LAS VEGAS — For many coaches, Week 1 is about shaking off the rust, seeing some younger guys get their first sport reps and hopefully taking good care of enterprise to start out 1-0.
For LSU’s Brian Kelly, then again, Week 1 has turn out to be an annual existential disaster.
Late Sunday night time at Allegiant Stadium, Kelly fielded questions from the media following his third consecutive season-opening neutral-site loss, this one a last-second 27-20 heartbreaker to No. 23 USC. It didn’t take lengthy for him to let the assembled room know the way indignant he was with the consequence.
In actual fact, his very first phrases have been, “That is the primary time since I’ve been right here (at LSU) that I’m indignant at my soccer crew.” He went on to quote a pair of pricey late-game unsportsmanlike penalties by his gamers and the Tigers’ incapacity to shut out the sport.
A couple of minutes later whereas answering a follow-up query, Kelly pounded his first on the desk, surprising a couple of sleepy-eyed sportswriters again to peak alertness as his voice rose abruptly.
“We’re sitting right here AGAIN, speaking about the identical issues, about not ending when you’ve gotten an opponent able to place ’em away,” Kelly mentioned. “What we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the sport is over. And I’m so indignant about it, that I’ve acquired to do one thing about it. I’m not doing a ok job as a coach. I’ve acquired to educate them higher, as a result of it’s unacceptable for us to not have discovered a technique to win this soccer sport.
“It’s ridiculous.”
To repeat: This was after the primary sport of the season.
Kelly’s crew really performed pretty effectively Sunday night time. This was not the disastrous 2022 Florida State sport in New Orleans, Kelly’s LSU debut, when the Tigers dedicated each particular groups snafu possible and misplaced 24-23 on a blocked further level. Nor was this the ugly 2023 rematch with FSU in Orlando, when the Noles ran away within the second half of a 45-24 rout.
This was a down-to-the-wire barnburner between two groups looking for themselves after shedding their respective Heisman-winning quarterbacks (USC’s Caleb Williams and LSU’s Jayden Daniels). Lincoln Riley’s Trojans confirmed off a much-improved protection, one that truly wraps up ball carriers and limits explosive performs. Kelly’s protection, itself a trainwreck for many of final season, allowed a not-great 7.5 yards per play however was improved sufficient for the Tigers to carry a 17-13 lead late into the fourth quarter.
Then the dam broke.
After stopping a USC fourth down in LSU territory with 8:38 left, LSU security Main Burns dedicated a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that backed up the Tigers to their very own 21. Kelly could possibly be seen having an extended discuss with Burns on the sideline afterward. LSU went three-and-out and punted again to USC. Three performs later, Trojans quarterback Miller Moss threw a wonderful 28-yard landing move to Ja’Kobi Lane to place USC up 20-17 with 5:44 left.
Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who completed 29 of 38 for 304 yards, led his crew from its personal 20 to the USC 14 however missed a wide-open Aaron Anderson for what would have been no less than one other first down. The Tigers settled for a game-tying 31-yard subject aim with 1:47 left.
You possible know the way issues ended.
USC regarded content material to accept a game-winning subject aim attempt till Moss discovered receiver Kyron Hudson for a spectacular 20-yard catch down the sideline, which, coupled with a concentrating on name on LSU’s Jardin Gilbert, took the Trojans all the way down to the LSU 13 with 18 seconds left.
At which level USC tailback Woody Marks took a handoff up the center for the profitable rating, and Kelly acquired that acquainted scrunched-up expression on his face that all the time looks as if half-bewilderment, half-resignation.
yearly tweet pic.twitter.com/5qCSxnHTAa
— no context faculty soccer (@nocontextcfb) September 2, 2024
“It’s clear that after we stand up in a sport, we have no idea tips on how to deal with ourselves,” Kelly mentioned afterward. “You’ve acquired to have that killer intuition on this sport. You’ve acquired to place groups away. We had a chance to place this crew away, and we acquired complacent.”
Usually in these moments, the coach reminds us it’s an extended season forward, they’ve acquired loads of time to repair their points, and so on., and so on. Having heard none of that from Kelly, I really feel compelled to personally remind LSU’s coach: Hey man, it’s an extended season forward. You’ve acquired loads of time to repair these points. Don’t freak out an excessive amount of.
Sadly, he already did.
“To be the sort of soccer crew I would like, we now have to eradicate the silly errors,” he mentioned. “Now we have to have a mindset of, when we now have an opponent down, have that killer intuition. And we now have to play off one another significantly better.”
Did we point out his crew has solely performed one sport?
GO DEEPER
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Kelly made an fascinating remark whereas lamenting that the Tigers didn’t play complementary soccer. He mentioned, “We put means an excessive amount of stress on our protection to be one thing that they’re not able to be. They battled, however we now have warts, they usually’re not going away in a single day.”
It introduced again recollections of Kelly’s surprisingly candid feedback after the spring switch portal closed with out LSU including any defensive tackles as many anticipated. “We’re not out there of shopping for gamers,” Kelly informed WAFB-TV, which sounded to some like a preemptive excuse if the Tigers’ protection, which completed 109th within the FBS final season, wasn’t markedly higher.
His remarks Sunday night time felt as if he was pleasantly stunned mentioned protection held a Lincoln Riley offense, with Moss and ridiculous receivers Zachariah Department, Hudson and Lane, to “solely” three touchdowns, but that also wasn’t sufficient.
“I believed our protection took a step ahead from final yr,” he mentioned. “However we now have to assist them out as effectively. We will’t be three-and-out after which put them again on the sphere.”
This second occurred in 2024, nevertheless it might have simply as simply been 2014, or nearly any yr since. Kelly has received no less than 10 video games in every of the previous seven seasons as head coach (5 with the Irish, two with LSU), but these big-game letdowns really feel much less like exceptions and extra just like the norm.
Notre Dame followers largely made peace with it as a result of the Irish hadn’t loved even that degree of success in a long time. LSU, then again, has seen its previous three coaches win nationwide championships (and it nonetheless fired the previous two). Tigers followers, which took over Las Vegas solely to be let down once more, won’t exhibit comparable persistence if this continues.
No fist-pounding or powerful phrases will reassure them.
(Photograph: Candice Ward / Getty Pictures)
