LSU Football: Brian Kelly Can Silence His Critics This Weekend

“That’s why you come to LSU,” LSU Football head coach Brian Kelly told reporters at his Monday press conference. “To play in games like this.”

If there is one thing that has alluded Kelly in his illustrious coaching career, it’s the legitimate chance to compete for championships. Of course, during his time at Notre Dame he did play in a national title game and make two College Football Playoff appearances, but many would point to the apparent talent discrepancy in those match-ups and know Notre Dame never stood a chance. Two of those losses came against the same Nick Saban coached Alabama program that he plays this weekend. In those games, there was a 73-28 point differential in favor of the Tide.

That’s why Kelly made the bombshell move to leave a stable job in South Bend for Baton Rogue. He wanted to escape the Irish’s strict recruiting limitations and jet off to SEC Country to take over a program where the last three coaches had all won national titles.

This move has put Kelly in a better position to succeed, but he has to get over the one hump that has been a thorn in his side for years: his lack of “big game” wins.

Although Brian Kelly has one of the best winning percentages in college football history, he still is heavily criticized, and sometimes, rightfully so.

Many see his record and coaching success (especially at Notre Dame) as a product of weak schedules and beating up on the little guys, but never being able to take down someone his own size.

During his 12 seasons as the head coach of Notre Dame, Kelly had a 4-11 record against opponents in the top ten and two of those wins (Michigan State in 2012 and Stanford in 2018) came against teams that finished the year unranked.

Many point to Kelly’s “big game” record as gospel for him being a bad coach but as we’ve seen over time, that’s far from the case. He built Central Michigan into a winning program again after the Chippewas had only won more than three games once in four years before he got there. In his first season at Cincinnati, he led the Bearcats to their first ten win season since 1949 and improved rapidly leading them to a 12-0 record and No. 3 ranking in the polls in his last season before departing for South Bend.

Kelly built Notre Dame into a power in his 12 years there, and if you need any more evidence of how good of a coach he is, check out how Notre Dame is doing so far without him on the field.

When Kelly came to LSU many pointed to his lack of “cultural fit” as reason to why he wouldn’t work there, and he didn’t help matters by faking a southern accent at a basketball game. However, Nick Saban and Les Miles weren’t “cultural fits” either and both won national titles at LSU. As long as you win, Tiger fans don’t care how you talk, and so far Kelly is doing more than expected.

LSU Football head coach Brian Kelly can silence his critics this weekend

DraftKings Sportsbook set the preseason over/under win total for the Tigers at 7 wins and it was completely fair. The Tigers had one of the weakest rosters in recent program history (but would still be a dream roster for most schools) and of course still had the vaunted SEC West schedule.

Instead, LSU Football is 6-2, ranked No. 10 in the initial CFP rankings, and tied for first in the SEC West with a chance to control their own destiny for a trip to Atlanta with a win over the Tide this weekend.

So far, Kelly is 1-1 in big games at LSU with a blowout loss at home to the now No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers and a dominant 45-20 comeback win against (at the time) No. 11 Ole Miss. The team that lost to Tennessee is unrecognizable now with a sudden passing attack coming from the arm of Jayden Daniels. A mostly stagnant offense for much of the season has now scored 45 points in back to back games and they will need every bit of it if they want to take down Bryce Young and the Tide.

Kelly still has plenty of critics despite his success so far at LSU but he can make them all eat crow with a win this weekend behind a raucous Tiger Stadium crowd. He’s already setting up well for the future too with the current No. 4 recruiting class in the country according to the 247 Composite Rankings and they are hosting their biggest recruiting weekend of the year with elite prospects filing into Baton Rogue to check out the program.

It all starts with the Alabama Crimson Tide though, and Nick Saban’s pedigree of excellence that the LSU faithful want to reach so badly.

With a win they can be that much closer, and Kelly can exercise his demons and show the world why he can be the guy to take LSU Football back to the promised land.