Since his time at LSU, Brian Kelly’s squads have looked unprepared and undisciplined.
Don’t get it twisted; Kelly is a good coach. He’s led the Tigers to back-to-back 10-win seasons during his first two years in Baton Rouge. But the Bayou Bengals play in the strongest conference in America, where every coach is one of the best of the best.
In 2022, LSU signed Kelly to a lucrative 10-year, $95 million contract to become the head coach of the purple and gold. His $9.5 million salary ranks fourth in the SEC. The Tigers have been paying Kelly as one of the best for acceptable but not superior coaching. Kelly’s crews have a tendency to fall apart in big moments.
The Bayou Bengals have lost their last five straight season openers, including three under Kelly. In those three games under Kelly, the Tigers have opted to schedule challenging neutral site matchups, looking to make a statement, create momentum and get the ball rolling. But the purple and gold have continued to hit the ground stumbling under Kelly.
“We’re sitting here again; we’re sitting here again,” Kelly said following the opening weekend loss to USC, slamming the table, “talking about the same things, about not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put ’em away.”
We’re talking about the same things because Kelly continuously fails to address them.
“I’m so angry about it that I’ve got to do something about it,” Kelly said. “I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach.”
While Kelly’s Tigers took care of business on the road against the Razorbacks, 34-10, the victory didn’t come without its fair share of mishaps, specifically pre-snap procedure penalties. In the first half, LSU was flagged for seven false starts and a snap infraction, which cost the Tigers’ offense 50 yards.
“All of that together, we gotta clean it up,” Kelly said. “Because that stuff can’t continue to happen. There were more penalties out there than I would like. We’ll go back, and we’ll look at it more closely, but it’s not one person. The whole management of it has to get cleaner.”
Sure, in the first couple of games of the season, maybe you could attribute it to rust, but we’re at the end of October now. November nears.
The Bayou Bengals can’t afford to have self-inflicted wounds this late into the campaign, especially pre-snap penalties. Having the offensive line stay still until the ball is snapped is something that the purple and gold have practiced thousands of times leading up to the season, yet Kelly’s band looks like they have yet to rehearse.
“We can easily say it was the crowd noise,” Kelly said. “Sometimes we have to get into a better rhythm, and that’s getting the receivers lined up quicker. I mean, sometimes it’s a fire drill out there.”
LSU already played in South Carolina earlier this year with no such issues. In preparation for road games, the Tigers blast music constantly during practice. Pre-snap penalties shouldn’t be a problem this late in the season; they are an embodiment of Kelly’s underwhelming coaching. Against No. 15 Texas A&M at Kyle Field, “The Home of the 12th Man,” Kelly must reel his players back in.
“We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. We understand that, and it’s self-inflicted injuries to our offensive drives,” said LSU running back Josh Williams. “Coach (Joe) Sloan really harped on us being focused and really focusing on that this week. If we have any false starts, the player has to run around the field, we’re just providing different things to get us ready for the game, we have a lot of noise at practice to really get us ready for Kyle Field.”
Whatever the Bayou Bengals do to prepare this week, Kelly’s corps will have to be ready for A&M. The SEC is on the line.