By Chris Marler
Will 2025 be the year Brian Kelly puts up or shuts up?
For a team that didn’t make the College Football Playoff and finished 9-4, LSU sure was getting a lot of national attention last December. None of it was particularly great, either.
Brian Kelly became the butt of a joke and the program took an unnecessary black eye after losing out on longtime commit, and No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood to Michigan. To be fair, Kelly and his staff were told Underwood was firmly committed.
They just happened to lose in a classic recruiting happenstance.
You know the one where a billionaire with no ties to a school, who is the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, decides to buy his girlfriend a quarterback for her alma mater for $12 million. That one. Tale as old as time.
Brian Kelly fell victim to social media punchline culture immediately after. The optics weren’t great considering it happened right as the transfer portal and early signing day began. LSU lost several players to the portal and then lost another five-star commit Kade Phillips to Texas. Again, the optics weren’t great. However the optics didn’t tell the actual story.
Social media punchline culture, Barstool’s army of idiots, and rival fans everywhere loved kicking LSU when they were “down.” Kelly didn’t care. Instead, he went to work.
There’s an old saying everyone is familiar with – when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. In this case, the saying was, “when life hands you a billionaire buying a quarterback for his girlfriend instead of chocolate and roses, take that new surplus of NIL cash and go on a shopping spree in the transfer portal.”
That’s what Kelly did.
The Tigers signed 16 players and finished with the No. 1 ranked class in the country. They also finished with a top ten high school recruiting class as well, their third in three years.
Now the calendar turns to 2025, and the optics have changed. LSU has a loaded roster. They return a ton of talent on defense, and they’ll get one of the best players in the country back from injury in linebacker Harold Perkins. They signed the No. 2 guard, the No. 2 EDGE, the No. 3 wide receiver and safety in the transfer portal.
On top of that they return arguably the best quarterback in the SEC–and maybe the country–in Garrett Nussmeier. The fifth-year senior signal caller will be accompanied by one the deepest group of receivers in Baton Rouge in the last several years. He’ll also be accompanied by something that people aren’t talking nearly enough about, and that’s a coach with a chip on his shoulder. A massive one.
Brian Kelly said it clearly and directly last December. He kept the receipts, and his expectation is to see everyone in the national title game next year. Now, he just has to put up or shut up. Stay tuned.
