BATON ROUGE — Lane Kiffin said Monday he has kept his team focused on upcoming opponent Clemson, even in the face of a looming court hearing that could determine the eligibility of some of his players who were previously on NFL rosters.

In his final preseason press conference, Kiffin did not shy away from the scale of Saturday's season opener and admitted he is not used to playing teams like Clemson right out of the gate. 

"I think we've done a lot to prepare because, again, this is a really challenging opener, one we really haven't been a part of, you know, we made our schedules differently," Kiffin said, referencing his last six seasons spent as the head coach at Ole Miss.

Kiffin said it will not be a game to test things out or see how a freshman player looks. He even staged a highly detailed mock game on Saturday, featuring the marching band, the pregame walk down Victory Hill and even "fans" participating in halftime and timeout contests, all in preparation for Clemson. 

However, just days from Kiffin's big Baton Rouge debut, it still is not clear whether all of Kiffin's players will be able to play. 

Several LSU athletes, including football players Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright, have pending legal action against the NCAA and Southeastern Conference challenging both leagues' eligibility rules. A Baton Rouge judge granted those players a temporary restraining order against both leagues, plus SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, declaring them eligible to play despite a recently implemented league policy that bans players who have been on professional rosters. 

At a Baton Rouge court hearing on Thursday, the SEC will make its case for why it should be able to enforce its own eligibility rules. If the hearing goes well for the SEC, Harris, Wright and others will be deemed ineligible. If it goes the players' way, they will be granted a preliminary injunction and allowed to play. 

Kiffin, who said he has "lived in chaos for a long time," is not worried about the national discussions and debates surrounding the eligibility debacle affecting his players' focus going into the season.

He pointed to Ole Miss' game against Oklahoma last year, when people outside the program questioned the Rebels' focus as rumors of Kiffin's departure for LSU swirled. Ole Miss did not lose another game until the Fiesta Bowl against Miami, albeit without Kiffin for most of that time. The coaching journeyman did leave Ole Miss for LSU and was highly scrutinized for that decision as well. 

Kiffin said it does not matter if national media or other fanbases understand why his team does what it does. He doesn't make decisions based on how they will affect his reputation, he says, and he has no problem taking the hit publicly. 

"We're going to have chaos, but it's going to be controlled chaos, and our team's going to understand why we do what we do," Kiffin said of his program. 

The Tigers' new head coach is confident in his team and said he is looking for his team to play an exciting style of football on Saturday. 

No. 11 LSU will take on Clemson on Saturday in Death Valley at 6:30 p.m. Watch the game on WBRZ.

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