawsuit towards him because the participant was leaving the Tigers’ follow facility just a few days in the past.

Then LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt confirmed up on the Wednesday follow report out of the blue and was listed as uncertain earlier than being upgraded to questionable on Thursday then faraway from the checklist Friday and taking part in the complete recreation Saturday, all of which led to hypothesis that Kiffin was exaggerating if not fabricating any uncertainty in regards to the quarterback’s availability.

Leavitt definitely performed like a quarterback who was lower than 100% as Ole Miss rolled to a 24-7 halftime lead, although he led a 17-0 second-half blitz earlier than the Rebels took the lead again within the fourth quarter and the Tigers’ ultimate drive ended when Leavitt was intercepted on a fourth-and-goal cross ultimately zone within the ultimate minute.

LSU shouldn’t fall greater than a spot or two within the AP ballot and it nonetheless controls its CFP hopes – if it might efficiently navigate a remaining schedule that features 4 groups that have been ranked going into Saturday and video games towards Kentucky and Mississippi State that appear trickier than they did when the schedule was launched.

That’s quite a lot of soccer that shouldn’t function Kiffin problems – except for the go to to Tennessee, the place of us have been no happier about Kiffin leaving after one season to educate USC than the parents in Oxford have been in regards to the coach leaving final December after six seasons.

However there may be all the time time for brand spanking new Kiffin stuff to develop alongside the best way.