LSU started the 2023 college football season poorly on Sunday night, getting drubbed by Florida State. Shortly after the game’s conclusion, Tigers coach Brian Kelly had some harsh words for the entire LSU team, himself included.
And when the game was over, Kelly made it clear that the responsibility for Sunday night’s loss starts with him.
Stewart Mandel of The Athletic quoted Kelly saying, “We certainly are not the football team I thought we were. We need to do a much better job developing our football team. We clearly were short in a lot of areas and that falls on me…For some reason we thought we were somebody else than we were, the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don’t know what we thought, but we were mistaken.”
Brian Kelly: “We certainly are not the football team I thought we were. We need to do a much better job developing our football team. We clearly were short in a lot of areas and that falls on me.”
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 4, 2023
More Brian Kelly: “For some reason we thought we were somebody else than we were, the two time national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don't know what we thought, but we were mistaken.”
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 4, 2023
It was a disastrous night for the LSU coaching staff, starting with Kelly. It was also a bit of a departure from most of Kelly’s previous poor showings.
While Kelly has won a lot of games, his reputation as a big-game coach is not good. His teams have generally fallen short on the big stages against the best opponents and frequently in blowout games. But rarely have those losses come when his team was thought to be superior going in. Notre Dame’s worst losses under Kelly were generally to much better teams, particularly Alabama and Clemson.
Make no mistake, Florida State had some significant matchup advantages. But generally speaking, if a team is at an overwhelming talent disadvantage, it’s not going to be up 17-14 at halftime, as LSU was on Sunday night. Kelly is right. A 17-14 halftime lead turning into a 45-24 loss starts with the coach. And if the team isn’t as good as it thought it was, that’s a reflection of the coach.
[Stewart Mandel on Twitter]
