LAS VEGAS — For most coaches, Week 1 is about shaking off the rust, getting young players to play their first games and doing everything they can to get off to a 1-0 start.
For LSU’s Brian Kelly, meanwhile, Week 1 has become an existential crisis every year.
Late Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium, Kelly fielded questions from the media after losing his third straight season-opening neutral-field game, this time a heartbreaking 27-20 loss to No. 23 USC. It didn’t take long for him to let the room know how upset he was with the outcome.
In fact, his first words were, “For the first time since I’ve been here (LSU), I’m mad at my football team.” He cited two costly late-game fouls by players and the Tigers’ inability to finish games.
A few minutes later, Kelly slammed the first question on the table as he answered follow-up questions, his voice suddenly rising, causing several sleepy-eyed sportswriters to tense up again.
“We’re sitting here again, talking about the same thing about not finishing when the opponent is in a position to dominate them,” Kelly said. “What we do on the sideline is feel like the game is over. And I’m so black About that, I have to do something about it. I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach. I have to coach them better. Because it’s unacceptable that we haven’t found a way to win this football game.
“that Nonsense.”
To reiterate, this was after the first game of the season.
Kelly’s team actually played pretty well Sunday night. This wasn’t a disaster like Kelly’s LSU debut in New Orleans, the 2022 Florida State game, when the Tigers made every special teams mistake imaginable and lost 24-23 on a blocked extra point. Nor was this an ugly 2023 rematch with FSU in Orlando, when the Noles were blown out 45-24 in the second half.
This was a tight race between two teams trying to find themselves after losing their respective Heisman Award-winning quarterbacks (USC’s Caleb Williams and LSU’s Jaden Daniels). Lincoln Riley’s Trojans have a vastly improved defense that really does a good job of covering the ball carrier and limiting explosive plays. Kelly’s defense, which was a mess for most of last season, wasn’t great, allowing just 7.5 yards per play, but it improved enough that the Tigers took a 17-13 lead late in the fourth quarter.
Then the dam broke.
After blocking a USC fourth down with 8:38 left in LSU territory, LSU safety Major Burns was called for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct foul, bringing the Tigers down to the 21. Kelly was then seen having a lengthy conversation with Burns on the sideline. LSU went 3-and-out and punted back to USC. Three plays later, Trojans quarterback Miller Moss threw a beautiful 28-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Kobi Lane to put USC up 20-17 with 5:44 left.
Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmaier completed 29 of 38 passes for 304 yards and led the team to USC’s 14 on its own 20-yard run, but missed a touchdown on Aaron Anderson that was open for at least another first down. The Tigers settled for a game-tying 31-yard field goal with 1:47 left.
You probably know how that ended.
USC seemed content to try a game-tying field goal until Moss found receiver Kyron Hudson and made a nice 20-yard catch along the sideline. A targeting call on LSU’s Jardine Gilbert then brought the Trojans within the LSU 13-yard line with 18 seconds left.
At that point, USC tailback Woody Marks handed the ball over the middle for the winning run, and Kelly frowned, his expression half bewildered, half resigned.
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“It’s clear that when you wake up in a game, you don’t know what to do,” Kelly said later. “You have to have a killer instinct in this game. You have to beat this team. We had a chance to beat this team, but we got complacent.”
Usually at moments like this, coaches remind us that there is a long season ahead and there is plenty of time to figure things out. Since I haven’t heard anything like that from Kelly, I personally think I should remind the LSU coach. Hey, it’s a long season ahead. There’s plenty of time to work these things out. Don’t worry too much.
Unfortunately, he has already done so.
“To be the football team I want to be, we have to eliminate stupid mistakes,” he said. “We have to have that killer instinct when the opponent is down. And we have to work together much better.”
Did he say his team only played one game?
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Kelly made an interesting comment when he lamented that the Tigers didn’t play complementary football. “We put too much pressure on the defense to become something they weren’t ready for. They fought, but we have warts and they won’t go away overnight,” he said.
It brought to mind Kelly’s surprisingly candid comments after the spring transfer portal closed and LSU did not add a defensive tackle as many expected. “We’re not looking to buy players,” Kelly told WAFB-TV, which sounded like a preemptive excuse if the Tigers’ defense, which ranked 109th in FBS last season, hadn’t improved significantly.
His comments Sunday night came across as pleasantly surprised that the defense held Lincoln Riley’s offense, led by Moss and a slew of receivers including Zachary Branch, Hudson and Lane, to “only” three touchdowns, but it still wasn’t enough.
“I thought our defense was a step up from last year,” he said. “But we’ve got to help them out, too. We can’t have them back on the field on a 3-and-out.”
This moment happened in 2024, but it could have been 2014 or almost any year since. Kelly has won at least 10 games as a head coach in each of the last seven seasons (five with the Irish, two with LSU), but disappointments in these big games are more the norm than the exception.
Notre Dame fans have largely been at peace with the Irish, who haven’t enjoyed that level of success in decades. LSU, on the other hand, has seen its last three coaches win national championships (and still fire the last two). Tigers fans, who have been disappointed yet again after taking over Las Vegas, won’t be as patient if this continues.
You can’t reassure them with a fist bump or strong words.
(Photo: Candice Ward/Getty Images)
