It turns out LSU does not need any more NFL talent on its roster. It is already oozing with it, and it was on full display on a steamy Saturday night in the No. 11 Tigers' resounding 51–10 win against unranked Clemson. [1] Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt complemented 113 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns with 230 yards and a touchdown passing; Wisconsin transfer Dilin Jones ran downhill; together they combined for four rushing touchdowns. [1] Edge rusher Jordan Ross returned an interception for a score. [1] No. 11 LSU rode the Lane Train to 644 yards of total offense and domination in all three phases. [1][2] Saturday morning's file said the game would not answer the injunction. It did not. It answered the distraction question instead.
The week was eligibility theater from Monday to Friday. A local judge granted Wright and Harris a fifth year and barred punishment; the conference and the NCAA howled; Clemson's counsel warned the game contract; the playoff office blessed the ban; Downton threatened contempt, then cooled it, confirming both men off the roster with two spots open and no Axon ruling. [1] Saturday night played the epilogue the theater needed: with scouts from 17 NFL teams watching and 102,321 waiting through a two-hour weather delay, LSU played like the controversy was a rumor. [1] Kiffin infused the roster with 48 transfers — the country's top portal class — and they executed like veterans: 31–3 at halftime, a rejuvenated run game, a suffocating front, a well-called plan. [1]
Kiffin said afterward he was glad they played well, because otherwise the narrative writes itself: "even if we won close and ugly, the whole story would have been, 'Man, I screwed the team up by doing this.'" [1] "I've been criticized heavily the last two weeks, and I get that. But my job is not to please you and worry about what you're going to write. My job is what I believe is right, and I believe we were fighting for what was right for those kids." [1] At halftime, leading 31–3, he had joked to television: "Imagine if we had pro players." [3] The joke is the thread tying both files — the roster left two men off and the scoreboard never noticed.
The personnel underneath the scoreboard explains why it never noticed. Leavitt, hurt last year, looked like the 2024 version who carried Arizona State to the Big 12 title and a playoff spot. [1] Jones ran like the downhill back he was before turf toe against Ohio State ended his season. [1] The line pushed Clemson around; the receivers blocked downfield for the breakaways. [1] Defensive coordinator Blake Baker schemed first-year starter Christopher Vizzina into the pick-six, jumping his lane at 6-foot-5 and rumbling thirty yards. [1] Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. mixed tempo and short throws over a run game that looks nothing like last year's 3.6-yards-a-carry, 104-yards-a-game version — LSU outgained Clemson by 125 rushing yards between the tackles in the first half alone. [1] Kiffin's read on his staff: "There's no better numbers, yardage, points, than anybody in the country." [1] Numbers, yardage, points: 644, 51, 10. [1][2]
The details vindicate the depth chart Kiffin actually submitted. Wright and Harris stayed off; Junior Tuihalamaka — same court case, no NFL paper — dressed and made one first-half tackle. [1] The defense allowed one first down in a half, its stingiest since September 2022. [1] LSU's postgame record keeps it procedural: smothered all three phases, Leavitt's debut complete, Kiffin meeting the press early Sunday. [2] The AP's one-liner holds for the edition: the debut was delayed, by no means derailed. [3]
Nothing about the law changed between kickoff and the handshake. The injunction stands, the spots stay open, the men stay enrolled, Axon stays silent, contempt stays cooled. [1] What changed is the leverage around all of it: a coach who spent two weeks as a national eligibility villain now holds a 41-point receipt that the week never touched his team. Leavitt said the lawsuits were never a thought process in the building — heads down, grind, block it out. [1] Saturday night, the building's version won 51–10. The court's version plays on, dateless.
-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos