Mitchell: Alabama broke LSU, now Kelly must fix it

By Russ Mitchell | Contributing Writer

Alabama broke LSU. Again.

Alabama is responsible for arguably the greatest single-season college football team in the sport’s history.  Only that great team didn’t wear crimson.

The 2019 LSU Tigers are considered by most experts to have had the single best year in college football lore–only it might never have happened if not for the absolute butt kicking the Tide handed the Tigers in 2018, a 29-0 whooping.

In Baton Rouge.

That game forced LSU head coach Ed Orgeron to change the very DNA of LSU football.  No longer would the Tigers’ identity be run first, I-formation, ground-and-pound.  It was time to join the 21st century and open it up.

I still remember the first time I heard LSU was running five wide with an empty backfield in practice ahead of the 2019 season.  I honestly didn’t believe it.  Fake news.

Then came 15-0 and the explosion of offense that came with it.

Flash forward to November 2024.  Every unit has regressed since the season opener against Southern Cal in Las Vegas.  Garrett Nussmeier–who looked so confident and mature at the season’s start–now flounders, scared and inexperienced.  The offensive line, which had struggled to run block but at least kept Nussmeier’s jersey clean, now looks like a turnstile and off-cue with penalties. Receivers are breaking routes early and dropping passes.

And that’s only the offense, the least insulting side of this team.

LSU had a historically poor defense in 2023, which Brian Kelly promised to address.  He did so, bringing in Blake Baker from Missouri.  The unit has improved, over the worst ever.

Give credit where credit is due.  You’re no longer the worst ever.

But after being undressed in back-to-back seasons by Alabama football, led by two different coaching staffs, it’s clear that Kelly needs to channel his inner-Coach O, and this time make a quantum shift in how the Tigers’ defense is structured and plays.

Sure, better players help. But Vanderbilt doesn’t have better players.  South Carolina doesn’t have better players, and they held the Tide to 104 rushing yards in Tuscaloosa.

This LSU football team could play Alabama on the moon with 500,000 Tiger fans to not a single one in crimson, and the Tide is still scoring 42 points with a smiling, running quarterback.

Alabama broke LSU football, again.  Time to fix it, Kelly.

Russ Mitchell is a sports columnist with three decades covering SEC football