BATON ROUGE – Lane Kiffin declined to comment further on the Jayden Daniels jersey number story Aug. 13. News broke late the night of Aug. 12 that the former LSU football quarterback and his legal representation had informed LSU back on Aug. 5 that it immediately stop using his name, image and likeness. The cease-and-desist letter that Daniels' attorney Adam Kenner sent to LSU Athletics Director Verge Ausberry was a direct response to the school allowing sophomore cornerback DJ Pickett to wear No. 5, the QB's old number. Asked for comment about the saga Thursday, Kiffin said he had nothing further to say on the matter than what he said about it last week. JAYDEN DANIELS, LSU AT ODDS Jayden Daniels' attorney informs LSU to immediately stop using his NIL "DJ is in (5) and that was a situation that was promised to him in recruiting here for him to sign here," Kiffin said last Wednesday. "I've done a lot of research on that with the family and the representatives and the people, so really I didn't have a decision to make. It was promised to the kid. It wasn't done for whatever. I'm not going to get into that. "I'm not going to judge something I wasn't here for but when the kid is promised something to come to school, he should wear it. He should be honored what he was told so he's wearing it."
Daniels' attorneys are arguing that LSU no longer has rights to utilize his NIL as per the terms in his deal with LSU stated that its rights expired 180 days following his departure from the university. "LSU no longer possesses any contractual control authorization, license, consent or other right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, publish, transmit, advertise, promote, commercialize or otherwise exploit Mr. Daniels' NIL," the letter states. "This prohibition includes any use of Mr. Daniels' NIL in connection with accomplishments achieves during his tenure at LSU including without limitation any individual honors such as the Heisman Trophy." The letter further states LSU's receipt of it will be "deemed knowing and willful and will be pursued vigorously through all available legal and equitable remedies without further notice." While Tommy Casanova, Jerry Stovall and Charles Alexander have had their jerseys "retired" — LSU is planning to retire Bert Jones' No. 7 jersey this upcoming season — the only number that can't be worn again by a football player is Billy Cannon's No. 20. LSU's other recent Heisman Trophy winning player, quarterback Joe Burrow, has not had his No. 9 jersey retired but no player has worn the number since 2019. Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lane Kiffin declines comment on Jayden Daniels' No. 5 jersey saga