Brian Kelly’s fist slamming into that news conference table in Las Vegas is just the tip of the frustration iceberg as far as LSU football is concerned.
From the fans who followed their team into the desert this past weekend, only to watch the Tigers lose a fifth-straight season opener, to the millions of LSU faithful who watched on TV (provided they weren’t depending on DirecTV), there seems to be a virtual line drawn in the sand after the defeat.
The burning sands question: When, if ever, is Kelly going to make the Tigers a national championship contender again?
Since the game, I’ve gotten the usual emails from disgruntled LSU fans wanting Kelly fired. Of course, these often are the kinds of fans who want someone fired every time the Tigers have to punt.
But as Kelly himself demonstrated, the LSU frustration cup runneth over. The Tigers are now 0-3 on his watch in season openers?— having lost the previous two seasons to Florida State?— 20-8 overall and, perhaps most glaringly, 3-6 against Top-25 opponents.
There is an SEC West title in that mix, and Jayden Daniels’ Heisman Trophy last season. But this is about advancing the program forward. Back to where it aspires to be. The program that between 2003-19 won three national championships, played for a fourth and won four SEC titles.
Kelly has led the Tigers to back-to-back 10-win seasons, just the fourth time LSU has ever done that (admittedly, teams play more games now than in past decades). But that isn’t the goal. Not for this program. And not for the man who left success with the bluest of bluebloods, Notre Dame, to come to LSU. Yes, it was for a huge pile of money, but it was also to do something that Kelly believed always would be just out of his grasp at South Bend: a national championship.
Is it any closer to his grasp here? In all three seasons, there seems to be a piece missing here or there, though in 2022 when LSU was coming off a 39-scholarship player turn in the Texas Bowl at the end of the Ed Orgeron era, Kelly must be credited with doing a remarkable job to get the Tigers to 10 wins and the SEC championship game.
But 2023 brought the ultimate frustration: a No. 1 ranked offense led by a Heisman winner paired with a defense that couldn’t stop a kitten from reaching the end zone. The entire defensive staff was swapped out. More rebuilding for this season, paired with a new coordinator on offense and a new quarterback in Garrett Nussmeier.
The 2024 season brings a fresh measuring stick for Kelly, LSU and everyone in college football: the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. In an interview with Kelly in May, I put it to him that teams from now on will be judged like this: Did you make the playoff (good season) or didn’t you (bad season)?
He didn’t argue. In fact, he added another layer to the expectation cake.
“I think it's a fair assessment of where your program should be at LSU,” he said. “Then I think there will be another tier to that: You make the playoffs and you got to make a run.”
Some quick reality checks here. Kelly is not anywhere near the hot seat. He has seven more years on his contract, and even if LSU wanted to be rid of Kelly it would owe him $60 million at the end of this season. That is a Fort Knox-sized financial nonstarter.
Secondly, the Tigers still can rebound from their 27-20 loss to Southern Cal and make the CFP. None of LSU’s goals for the season?— CFP appearance, national title, SEC title?— have been erased. Made harder to achieve, yes, and I don’t see LSU running the table in its final 11 games. But there isn’t a game on that slate the Tigers can’t win.
Kelly said himself last season he doesn’t have a lot of time to take LSU to the heights. He will be 63 on Oct. 25. If this season goes by without a CFP bid, getting there next season will be even more difficult. This year’s SEC schedule flips, meaning LSU will have road games at Alabama, Ole Miss and Oklahoma in addition to its season opener at Clemson. Overcoming all that to become a CFP contender will be a tall order.
Kelly has what he needs to win. He’s got the big-time recruiters and well-respected position coaches on his staff. They’re paid at the top of the scale. LSU isn’t at the top of the NIL heap, but it’s competitive. And after touring the program’s football recovery facilities last week, it’s hard to believe any football team’s Taj Mahal has more Mahal than LSU’s.
Can Kelly take LSU to the top? The answer is one no one wants to hear: Time will tell. He and the Tigers still have time this season. He certainly has a lot of time left on his clock.
But that doesn’t mean the clock isn’t ticking louder and louder.
