By Hunt Palmer
Many questioned Brian Kelly’s decision to leave Notre Dame for LSU.
While $100 million does its part in incentivizing anyone, Kelly’s first message upon arrival in Baton Rouge was clear. He said it more than half a dozen times in his introductory press conference.
Alignment.
Kelly lauded Athletic Director Scott Woodward and the entire administration at LSU.
“For me, alignment relative to this university, the goals, what is in store for LSU athletics as a university. That is what the draw is for me,” Kelly said on that December day. “To meet obviously President (William) Tate and to spend the time that I did with Scott, that cohesion, that collaboration, that kind of communication, that’s what for me led me here to Baton Rouge.
“I think it just comes down to for me an alignment about excellence. That’s what I’m about. Excellence in academics, excellence in academics and athletics here at LSU and seeing that, feeling that, and now knowing that we can go off together and fulfill that goal.”
One aspect of the university and football program that he didn’t mention was the scheduling. Perhaps he felt aligned with Executive Deputy Athletics Director Verge Ausberry and that department. Perhaps he didn’t.
Either way, Kelly’s first two teams at LSU got off to bumpy starts. Those season-opening losses triggered personnel and schematic changes immediately. This season started no differently with a loss in the opener against Southern California.
“When you have two first year coordinators, they’re learning their personal who they want to use who are the best 11 in each situation and then what schemes put us in the best position to succeed, and now we have to go and prepare accordingly,” Kelly said Monday. “I wish we could have done that in preseason camp, but we didn’t know a lot about who were those best players for those situations. I think we’re a lot closer to finding those things out.”
This year it’s new coordinators. Last year was a transfer-heavy defense. The first year was an overhauled roster. In college football, change is inevitable. Players are free to come and go as they please. No one is coordinating defenses at one stop for more than a decade like Mickey Andrews and John Chavis did at Florida State and Tennessee.
The job of the head coach and staff is to get the team up to speed for that first big opponent. For some, like Ole Miss and Ohio State this year, that game is played in October. For LSU, it’s before Labor Day.
If game reps are going to be necessary to get Emery Jones and Harold Perkins to the field as true freshmen, maybe hang up the phone on Florida State and call Florida Atlantic.
If game reps are going to be necessary to get Caden Durham involved in the running game. How about Southern Miss instead of Southern Cal?
Last season LSU got a relatively soft SEC opener in Mississippi State. Things fell apart in Starkville under Zach Arnett. Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers started that process. It remains to be seen whether South Carolina proves to be a quality opponent this season. Kelly firmly believes the Gamecocks have a good team and was proud of his team’s ability to claw back on win Saturday.
“Look, we beat South Carolina on the road in a sold-out stadium in the SEC, against a team who beat the pants off Kentucky who played Georgia right to the end,” he said. “So, if we want to do that game, I guess we’re going to beat Georgia by a lot. If that’s how you guys want to play this thing.”
Kelly’s points are not unfounded. There are three decades of wins piled up under his name that suggest he knows how to coach a football team from start to finish. Still, slow starts greatly diminish championship aspirations.
Thankfully, they can be avoided to an extent. LSU chooses not to avoid them but to take on added risk by scheduling nationally prominent programs right out of the chute.
Next season, LSU will be replacing 80 percent of its offensive line, possibly its top two pass catchers and a sizable chunk of its defensive front seven.
Welcome to Clemson, SC. Here are 81,000 draped in orange to greet you.
Will next fall camp be different? Can LSU use that time instead of the first month of the season to best understand the roster?
When the Florida State, USC and Clemson games were scheduled, Kelly was still at Notre Dame. He was assuredly aware of what was to come when he took the job, but he had nothing to do with it. Will they continue?
“I think these games were scheduled way before the conference realignment,” Kelly said. “The USC game in particular was a ‘start the season off game’, it wasn’t thought of as a Big 10 matchup…These games will be looked at a little differently moving forward than they were prior to when they were put on the schedule.”
The Clemson games aren’t going anywhere. Dabo Sweeney’s team will come to LSU’s Death Valley in 2026. LSU’s mantra as a football program for better than two decades has been to schedule elite competition and to win the games.
Lately, losses in Green Bay, New Orleans, Orlando and Las Vegas have flown in the face of that.
Kelly left Notre Dame to come to LSU to win championships. To accomplish that, you have to stare down college football’s elite in December and January. No such rule applies to September.
LSU is still deficient on defense due to myriad issues in recruiting, staffing and development. It’s not a stretch to suggest that the current defensive staff can rectify that with a little time. All of those assistants have exemplary track records of acquiring talent and assembling dominant units.
Maybe that time comes in 2025 or 2026. If so, the schedule won’t matter as much. Kelly’s teams have improved as seasons have worn on, so maybe a championship level team can be cultivated even with a slow start to September. How about that slow start involves a 31-17 win over Akron instead of a two-score loss to Florida State? The Southeastern Conference requires its members to play one opponent from a power conference. LSU has games lined up with Arizona State. Wake Forest is available. Syracuse went pretty well. I’m told Purdue has working phone lines.
Is the risk of the made for television matchup worth it? That’s up to Kelly and the administration.
Get aligned.
