“How could this happen in year three of the Brian Kelly era?”
That’s a common question asked by many LSU fans after Saturday night’s debacle versus Alabama.
The Crimson Tide, who seemed vulnerable with a first-year coach in Kalen DeBoer, completely outclassed the Tigers in front of 102,000 fans.
Ed Orgeron and Les Miles both won national championships at LSU in their third year and the hope was Kelly would accomplish the same feat.
While LSU fans are questioning whether Kelly can take the Tigers to the top of the mountain, Kelly still has confidence he can get LSU there.
“I’m not in position to worry about what people are saying about the overall health of the program, we have one of the top recruiting classes in the country, those things are only going to continue to get better, and a championship program is what we are going to have here,” Kelly said.
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Let’s hit the rewind button to 2002. LSU fans were probably wondering if Nick Saban can bring a national title to Baton Rouge. The Tigers lost five games that season and fell to Alabama at home 31-0. The Crimson Tide rushed 300 yards that night against a Saban-led defense.
You know what happened next year. A national championship.
So can history repeat itself?
LSU has one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming in next season and there’s a good chance Garrett Nussmeier returns as the starting quarterback.
Tiger quarterbacks seem to do well in their second year as a starter.
Kelly will likely have to hit the transfer portal and try to bring in seven to ten impact players.
But with three regular season games left and a bowl game, freshmen who have not played, can play and not burn their redshirt season thanks to NCAA rules.
“So, if we feel like there’s a player that can come in and help our defense, we’ve already talked to the young man, we’ve already got clearance and we’ve already said can we play you and they’ve said yes,” Kelly said.
Based on that statement we could see linebacker Tylen Singleton from Many. safety Joel Rogers from West Feliciana, edge rusher CJ Jackson from Georgia, defensive tackle De’Myrion Johnson from Westgate, and cornerback Bernard Causey III from John F Kennedy High School.
Wallace Foster from Warren Easton and Kolaj Cobbins from Destrehan are two freshmen who played in the season opener and have not played since.
But something tells me Kelly will stick with the guys that have been getting most of the snaps. What he wants to see from them is more consistency.
“What is more important is that we have to play more consistent, offense, defense and special teams that’s what’s most important, not the playoffs or anything else, consistency in the way we play, play in and play out is the most important thing,” Kelly said.
Saban always preached focusing on the process over outcomes. But when the outcome is a 29-point loss, the outcome is hard to ignore.
The Tigers will spend the next three games of the regular season, trying to build momentum towards 2025 and finish with another 10-win season.
That may seem hollow for fans wanting more, but at this point it’s part of the process.