Following Sunday night’s tough seven-point loss to the USC Trojans, Coach Brian Kelly said he was mad with his team.
The ten penalties committed in the game, including two 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalties had his blood boiling.
Receiver Kyren Lacy was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for acting as if he was shooting a gun towards USC players. Safety Major Burns was also flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for taking his helmet off on the field after the Tigers stopped USC on fourth down in the fourth quarter.
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The two 15-yard penalties hurt LSU’s positioning on the field and USC took advantage by scoring touchdowns a few plays later.
Kelly said Lacy knows he must control his emotions.
“He’s in the locker room saying I need to maintain my emotional control, I need to maintain it, he’s working so hard on that, that’s why I was so angry, I was angry at the circumstances, because he’s working on it,” said Kelly. “The same thing with Major Burns, I mean he was so apologetic and so sorry that he took his helmet off, these are not guys that are like I don’t care.”
LSU wanted to run the ball on Sunday to control the game against USC, but outside of a 39-yard run by John Emery, the Tigers struggled to establish a ground game. Josh Williams rushed for just 33 yards and Kaleb Jackson had 14 yards on five carries. Kelly was encouraged by Emery’s first game since tearing his ACL last November.
“Obviously John did a lot of great things, Josh does a nice job in the things we are asking, I think what we are down to is that John continues to play he’s coming off an ACL, you’re going to see him get better and better and I think he just adds to the strength of the group, but I also think we got to find ways to accentuate the strengths of each one of these backs.”
It was a disappointing game for Jackson. As stated earlier, the sophomore from Baton Rouge only had 14 rushing yards. He’s listed at 235 pounds, but Kelly does not believe he’s too heavy as is his conditioning and speed have not fallen off.
Other tidbits from Tuesday’s presser
Kelly has been criticized for not deferring until the second half after winning the opening coin toss. Kelly says when the situation calls for it, he wants the ball first, because the team that scores first has a higher chance of winning.
After losing a fifth consecutive opener, the coach was asked if he wants to continue playing other Top 25 teams in the opener. Kelly says he does, because he knows a lot more about his team and what they need to do better as coaches to develop the football team. BK says winning a game 73-0 doesn’t give you much benefit.
Kelly has received heat for saying USC quarterback Miller Moss outplayed LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier. Kelly says Nussmeier played well, but Moss made more plays at the end. He says it was not a slight to Nussmeier.
“So whatever my comments were, they were not intended in any way to disparage a guy that went 30-for-39 for 308 yards.”