Lane Kiffin has put LSU Football BACK at the top of College Football

Straight to Glenn West over with the Bengal Tiger on three to continue the conversation around LSU football, both on the field and sadly for Glenn off the field as well. We just can't escape that conversation. Glenn, good morning. Thank you for joining us. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me on. How are you? We're doing well. Doing well. It's as much as it was a high on Monday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday after that game Saturday night. Had a rude awakening yesterday evening when you start having to read court cases, court filings again and figure out what's going on. I'll ask you one question on it. Maybe Wyatt or Lloyd will have a secondary one, but I want to spend the majority of the time talking football. I'll just ask you, where does this currently stand and what do the LSU fans need to expect in the next 48 hours with this situation? Yeah, so essentially what the SEC has done here is they've filed an amendment to their complaint or their lawsuit against LSU here that's ... As of 10 minutes ago, Ross Dellinger actually tweeted it out that it's still on schedule for today, for Wednesday, this federal lawsuit that's been filed against LSU by the SEC in an Alabama federal court. Essentially what it says is the SEC is essentially saying we just want the okay from a federal court that we can have a ruling or essentially a vote on the guidelines of what it would take to expel a university from the league. Essentially they're just setting it up here on Wednesday to try to get the okay from a federal court to have this vote on Thursday. We have not heard from the SEC since LSU made this statement, or since LSU has elected to fill its 105-man roster and Daquan Wright and Zabin Harris are not on the roster. I think that hopefully that statement will be coming in the next 24 hours or something. As of now, what you need to know is that today that there will be a federal court case that is heard by an Alabama judge that essentially will rule that whether or not the SEC has the power to do this, and then on Thursday there is a scheduled vote, a scheduled meeting that could lead to a vote on whether or not the conference decides to expel LSU from the SEC. You need 11 of the 16 conference presidents to vote yes on this, and we'll see if they end up having that vote or if that is not something that happens. My guess is that right now, with LSU electing to put the 105-man roster together with Aiden Anding and Gabriel Relaford officially on it, as opposed to Wright and Harris, that they don't go to this extreme measure. It's just honestly crazy that it's gotten to this point, and I think most people are just kind of ready for this to be over. I think from an LSU perspective, I don't know what they can do between now and Thursday, what else they can do between now and Thursday, maybe make a public statement, maybe just continue to have dialogue with the SEC like, hey, we'll abide by your rules or whatever, but I think what they did yesterday in terms of essentially waving the white flag and not adding these two guys to the roster is going to eliminate any kind of possibility of them being expelled from the league. I didn't see much of a world beforehand where that would happen, and I certainly don't see one now. After everything you just laid out, it doesn't seem like that they would be very interested in kicking LSU out of the SEC or that they actually have any precedent to do so, whether you want to say lack of institutional control or not, but do you think that they're doing all of this just so they can flex, I guess, their muscle and say the SEC can take you to court, and if it does, essentially they're trying to let the public know and let the conference know that they have the power and can kind of be the governing body for your 16 members? Yeah, the more and more people that we talk to, the more and more that sentiment is laid across here. This is just, whether it was going to be LSU, whether it was going to be another school, this was going to be the issue the SEC was really going to come down hard on because they are all about, and Greg Sankey is all about, self-governance and wanting to have more control for the conferences. What does it look like if you can't control your 16-member group, all 16 of them, from doing something like this? The whole thing, to me, is just nuts, though, because LSU did kind of abide by their rule. They never put them on the roster. They flirted with the idea, and so if you want to kick somebody out for flirting, then I guess maybe that's something that you can consider, but LSU never officially put them on the roster. They were following the court order from the state of Louisiana all throughout this process. They were very upfront about that with the conference, and the SEC was very disappointed and didn't want that to be something that happened. I think now that all this has been settled on LSU's end, the real massive punishments are not going to be heavily considered, but I could see a scenario here, too, where, because of Kiffin's comments at halftime and all that stuff, that maybe the SEC gives them a slap on the wrist, makes them pay a fine or something like that, but it's hard for me to imagine that 48 hours from now, LSU's not going to be a part of the SEC or anything like that. They've been in the SEC for 93 years, and you're telling me that the last three weeks is going to scrap all of that history, all of that time in which LSU has been a founding member of this conference? I don't see that happening at all. It'd been a pretty good one at that, but also, do you think that- Look at their brand. I mean, just look at Saturday Night, and you're telling me that this is the most talked-about program in the country right now, and probably the biggest moneymaker in the conference right now. It's drawing the most eyes, probably, of any program in the country, and you're going to kick them to the street for not rostering two players? It doesn't make sense. Not at all, but I do wonder, and this is just me, my dumb brain, going, well, because of all of the lead-up, how well LSU played, kind of the way that Lane Kiffin is not- I mean, he is not one to continue- he's not going to stop being himself. Do you think that if the punishment is to come down the pipeline, that it could be a suspension for Lane Kiffin, they don't want him at Ole Miss, maybe for- like, try to protect him from himself and protect him from actually being out there? Because I don't- it's going to be a raucous environment, to say the least. Yeah, I- that's a tough one for me, because I think that you need to have him there. Like, the whole point of this game is his return, and obviously the circus, the storylines around this are going to be great, and I think the atmosphere is going to be one that I personally am looking forward to, but probably never experienced before, in terms of the hostility and all that stuff. So, you know, I don't- I don't think a suspension will come for this particular game, like, I don't know, maybe they say, hey, you got to sit out one game, but you get to pick, like, could that be McNeese in a few weeks? Like, I just don't know what the conference will come down with, in terms of a suspension for Kiffin. I would lean probably more so towards the fine punishment than anything else, but again, that's also just me just spitballing and just kind of reading between the lines of kind of what could happen and what is actually likely to happen, and I just- I don't know that a suspension is something, especially a suspension for the Ole Miss game, is something that the SEC would even want. I mean, like, I just- I think that there's too much- there's going to be so much focus on this game, and on Kiffin, and on LSU, and Ole Miss, and just all the chaos of the last ten months that I just- I think you need them out there on the field. You need them out there on the field, and LSU certainly needs them out there on the field, because Ole Miss, say what you want, they won that game on Saturday, and it didn't look great winning it, especially on defense, but you're going to need all your- all hands on deck to go into that place and win that game, in my opinion. And speaking of football, LSU went out there, and everybody thought they were going to maybe be distracted or wondering, maybe the roster's not that good, that's why they need these pro players, but then they go out there and they just stomp Clemson 51-10. I want to start with the atmosphere. What were- you've been in some big games in Tigers Stadium, football in general. Where does Saturday night against Clemson, Lane Kiffin's debut rank among those other ones? Yeah, it's up there. I mean, you can go back to, you know, LSU Alabama 2018 with, you know, that pregame atmosphere. I know the game itself was a bit of a dud, but the pregame atmosphere for that one is still kind of the benchmark for me in terms of just how many people were there and just the excitement level around that game. At that time, I would say 2022 Alabama, of course, even 2024 Ole Miss was really a great crowd and a great, you know, first quarter to fourth quarter overtime experience. But this one was right there with it, and I just think that, you know, the 10 months of build up here for this era to get going and for them to perform in the way that they did, I just think heightens it even more. I mean, just by the end of the first quarter, guys, I mean, was there any doubt that LSU was going to blow them out? I mean, like, they just completely took control of that game from start to finish, and it was just really impressive to watch. Whenever you look at that environment, have you ever- obviously the fans were incredible staying through a rain delay, which almost seemed to, like, add to the excitement factor of, like, no, we've decided that everybody's going to this game, and it doesn't matter what happens, but from the production aspect of LSU football, have you ever been a part of something like that, whether it kind of moves in with, like, the spot the ball thing where LSU's going super fast, you go in and out of commercial break, like, the music's blaring, you have Cookie on the sideline, you have basketball being played, like, I felt like from the beginning to the end, there's a laser show, like, I felt like I didn't go to just see a football game, I saw almost like a performance, like a concert. Yeah, that's what Kiffin has said, really, for the last week and a half, whenever we've talked to him, is like, you know, they want to win, but they want to win with style, too, and I think a big part of that is the performance element to the game, like, just, you know, having Theo Vaughn walk down with them in the Tiger Walk, and all these, you know, kind of social media celebrities, and Libby Dunn, and all that stuff, you got all the recruits hanging out there pregame, and I mean, I went down on the field pregame, guys, and like, it can get pretty crowded down there in some atmospheres, but you were like shoulder to shoulder with people, and you just, you couldn't move, and so there were a ton of people down there pregame trying to get a good look at this team, and just kind of baking, you know, basking the atmosphere there, and so it was certainly unique, it was one of the ones that you'll remember, but I think that there could be a couple of those this year, if they keep playing like this, I mean, A&M in a few weeks will certainly be electric, no matter what happens in this Ole Miss game, I think the Alabama game later this year, and Texas later this year, if LSU is still playing for something, and meaningful, and in terms of a post-season bid, then those two games will be off the rails, too, so there's still a lot more coming here, this could be just the preview, and if that was just the preview, I can't wait to see what the main event looks like here over the next, you know, three or four months. Yeah, no, I completely agree. The quarterbacks perform at Sam Levitt, the third quarterback in LSU history to throw for 200-plus yards and run for 100-plus, behind, of course, two Heisman winners in Burrow and Daniels, what were your thoughts, and finally getting a real look at Sam Levitt, we saw bits and pieces during fall camp, of course nothing during spring, and you heard reports that it was pretty special in some of those scrimmages, but then for him to go out there and perform to that level, what were your thoughts in game one? I thought he looked great, I thought the running aspect of it in particular was something we heard about in fall camp, and how he was really aggressive with his legs, and that certainly carried over with, you know, his 113 yards, and he just, the way that he runs is just so electric, I mean, like, you see him, you watch him run, and I almost kind of keep an eye on his left arm as much as his right arm, do y'all notice his left arm when he's running, he's just flailing that thing around, yeah, he is like, yeah, he is like, you know, Josh Jordan over at third base for LSU baseball, waving a guy in and out of third base, so that to me, I mean, he was, Levitt did a really nice job of setting the tone early, I think, with his legs, certainly LSU, I think, realized early on they could have a lot of success running at the Clemson defense and overpowering them at the defensive line and in the front seven, and so, you know, him and Dylan Jones did a really nice job, I mean, by, what, five, six minute mark of the second quarter, they had rushed for more yards than they did in any game last year, and so, that was a great tone to set there, but, you know, I thought Levitt was great with their legs, and I thought the passing game over the course of the three quarters that he played really evolved, too, I mean, I think you could probably say they got off to a little bit of a slower start throwing the ball, but by the end of the third quarter, I think he went seven to nine in the third quarter for well over 100 yards and a touchdown and was hitting Winston Watkins in stride, he hit, I think, Eugene Wilson and a couple other guys, so they did a really nice job, I think, of overall just laying out the perfect game plan for Clemson and sticking to it and just consistently hitting them, I mean, there were not a ton of, like, explosive, explosive plays, like 50 plus yarders, there was just a lot of 12, 13, 15, 20-yard gains, and they just consistently put pressure on Clemson, and that's kind of what happens when you end up setting your own program record for first downs with 38, so. Cool, and then defensively, I want to ask you about that linebacking core, specifically, they were, that defensive front, Jordan Ross was excellent, Principal Mamie Ellen played great, I thought those true freshmen and the veterans in the middle held their own as well, but that I thought just showed off Witt Weeks, it felt like every third down was making the play, what were your thoughts on that linebacking group in game one? Yeah, I thought they played really well, they were really fast, it was really great to see Witt have that kind of game, you know, after battling so many injuries last year, and you just, you wanted to see what a fully healthy Witt Weeks looked like, and he was really, really moving and just looks great in that number seven, making plays in the backfield, and so I think, you know, but to your point, a lot of the credit goes up front to those guys, you know, because they really, they pushed Clemson off the line of scrimmage, and it allowed Weeks and Daughtery and these guys to have plays and to make plays in the second level, so, you know, major hat tip to Deuce Geralds, to, you know, Stephon Green played a lot in this game, Dominic McKinley played great in this game, I think that really across the board, the defensive line was just a huge winner for me, when you talk about finishing with 11 tackles for loss and four sacks, you know, you got to have a great pressure up front in order to accomplish those kinds of things, and those guys from Uman Neon to Jordan Ross, Dylan Carpenter, and then the guys in the middle, I thought, did a really tremendous job of just, you know, pushing off, pushing Clemson off the line of scrimmage and really never getting them any kind of time and any kind of rhythm, I mean, that just really allowed for the secondary to not have much, to not have much to do. We asked Marcus Cooley yesterday in player interviews, hey, like, you know, what was it like watching the defensive line and those guys up front have a great game, and he's like, it's great for me because I didn't have anything to do in the back half of the defense, they were just, they were making all the plays, so I just kind of sat back there and watched, but, you know, it was a great first game for the defense, Blake Baker was certainly in his bag, and you can see, you know, why I think he's going to be somebody that's going to be on the market this year for a couple of major head coaching jobs if they continue to play like this. And speaking, you brought up the trenches, that defensive front, I want to switch sides to the offensive line. I want to ask you about the two tackles, because I feel like there's kind of two different conversations. Weston Davis, I think, is a great representation of why there needed to be a refresh, a new staff, and what the scheme and those things can change. He wasn't perfect or flawless, but you saw such an improvement from what it was last year for 75 on the right side, and then on Jordan Seton's front, is he the best left tackle in the country? Jesus, he's certainly up there. I mean, I can't remember exactly what the PFF, you know, number was, but I think they said, you know, something like 38 snaps that he played or whatever it was, and he didn't allow a single pressure or anything like that. And so, you know, I think outside of the one penalty where he got a little guy and pushed him out of the, you know, pushed him into the line, set the tone there was probably a little bit of a silly mistake on his part. But, you know, LSU's offensive line, I thought, held up fine, you know, especially in the run game, like that we'd heard about the run game all offseason in terms of just that being the element of this offensive line and to develop the most. And when you run for 309 yards, it certainly helps. But, you know, there's certainly room to grow. Seton talked about it yesterday when we asked him, and Kiffin certainly talked about it on Monday, too, when that question was brought up. The offensive line, I think, from a passing perspective, you know, Levitt and just the way that he's able to move is able to kind of help, you know, help you escape some of those breakdowns. And so I think the offensive line, you know, knows that it has some work to do there, and we'll continue to get better over the course of the season. But, like, again, it certainly helps when you have a guy like that can move like Levitt and escape the pocket. And I thought he did a really nice job of knowing when to run and knowing when to kind of sit back and make a throw. So I thought the guys up front, though, did their job. And, you know, there's really nothing much you can nitpick when you win 51-10. No, exactly right. They play Louisiana Tech this weekend. How much confidence did the leaked halftime speech give you in their ability to play up to the standard this weekend against a lesser opponent? Yeah, it was pretty fiery from Coach Kiffin. I didn't know he had that in him. I'm sure that's a very popular sentiment that's been going on since that audio leaked. But, yeah, look, I think that the way this team carries themselves is very professional. And I think that starts with the head coach, and he's still in that kind of mindset because, you know, he said from the very beginning here, you know, these guys are paying very well now to be able to come in and play and do their jobs. And, you know, there's certainly the school element of it. But, you know, they're here for football and they're here to win football games and work and prepare for that. And I think it tells you a lot about this team when, you know, immediately after the game, when you win 51-10, you're thinking just nothing but good vibes from the group, right? And that, honestly, from the player perspective, at least, wasn't what I personally experienced. Like, we asked weeks after the game and he said, well, there's, you know, there's some things, you know, this was a good performance for us, but there are a lot of things we need to clean up. Sam Leavitt, same thing. There are a lot of things we need to clean up. I'm going to challenge the guys to be better next week than we were this week. Like, that kind of mindset and mentality, I think, is something that shouldn't give fans any kind of worrying about, you know, a second week, you know, drop off or not like, you know, not fully, you know, attacking this opponent like they did the Clemson opponent. And so, I think that, you know, look, especially the news that's come out this week from the SEC, I'm not saying that the players have seen it or they're going to have, you know, any kind of extra pent up emotions, but I certainly think that they'll be very well focused and intently, you know, organized to win this game and win it handily to a point where hopefully you don't have to play much of your starters in the second half. Well, Glenn, we appreciate you make some time for us. What do you all have going on over with the Bengal Tiger on three? Yeah, certainly lots of coverage from the last couple days and everything that's going on with the SEC. You know, there'll be another big recruiting weekend for LSU with visitors coming in and out. And so, I think they want to make the most of every home game that they have this year. And they certainly got off to a great start against Clemson and they'll have some more big time visitors in. So, we'll be continuing to monitor that. But no, I appreciate you guys for having me on. It's been fun and look forward to doing it more this season as well. Yep. We'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. All right. There he is, Glenn West riding over there with the Bengal Tiger on three. As of right now, you should take in all the LSU content you can because it's fun on the football field. It's off the football field and it's just never a dull moment here on LSU football as it never should be.