LSU destroys Clemson in Lane Kiffins debut: Imagine if we had pro players

BATON ROUGE, La.— Lane Kiffin’s LSU debut was delayed, but by no means derailed.Sam Leavitt complemented his 113 yards and two rushing touchdowns with 230 yards and a TD passing, edge rusher Jordan Ross returned an interception for a score, and No.

11 LSU rode the “Lane Train” to a resounding 51-10 victory over Clemson on Saturday night.“Imagine if we had pro players,” Kiffin said lightheartedly at the end of a brief TV interview at halftime, by which time LSU led 31-3, had outgained Clemson 336 yards to 54, and had 21 first downs to Clemson’s one.Kiffin has gotten commitments from two of his former Mississippi players — tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris — who spent part of this offseason with NFL teams.A Louisiana court ruling cleared the way for him to place them on his roster this week.

But in the face of fervent opposition from the NCAA and SEC, he elected not to do so.At least, not yet.“If we would have won close or ugly, the whole story would have been I screwed the whole team up” by trying to sign recent pros, Kiffin said.

“I have been criticized heavily the last two weeks, and I get it.But my job is to not please you and what you are going to write.

My job is what I believe is right — and I believe we were fighting for what is right for those kids.”A sellout crowd at 102,000-seat Tiger Stadium was scattered by a downpour and a lightning delay that pushed the start back nearly two hours.Still, Death Valley was packed when the game began — and fans didn’t have to watch more than one quarter to see Kiffin’s up-tempo offense live up to its reputation, running 23 plays for 140 yards.

LSU finished with 644 yards of offense while handing Clemson its worst loss in about 30 years.“The best thing about that game is it’s over,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.“Just really poor performance, not what we worked for or expected.“You’re not going to win if you can’t stop the run,” Swinney ...