For Lane Kiffin to revive LSU in CFP race, Tigers need Arch Manning injection - USA Today

LSU recently posted on the video screens in its team facility a screed hundreds of words long that epitomized why “TLDR” (Too long, didn’t read) memes exist.

What it lacked in pithiness, it compensated for in corniness and included such lines as, “When you win, everybody loves you. When you lose, everybody has an opinion.”

It read like a chatbot’s attempt at an “Us Against the World” motivational ploy and lacked authenticity. To my human brain, it read more like, “Wah, wah, we keep losing, and everybody is being so mean!”

Three words. One necessary mentality.

Basically, Kiffin needs his team to become Arch Manning.

That is, do your best work after you’re counted out. Fight hardest at the darkest hour.

That’s the only way LSU can rally its way into the College Football Playoff. The task starts this weekend against suddenly hot Texas.

Does Kiffin need Arch as his quarterback in 2027? I've heard worse ideas.

In the meantime, LSU requires an injection of the resilience Manning showed after his career and Texas’ season started walking the plank in October.

Say what you will about Manning — I’ve said more than I ever planned to — just don’t say this guy has an ounce of quit in him.

Dare Manning to transfer, and that’s when he’ll finally prove himself worthy of being the QB1 at a school like Texas.

Just a few weeks ago, Manning was a living, breathing turnover machine, and some of his teammates appeared more interested in being content creators than serious football players. The criticism extended up to the head man. I stripped Steve Sarkisian of his “Guru Club” membership card.

With Texas’ season on the brink, Manning delivered the best first half of his life against Mississippi, and the Longhorns showed a spine in some tense final moments of a season-saving win.

What did Manning have to say about his rise from the ashes?

Well, he darn-near thanked us for cutting him down to size and serving him the world’s biggest slice of humble pie. He dined on doubt.

“I’ve been hyped up all my life,” Manning said after that Ole Miss game. “I think I kind of like being disregarded and counted out.”

I wanted to know more about Arch’s thinking on this, so I asked him what’s so great about being counted out.

“There's something about proving people wrong,” he said with a smile.

Kiffin once experienced that. He rebuilt his career, found some peace, and tasted success like never before at Ole Miss, a place where success doesn’t always come easily. Then, after his detour in the hero’s lane, Kiffin proved the naysayers right when he burned it all down for a defector’s exit to LSU.

How’s that going? Well, let’s just say LSU wouldn’t need a motivational on its video screens if Kiffin’s first season was going well. The honeymoon ended around the time Tiger Stadium hollowed out midway through the fourth quarter last weekend, before Alabama fans chanted “Rammer Jammer.”

Whatever spark Kiffin captured the past few years, he left it in Oxford.

Manning’s spark that started against Ole Miss grew hotter. Since that game, Manning’s been so good that even the zebras are eating out of his hand, and his incompletions go for 14-yard gains against Missouri.

I’d insert another compliment or two about Manning’s performance the past three games, but in deference to Arch’s preference for being doubted, I’ll say I still don’t implicitly trust Texas (or Manning), and this might be a case of terminal lucidity.

Anyway, Texas looks good lately, and LSU appears cooked, and when the teams meet at Tiger Stadium, Texas will have the chance to pull the plug on LSU’s season.

This is something of a homecoming for Manning, who played high school ball in New Orleans and attended LSU games growing up. Kiffin tried to recruit Arch to Ole Miss, but the Mannings probably knew Lane too well to ever let that happen. As Archie put it after Kiffin left for LSU, Ole Miss would be better off without its “narcissist, jerk coach.”

Kiffin’s heel-turn undoubtedly inflamed Archie, but I’m betting his opinions of Kiffin formed over a series of years, and not overnight.

Interestingly, Kiffin’s quick-twitch offense and preference for dual-threat quarterbacks probably would suit Manning well, if he transferred after this season. That’d require Arch to quit on Texas, and so far, he’s shown no quit-itch.

LSU could benefit from the type of never-say-die mentality we’ve seen from Manning. When the going got tough for LSU against Ole Miss, Kentucky and Alabama, Kiffin’s Tigers got to losing.

Now, a renegade coach is trying to convince LSU’s roster full of mercenaries to embrace “THE DARK SIDE OF BEING THE VILLAIN.” Several more paragraphs followed of slop suited to a Pat McAfee album.

You’d be forgiven if you read all that and confused the dark side of being the villain with the pathetic side of victimhood.

Truth be told, not since LSU incinerated Clemson in Week 1 has it looked like much of a villain. It’s more of a sad clown.

Not everyone’s built to prove doubters wrong.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.