LSU has resorted to using Lane Kiffin's dog as a heat shield for the kind of dumb scandal that could only happen in college football. This would not be notable if it were not more than three weeks before the Tigers season begins.
Thursday morning, in the midst of abattle with former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jayden Daniels overthe allocation of his former No. 5 jersey -- one that includes a cease and desist that may as well scream "I'VE ALREADY PEAKED IN LIFE" -- the program sent four pictures out to its 1.3 million followers on Instagram. Each one featured the golden retriever Kiffin once stranded in Oxford, Mississippi as the high profile head coach escaped the rage of Ole Miss fans on his way to a new job. Juice Kiffin, smiling in all four,
is exactly the heat shield no reasonable person could yell at in the comments...
Right?
The surprise isn't that LSU has already taken the Tony Soprano approach of appeasing sociopaths by appealing to their love of animals. It's that it's already happened. Juice would have been perfect to deploy after a home loss to Alabama or a strength coach catching flak for bad tweets. Instead, he's out here trying to distract from a dispute from a quarterback responsible forthe 28th and 38th best seasons in program history and the team that somehow wasn't better than that despite a Heisman Trophy season in half of them.
I fear the Tigers have depleted their ammunition in the college football culture war early. Then again, no one is going to complain about more pictures of good boys. That is, as long as they come with 10 wins and a College Football Playoff invitation.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: LSU has already resorted to dog pics in battle over Jayden Daniels' jersey number
