As the LSU Tigers prepare for their season opener against the Clemson Tigers, not all eyes are focused on the current matchups to expect in Death Valley.
The college football world is waiting to see if tight end Dae’Quan Wright, as well as former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, among others, will be available to play for LSU after causing quite the controversy by reuniting with Lane Kiffin at the NCAA level after being released by the Cleveland Browns following a training camp stint with the NFL team.
Even as college football’s Week 0 has passed, the debate continues over a growing trend: former NFL rookies and other athletes attempting to move from the professional ranks back to college in pursuit of a fifth year of eligibility. The SEC and other major conferences have pushed back on new guidelines, but injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by local judges have generated a series of court proceedings and strained relations among the NCAA, conferences, schools and others.
Ben McDonald, the first overall pick of the 1989 MLB Draft, Olympic gold medalist, and former LSU Tigers star pitcher, appeared on “America Reports” where he told Sandra Smith about his stance on the current stir running through the college ranks.
“Personally, I don’t believe in it,” McDonald explained. “I think once you get to play your four years, for me, it’s time to move on at that point. But things are so different now when you talk about the NIL money and the money that’s out there now, you get why these kids want to come back.
“So, if you can’t make it in the NFL, MLB, wherever, maybe you have that opportunity to return for a fifth year of college and make some money. You don’t blame the players for wanting to continue to play. They love the sport, they want to continue their athletic career. But also, money is involved.”
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One of the NFL’s top agents, Drew Rosenhaus, who also represents Wright, explained why he supports players returning to college if they are within the current “5-for-5” rule set by the NCAA in June, which gives student-athletes five years of eligibility to play five seasons. For one, as McDonald mentioned, there’s the financial perks of returning to college rather than sitting on a practice squad for NFL rookies.
“He is not going to make an NFL team this year,” Rosenhaus said on “One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.” “At best, he would be on a practice squad. He feels playing another year in college would be great for his development, and it will allow him to get bigger, stronger, more experienced and take another shot at the NFL. Oh, by the way, he would make more money in college than he’d make on an NFL practice squad.”
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule recently appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich,” where he added how much of a boost players like Wright got already because they’ve gone against pros in an NFL training camp.
“Twice as good,” Rhule said about Wright’s development having been with the Browns. “I think the hardest thing when you’re coaching these guys, you’re always telling them, ‘Hey, do this. This is what it’s like at the next level.’ It would be at least twice, if not three, times better than they were.”
So, in that respect, McDonald understands a coach like Kiffin wanting to go after these players wishing to get back to college.
“Whether you agree with it or not, if I’m a college coach and I have the opportunity to get a kid that’s got four years of college experience, and he was in an NFL training camp, why would I not want him to come back to my roster? It only allows us a better chance to win,” he said.
“Everybody’s picking on Lane Kiffin because it’s low-hanging fruit for him. There’s been a lot of controversy over Kiffin lately, leaving Ole Miss and the great year he had the last few years at Ole Miss, and now he’s the head coach at LSU. But it’s not an LSU thing. This is across the board. …I don’t totally agree with it, but I understand where it’s at right now. And if I’m a head coach, hey, I want those players. There is pressure to win now, and why not get the best players you can?”
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McDonald added the other side of the argument, believing “it hurts our incoming freshman class because those kids don’t have really nowhere to go with the 5-for-5 deal that’s out there right now.”
Kiffin said that he spoke with his players’ leadership committee, where they were at a consensus to “bring ‘em” into the program if it meant winning this season.
“We understand we have a team that’s practiced together and worked together all offseason, but one of them said, ‘Hey, this is how it works at the next level, and this is how the real world works.’ So, that made me feel a little better in the struggle and being torn back and forth,” Kiffin told reporters on Monday.
Kiffin’s final roster is due to the SEC on Friday, which is the day before the team will take on Clemson. On Thursday, a judge in a Louisiana courtroom will either uphold the temporary restraining order, which would prohibit the SEC from punishing schools if they were to add a player like Wright, or reverse the decision after hearing from the SEC and NCAA following a show-cause order.
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Elsewhere in the SEC, coaches like Texas’ Steve Sarkisian opposed the idea of bringing back players that went pro.
“The fact that somebody out there is going to take a player off of an NFL roster and tell somebody who’s been doing it for nine months to go kick rocks, that doesn’t sit well with me. I think that’s wrong. That, morally, is wrong,” he said, via ESPN.
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