Lane Kiffin has plenty of complaints, but LSU’s latest loss starts with the man in charge

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Poking the SEC in the eye as often as he could this offseason.

It’s easy to pile on a coach that has brought all of this on himself, coming out of his second loss over his first six games, but it’s time for Lane Kiffin to wear this.

As college football’s top villain, this isn’t how it was supposed to look for him in Year 1 at LSU.

And now, excuses are beginning to pile up for the Tigers’ coach, who harped on officiating after Saturday night’s overtime loss at Kentucky. Bothered by the explanation he received from officials surrounding the Wildcats’ successful fourth-and-goal tush push to end the first half, Kiffin said the play should’ve been blown dead when Kenny Minchey’s forward progress appeared to have stopped.

“The line (judge) just said, ‘Hey, in that situation, there’s just too much at stake,'” Kiffin said Sunday. “For forward progress being stopped, you blow the whistle for protection and because that’s the rule. Don’t blow it because it’s such a big play.”

Kiffin disagreed with the reasoning for holding the whistle.

“The rules are the rules. So, if you see it that way, then see it that way,” Kiffin said. “That’s my complaint with it. It all comes down to just blowing a whistle. So, it is what it is.”

Kiffin also took issue with the clock operation during overtime on Kentucky’s two-point attempt and was bothered that officials gave the Wildcats a timeout instead of flagging them for a false start before Minchey’s game-winning keeper.

“The false start happens, they’re going to move it back, and they’re going to kick the extra point, and we’re going to go to second overtime,” Kiffin said.

None of these complaints are made, by the way, if LSU successfully stops Kentucky’s two-point try and wins the game, 34-33. Instead, they’re magnified after a superior roster failed to deliver as a double-digit favorite on the road.

LSU had a chance to ice the game with 1:46 to play, facing a fourth-and-1 situation from its own 43-yard line. Kiffin’s never been shy to go for it, but he was in this instance, on the road in a conference matchup that teeters on the must-win connotation given what’s left on the Tigers’ schedule.

“The way their kicker had missed two field goals,” Kiffin said. “Worst scenario — we go to OT, and that’s what happened.”

Wouldn’t that be the reason you keep your offense on the field and try to move the chains?

If you’re already confident Kentucky kicker Adam Zouagui — who had previously whiffed on a pair of chip-shot field goal attempts in the fourth quarter — was going to miss another kick or, at worst, send the game to an extra session, why not try to avoid the scenario altogether?

Kiffin’s explanation for punting the football and not trying to win the game in victory formation in regulation by simply picking up another year was strange.

After last season’s loss at Georgia while he coached at Ole Miss, Kiffin said he kept a note in his pocket that said, “‘Hey, when you get up, and you’ve got a chance, man, you’ve got to go for it. Don’t kick field goals. Don’t get conservative.'”

Kiffin’s team led by two touchdowns in that one and lost. At Kentucky on Saturday night, the Tigers had already dodged two game-tying bullets on special teams, but decided to give the Wildcats another crack at tying the game.

Following LSU’s first loss of the season at Ole Miss, Kiffin, a few days after the game, harped on the music volume bothering his team’s offense. Regardless of the fact that his offense struggled to find a consistent rhythm, with quarterback Sam Leavitt bailing out of the pocket, Kiffin pushed another narrative.

“Those games happen, and a lot of factors go into that,” Kiffin said during the following week’s SEC teleconference, referring to the atmosphere at Ole Miss. “We didn’t protect really well around him. The crowd noise and music being played all the way through the snap when the center’s hand is on the ball. Again and again.”

SEC rules require music inside stadiums to be cut once the center touches the ball, and Kiffin argued that wasn’t the case last month. Perhaps Vaught-Hemingway Stadium’s all-time attendance record had something to do with the noise and LSU’s lack of execution.

After sliding 10 spots to No. 22 in Sunday’s latest AP rankings, the Tigers (4-2) will have to get hot down the stretch to get to the College Football Playoff — this season’s ultimate goal. They host 16th-ranked Mississippi State this weekend and travel to Auburn on Oct. 24 before a chance to regroup during the open date.

In November, LSU hosts sixth-ranked Alabama and No. 7 Texas, goes to 14th-ranked Tennessee and ends the campaign with a matchup against Arkansas. A nine-win finish might not be enough to get to the 12-team bracket, considering the strength of record advantage other potential 9-3 teams in the SEC could have over the Tigers.

As it stands, the “ranked” win over Texas A&M a few weeks ago will not hold water when the CFP selection committee’s first top 25 is released the first week of November. LSU has spotlight opportunities ahead and needs to deliver for Kiffin to earn his paycheck in Year 1.