PALMER: Fans can be a tough bunch to please in CFB

By Hunt Palmer

Fans largely live in echo chambers.

Dinner tables, office break rooms, internet message boards, fishing boats and group texts are all too often filled with like-minded fans who are hyper focused on their teams.

Especially in Louisiana.

There may be a dissenting opinion or four in Texas, Mississippi or Alabama based on allegiances, but in this state the vast majority of the blood runs purple and gold.

That’s a blessing when it comes to passion, support and culture. Tiger fans can also lose the forest staring at one tree.

The heat is on Brian Kelly. I’m not talking about his seat, rather the temperature of expectations.

After a run to Atlanta in his initial season, LSU has fallen short of any of its preseason goals the last two years. Kelly insisted LSU had the resources and alignment to win a national championship, and LSU hasn’t sniffed one. His three predecessors all won one in their first four years.

That’s the goal, and when it doesn’t happen, folks in The Pelican State get testy. Ask the last two men who were fired five and two years after playing for, and in one case winning, a title.

Kelly’s approval rating is on the low side right now. Back-to-back trips to the Reliaquest Bowls and Texas Bowl will do that. So will getting run off the Tiger Stadium turf in the biggest game of the 2023 season.

The fact is, most coaches have a low approval rating. Look around the SEC.

I’d suggest Texas and Georgia feel like they have their guy. Texas hasn‘t climbed the mountain, and Georgia seems at least partially mortal after three years of blitzing the SEC. But those two programs are in great shape, and an any reasonable mind would agree.

What about the other 13?

Ole Miss just spent upwards of $15 million to lose to Kentucky and beat Duke in the Gator Bowl. Most of that talent is out the door. Kiffin has elevated the program, but 9-3 with that roster was a disappointment at the very least.

Is Tennessee sure Josh Heupel is the guy? It’s better than Butch Jones, but it ain’t Fulmer. I’d suggest Volunteer fans are glad Derek Dooley isn’t crutching along the Neyland sidelines anymore but would like to take another step under Huepel.

Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt probably feel okay about where things are, but what those programs have achieved in the last two seasons would be unacceptable in Baton Rouge. Shane Beamer’s a year removed from 5-7 and carries a 29-22 record after four years. Missouri’s big win this year may have been 6-7 Oklahoma. Or Vanderbilt in Columbia in overtime. Vanderbilt is, well, Vanderbilt.

Mike Elko crashed and burned down the stretch in Year 1. Jeff Lebby didn’t win a league game. Billy Napier was virtually tarred and feathered for three years until November of 2024. Are we sure Florida fans are sold?

Both teams in Alabama want to fire their coaches.

Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma will in 2025.

Mark Stoops is the most tenured coach in the SEC. Kirby Smart is right behind him. After that, every school in the SEC has made a coaching change since 2019, and only Nick Saban and Lincoln Riley walked away. We can debate how sad Sooner fans were to see that.

Moral of the story, most fan bases are unhappy until the very minute they aren’t. And unhappiness is probably around the corner at that point.

Expectation levels at Tennessee, Ole Miss or Texas A&M have nothing to do with LSU. The standard in Baton Rouge is the standard because of the success of the last 25 years.

The fact is that only three or four fan bases are going to be satisfied after a given season, and generally one or two of those is a bottom feeder that got to eight or nine wins.

Kelly needs to make the playoffs in 2025. He’s recruited high level talent from the high school ranks and added veteran starters from the portal. And his quarterback will be preseason All-SEC.

August will be spicy.

Tiger fans that feel like Kelly is a failure and the SEC has blown by LSU may need to look around briefly. Most of the league is unhappy. Most of the sport is unhappy. Just take a time machine or Twitter/X search back six weeks ago to “Ryan Day”. He’s about to win a national title.

To Kelly’s credit, he hasn’t stubbornly stuck to the ways that have won in the past. He ditched an entire defensive staff one offseason and altered his entire roster building ideology 12 months later.

Spring and summer have a way of soothing the anger that October and November tend to bring on. But it’s always a couple of losses away.

All said, 2025 is the time for Kelly to take that next step and create confidence that the program is moving in the right direction.

Even if most in the league won’t.