Clemson HC Dabo Swinney Takes Jab At LSU Tigers' Lane Kiffin At Press Conference

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The LSU Tigers kick off their season against the Clemson Tigers in just a few days, and there was just a bit of fuel added to the fire as Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney took a bit of a jab at Lane Kiffin during a Tuesday press conference.

As is pretty much anyone in the world of college sports right now, Swinney was asked about former professionals attempting to return to the NCAA. Given that Swinney has long opposed the transfer portal, his take on this situation is no surprise. In talking about not liking it, he said something that he had to know would get blown up.

“Rarely am I at a loss for words, but I’m at kind of a loss of words. I would just say it’s kind of embarrassing where we are with college football. And I don’t blame the kids and people trying to take advantage of the system. I just think it’s embarrassing where we are with college football… We just kind of, no pun intended, we just stay in our lane, here at Clemson.”

While Kiffin and the Tigers are not the only team that is attempting to sign former pros, they are certainly at the forefront of it and are pretty much the only ones receiving any coverage for it. There is no mistaking what Swinney meant, and he must have anticipated how that last line would be received.

Now, there is a little bit of bulletin board material for LSU. If those players do end up making it to campus, they are certainly going to feel some type of way about having their situation being called embarrassing, even if he did say he didn’t blame them.

The Tigers have no lack of motivation for this game, though they must be sure not to let this situation distract them from what they must accomplish this weekend. Even in the discussion about facing Clemson, the storyline of the former professionals is involved.

LSU cannot afford to start slow. That was already the case before this situation began, and it has only gotten worse. The way that Kiffin came to the Tigers already had people rooting for their downfall, and now they have only made more enemies. Any struggles they have will be amplified tenfold.

Instead of trying to justify what they’re doing, though, LSU has leaned into the villain role. There is a newly installed graphic in the football administration building stating that “if you want to win at the highest level, you have to become a villain in someone else’s story.” The statement basically just means that if you want to succeed, someone else will be upset.

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