BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU head coach Lane Kiffin is standing by the Tigers' decision to keep the number five jersey with sophomore cornerback D.J. Pickett.
The decision comes after former LSU quarterback and current Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels sent a cease-and-desist letter to the university, telling LSU to stop using his name, image and likeness.
Daniels wore number five during his two seasons at LSU and became the program's third Heisman Trophy winner in 2023. The number has not been officially retired, but no LSU player had worn it since Daniels left for the NFL.
For Pickett, however, the number has significance of its own. He says he has worn No. 5 since he was four years old and that the number was promised to him during his recruitment to LSU.
“I wore the number my whole life since I was 4 years old. It’s a number I was promised,” Pickett said.
“I wish Jayden the best. Good player, and he did real good here, so. That’s all.”LSU head coach Lane Kiffin has previously defended the decision to give Pickett the number, saying the promise was made to Pickett during his recruitment before Kiffin took over the program. Kiffin said LSU should honor what the player was told.
When asked about the situation Thursday, Kiffin pointed back to his previous comments.
“I commented a week ago on that, and so that's a comment that I had and we're moving forward.”
Daniels addressed the situation Thursday via inststagram saying
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