Pete Golding not buying Sam Leavitt injury report from Lane Kiffin, LSU: 'See you Saturday'

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When Sam Leavitt was listed as doubtful on the initial SEC injury report for his LSU team’s highly anticipated matchup with Mississippi on Saturday, Sept. 19, more than a few eyebrows were raised.

It wasn’t just because of the possibility that the Tigers might be without their starting quarterback for their biggest game of the young season. It was that Leavitt’s coach — Lane Kiffin, college football’s preeminent provocateur — might be up to something.

At least that’s how his Week 3 opponent viewed it.

More: Pete Golding fits at Ole Miss, something Lane Kiffin could never pull off | Opinion

Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, who had served as Kiffin’s defensive coordinator for the Rebels from 2023-25, said he had received a text message from his former boss on Wednesday, Sept. 16 before the SEC released its first injury report for the week, passing along the news the rest of the world was soon about to see.

There was just one problem for Kiffin – Golding wasn’t buying it.

“I got the text before the report went out, from Lane. ‘Hey, our quarterback’s out.’ Yeah, buddy, I bet he is,” Golding said during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday, Sept. 18. “I’ve been around here a lot of Wednesdays with you, man, for three-and-a-half years.”

Golding wasn't alone in his skepticism, either. Legendary former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who both Golding and Kiffin coached under, expressed a similar sentiment on McAfee's show on Friday.

Leavitt, who finished LSU's game last week against Louisiana Tech with no apparent injury, was upgraded to questionable on the Tigers' updated injury report on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Golding told McAfee that in 2024, when the SEC started requiring member schools to provide player availability reports in the leadup to intra-conference games, Ole Miss’ first-ever injury report had 42 players on it.

Saturday’s meeting between No. 7 LSU and No. 9 Ole Miss will mark Kiffin’s return to Oxford, Mississippi after leaving the Rebels for the Tigers shortly before last season’s College Football Playoff. After his exit, Golding was named the full-time head coach and proceeded to lead the team to the playoff semifinals, where it narrowly lost to eventual national runner-up Miami, 31-27.

If Leavitt, who was rated by 247Sports as the No. 1 overall player in the transfer portal last offseason after leaving Arizona State, is unavailable for LSU, it will be without an experienced signal-caller who has racked up 709 total yards and seven touchdowns in his team’s first two games.

Golding believes it’s a contingency plan his opponent won’t need, though.

“I was like ‘Yeah, man, see you Saturday. Tell Sam good luck,’” Golding said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pete Golding not buying Sam Leavitt injury report from Lane Kiffin, LSU: 'See you Saturday'

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