Following Saturday night’s two touchdown loss to Alabama, Coach Brian Kelly talked about the Tigers playing good but needed to be elite to beat Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.
Kelly continued that mantra again on Monday and it seemed like he was using the media to talk to the players.
The second-year coach was asked about LSU not playing with the same level of passion and determination following losses to Alabama in previous years. He said that’s not happening on his watch.
“You have choices, you can be bad at things, if you want to be bad at things, you can be average at things, five-hundred is average, you can be good at things, maybe that’s seven or eight wins, you can be great or elite, I think we can be so much better than good, we can be great and great requires more of a commitment so they are going to have to give more this week,” said Kelly.
Kelly pointed out elite programs win 10 or more games every year. While LSU can no longer win the SEC West, they can still win 10 games for a second straight year, which he believes is a step in the direction of getting LSU to elite status.
The 300-win coach has no interest in punting on the rest of the season.
“I didn’t come down to LSU to be good, I came here to be elite and our players that sign scholarship papers here I’m sure they do it because they want to be elite too, I know our fan base doesn’t want good, I can tell already that’s not the case,” said Kelly.
For LSU to get back to the ten-win mark, they need to win their final three regular season games and the bowl game.
Ten wins would be great, or should I say a sign that Kelly is building an elite program.
But the real work in making LSU an elite program is fixing a defense that for the last two seasons has struggled to get off the field on third downs, Alabama was 11-of-14 on third down conversions on Saturday.
Out of 130 FBS teams, LSU ranks 122nd in the country in allowing teams to convert on third down and the Tigers are 97th in total defense.
Kelly was asked what needs to happen in the offseason to address the woes on defense.
“My focus is on Florida right now and stopping there inside zone game, I respect the question and certainly there is going to be a time for those questions, and we’ll answer those questions, but my mind is really around wrapped around getting another win, playing at a high level and beating Florida,” said Kelly.
LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels is a major reason for Kelly’s success at LSU. But Kelly said on Monday his star signal caller remains day-to-day after leaving Alabama game with a head injury. He said Daniels is making progress, but too early to say if he’ll play Saturday.
Daniels has been elite, and we may get to see if Garrett Nussmeier is good, great or elite this Saturday against the Gators.