LSU to hire Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly as next football coach

[jbcarol]

Brian Kelly addresses how LSU is approaching decision on whether or not to add a transfer QB

By Nick Kosko

LSU coach Brian Kelly was honest about the team's approach to the transfer portal, especially if the Tigers were to add a quarterback this offseason.

But that wouldn't necessarily stop a top tier SEC program from improving the most important position.

"Look, I mean, all the questions that you bring up relative to the transfer portal, you answer them as well," Kelly said. "Like your question had an answer to it, right? Look, this is this is a world that we live in. That's got to be handled with transparency. If not, you're gonna find yourself without the right personnel.

"So if we were to ever do anything in the transfer portal, relative to a quarterback, we're talking to everybody in that room and we're talking to recruits, we're talking to everybody. It is about transparency. It's about honesty, and it's about saying, if we're doing that, here's why we're doing it. And then making a decision and doing it."

Nussmeier is a viable option, but if there's an opportunity to make an upgrade...

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LSU is reportedly bringing back offensive coordinator and Broyles Award finalist Mike Denbrock on a 3-year extension, per Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger

Grant Bricker | 4 minutes ago

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Brian Kelly: LSU has a 'good sense' of who will be available for bowl game

By Andrew Graham

With the transfer portal open and opt outs for the NFL draft likely, LSU head coach Brian Kelly and his staff spent the better part of a week to start the offseason holding player exit interviews. And Kelly said on Tuesday that he's now got a pretty clear picture of who will and won't be available.

LSU faces Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Jan. 1. By the time kickoff rolls around, Kelly said, it'll be clear who the Tigers have on hand.

"Yeah, I think we have a really good sense of the players that will be available for the bowl game. For me to stand here and tell you exactly what those players are, I couldn't do that. But I would say that we spent most of last week — we spent all of last week doing exit interviews with our players. So, last week was really about our players," Kelly said.

And with player exit interviews out of the way, the attention turns to the staff.

[jbcarol]

Kelly explains the Pigeon Hole Principle before getting down to business:

LSU's Brian Kelly played Alabama and Florida State, finally chimes in on CFP debate

By Mark Heim

LSU coach Brian Kelly has a unique perspective on this whole Alabama-Florida State thing.

On Sunday, the College Football Playoff committee selected one-loss SEC champion Alabama over undefeated ACC champion Florida State for the CFP. Anarchy ensued.

"We knew from the beginning there were five conference and four spots," Kelly said on Tuesday. "If you did the math, you just needed to look at the five conference champions and say there were four slots."

Kelley and Tigers played both clubs this season. On Sept. 3, Florida State beat LSU 45-24, then the Tigers lost to Alabama 42-28 on Nov. 4.

"Two outstanding football teams, but the two football teams were different at the end of the season than they were at the beginning.

"From my perspective, unfortunately, Florida State was not the same team earlier in the year than they were later in the year because of the injury to the quarterback. Look, you can take that for whatever you want, but if only four of the conference championship teams can go and there's five, you're splitting hairs because they are all great teams."

Kelly said he understood why the committee decided what it did.

"If you're going to sit one of them out, maybe it's got to be the one that lost their quarterback."

The debate over the committee's decision hasn't stopped since Sunday.

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Stoic Brian Kelly reacts to Jayden Daniels winning Heisman Trophy: 'It's emotional'
Spenser Davis |

For Kelly, Daniels becomes the 1st player to win the Heisman under Kelly's tutelage during his head coaching career. The 2023 season was Kelly's 21st season as a head coach at the FBS level.

Holly Rowe caught up with the LSU head coach:

"I'm just so thrilled that I could see a young man develop like this in such a very short period of time," Kelly said. "And look, the football is amazing, right? That's how you win this. But off the field, his leadership, what he's done to touch this program and the state of Louisiana ... they're probably celebrating [this] as much in Louisiana as they are a championship. It's emotional. So, thank you."

Daniels became LSU's 3rd Heisman Trophy winner in program history on Saturday night. He joins Billy Cannon and Joe Burrow.

Michael Penix Jr. finished in 2nd place behind Daniels in what was the closest Heisman Trophy vote...

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Brian Kelly explains how Jayden Daniels has grown this season at LSU

By Dan Morrison

"You hope and you want to design a culture and an atmosphere for your players on a day-to-day basis to be held accountable, to make good choices, and to be surrounded by others to do the same thing," Brian Kelly said. "I think his time here has allowed him to strengthen his accountability, his choices, and that's what we have tried to put forth since we got here and I think he's a product of that, and he's influenced others around him.

"So, you know that you're making progress within your program when you see the maturation of a guy like Jayden Daniels because not only does it happen off the field, it happens on the field. That's what we keep trying to tell our players," Kelly said.

"Like what you do in the classroom and how you handle yourself on a day-to-day basis will have a direct correlation to what you do on the field and he is that example of how he is handling himself off the field, how he handles himself in his day-to-day routines has had a direct correlation in how he's played the game."

Jayden Daniels gave everything to college football, LSU

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Brian Kelly names Cortez Hankton, Joe Sloan as co-offensive coordinators for ReliaQuest Bowl

By Matt Connolly

Brian Kelly has announced the replacements for the bowl game for former offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who has left to be the OC at Notre Dame.

Cortez Hankton and Joe Sloan will serve as co-coordinators in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin, it was announced on Friday.

"I'm confident in Cortez and Joe's ability to run the offense," Brian Kelly said in a statement. "They will collaborate in the passing game and work with Brad (Davis) and Frank (Wilson) in the running game. They will execute a great game plan for us. They are a cohesive group of coaches and I'm excited about this opportunity for them. I know they will do a good job."

[jbcarol]

Staff Report: Kelly feels good about DT player retention

LSU football team has taken a trio of transfers this offseason, but none of them have been inside at defensive tackle. That's a spot the Tigers and head coach Brian Kelly have stood pat...

"The junior college player Shone (Washington), we really kind of satisfied that piece kind of early on before the transfer portal even got busy," Kelly said. "So we used him as kind of the model. If somebody is of that caliber of a player or better, maybe we'd be interested."

For now, that's been a negative. LSU will continue scouring the transfer portal to see if that changes.

And in the meantime, Kelly will wait final word from a handful of potentially draft-eligible guys as they make their final decision on whether to return to LSU next season:

"We feel good about retention," Kelly said. "So I think both of those things factored into where we're at at the defensive tackle position."

Brian Kelly, LSU capitalize on local loyalty

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LS cleans House

Nick Bromberg

LSU allowed 28 points per game in 2023 and gave up at least 30 points in eight of its 13 contests.

LSU head coach Brian Kelly is making significant changes to his defensive staff.

The Tigers announced Wednesday that defensive coordinator Matt House, defensive backs coaches Kerry Cooks and Robert Steeples, and defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey had been let go...

"I want to thank each of these coaches for their work on behalf of our football program and our institution during their time here," Kelly said in a statement. "Decisions like these are always difficult, and we do not make them lightly, but they are made with the best interests of our program and our student-athletes in mind. Moving forward, we will continue working to build a championship caliber coaching staff in support of our mission to graduate champions."

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First and 10: Brian Kelly isn't leaving LSU, a'ight?

Yet 2024 is shaping up as a critical year in the rebuild
Matt Hayes | 

This isn't the way Year 3 was supposed to begin, these buildouts formatted and fairly predictable.

They surely don't start by losing both coordinators and gutting the defensive staff days after another 10-win season.

"All of this build toward confidence and evaluating what you need to do in the offseason," LSU coach Brian Kelly said after a comeback ReliaQuest Bowl victory over Wisconsin. "To be the kind of defense and offense to win a championship."

That's the key here, and moving forward.

Kelly wasn't hired to win 10 games.

[jbcarol]

Brian Kelly finally shares importance of Malik Nabers breaking LSU's all-time receiving record

by: Kaiden Smith

Nabers became LSU's all-time receiving yards leader during the Tigers' ReliaQuest Bowl matchup against Wisconsin, with his 3,003 career yards eclipsing Josh Reed's previous school record set in 2001.

"First of all, here's a guy that — I'm not up here to evaluate the receiving corps going to the NFL, but I think he's the best receiver in the country.

"Plays in this game and he wanted to do it for his teammates, he wanted to do it for LSU, and he wanted to do it because he wanted to break the record," Kelly said. "And there's nothing wrong with that, I think that's awesome."

Nabers got to 21 yards with ease, recording three catches for 23 yards against the Badgers within the first quarter of the bowl game, which would mark the end of his day...

"And once he got the record I told him that's it, you're done. You've done everything and more than we've asked you to do. So he fought me a little on it and it was an easy decision," Kelly explained.

Malik Nabers is projected to be one of the top picks at his position in the 2024 NFL Draft

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https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/lsu-football/brian-kelly-announces-former-all-sec-player-as-new-defensive-line-coach/

Brian Kelly has made his first step to rebuild LSU's defensive coaching staff, and he did it with a former All-SEC player.
Bo Davis, a former All-SEC nose guard, will serve as defensive line coach for the Tigers, coach Brian Kelly announced on Wednesday. This continues a theme for Kelly, who has focused on bringing Louisiana natives, or those with LSU ties, to LSU through the transfer portal.


Davis played for the Tigers in the early 1990s, and was a graduate assistant with the football program from 1995-97 and was a member of the strength and conditioning staff when LSU won the 2003 national championship.
Davis spent the past 3 seasons at Texas where he helped the Longhorns reach the College Football Playoff in 2023 with one of the nation's top defenses. Davis spent 6 years with the Longhorns, first as defensive tackles coach from 2011-13 and then as defensive line coach from 2021-23.
In his career, Davis has coached 17 all-conference selections and 7 all-Americans. He's also coached players who have won the Outland Trophy, the Defensive Player of the Year in the Big 12 and Conference USA, along with the Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year.

[jbcarol]

LSU set to hire Missouri assistant Kevin Peoples as an assistant coach

by:
Wade Peery
•

LSU Tigers are set to hire an assistant football coach from the Missouri Tigers. LSU is going to hire former Missouri assistant Kevin Peoples, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on Friday evening. The report did not mention what position or role Peoples would take...

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Can Brian Kelly and LSU leapfrog Alabama and fill the power vacuum in a Nick Saban-less SEC?

by
Jesse Simonton

Nick Saban's stunning retirement has created an unintended domino effect that has wounded Alabama's program, and while the Tide wheeze their way through the transition from the GOAT to Kalen DeBoer, Alabama's chief rivals smell blood in the water.

No program in the country will benefit more from Saban's retirement than Georgia, and Kirby Smart has the Bulldogs positioned to reclaim the top spot in the sport.

But somewhat quietly, one of the Tide's other famous foes has also made some major moves this offseason to reload with hopes of filling the power vacuum possibly left by Alabama in a Saban-less world:

The LSU Tigers. 

The Tigers exited the 2023 season in a strange place, rallying to beat Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl to win 10 games for the second straight year under Brian Kelly. Yet the fall felt like a wasted season because the Tigers had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, but Matt House's defense was so bad, Jayden Daniels' weekly heroics could only lead the program so far.

After beating the Badgers in the bowl game, LSU cleaned house defensively — with Kelly firing his entire staff on that side of the ball.

He then went big-game hunting, luring Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker, Texas defensive line coach Bo Davis, Missouri defensive ends coach Kevin Peoples, and most recently, defensive backs coach Corey Raymond back to LSU.

It was just two years ago that Kelly deemed Baker and Raymond unworthy of being on his inaugural staff, but the situation has clearly changed, and it's not hard to see what Kelly is doing here.

He's bringing a host of assistants with lengthy Louisiana ties back to Baton Rouge, many of whom (Baker, Davis, Raymond) have prior purple and gold in their blood, too.

Kelly has both repaired some goodwill with the LSU faithful

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Assessing the chance Brian Kelly leaves for Michigan if Jim Harbaugh goes to the NFL

by:
Griffin McVeigh
•

Even before Jim Harbaugh leaves Michigan in favor of the NFL, rumblings are occurring of who could replace him following a national championship. If you asked On3's Andy Staples, offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore is the easy selection, especially after watching what happened to Alabama's roster following Nick Saban's retirement.

One outside name has been rumored though, with Brian Kelly potentially returning to the Midwest.

"I don't think Brian Kelly is going anywhere," Staples said during Monday's episode of Andy Staples On3. "The Michigan stuff just confounded me. I don't even know where that's coming from. I don't know that Michigan would definitely promote Sherrone Moore. There is always a chance they could go outside if Harbaugh leaves.

"But I don't think Kelly would leave LSU for Michigan at this point. Even if it was open and they were looking outside. It wouldn't make sense to me."

[jbcarol]

LSU reportedly settles on offensive staff changes, new play caller
Keith Farner | 57 seconds ago

Brian Kelly has settled on his new offensive play caller to replace Mike Denbrock, who left for Notre Dame, after there was a bit of a trial run during the ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin.

QB coach Joe Sloan and WR coach Cortez Hankton will be co-offensive coordinators, the same role they had during the bowl game, and Sloan will be the primary play caller, according to Matt Zenitz of 247Sports. This move leaves tight end coach as the remaining vacancy on LSU's staff.

[jbcarol]

Report: LSU to hire former Tulane OC Slade Nagle as TE coach

by:
Steve Samra
•

Brian Kelly is continuing to add to LSU's coaching staff, particularly on the offensive side of the football.

On Wednesday, it was reported by Matt Zenitz that the Tigers are set to hire former Tulane Green Wave offensive coordinator Slade Nagle to the LSU staff, as the program's next tight ends coach.

"LSU is expected to hire former Tulane offensive coordinator Slade Nagle as tight ends coach, sources tell @247Sports," Zenitz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Nagle helped Tulane win 23 games the last two seasons. (@zach_barnett 1st.)"

The news comes after Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton were promoted to co-offensive coordinators on Wednesday.

Mike Denbrock's departure created opportunity

[jbcarol]

O'Gara: Why the idea of Brian Kelly leaving LSU for Michigan never made sense

I scratched my head as the dots were connected.

Brian Kelly to Michigan? Really? Are we doing this again? Like, we're predicting that an LSU coach is going to leave the Bayou for Michigan?

The last time that happened, in 2007, it was Kirk Herbstreit who sent shockwaves throughout college football when he reported on College GameDay that Les Miles was going to leave LSU for Michigan ahead of conference championship weekend. We know what happened after that. Miles stayed at LSU, which not only won the SEC Championship that day, but it snuck into the BCS National Championship as a 2-loss team and smoked Ohio State.

This time, plenty of respected people in the industry linked Kelly to the potential Michigan vacancy before and after Jim Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Even as it became more and more likely that Sherrone Moore will be the internal replacement — Brett McMurphy reported that there's a 99.9% chance that the Michigan OC would be promoted to head coach —

[WyomingTiger8888]

CB Jaboree Antoine revealed his commitment to Brian Kelly and the Tigers. A 4-star prospect, Antoine landed on LSU over a final group that also included Texas and Tennessee




https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/lsu-football/lsu-beats-out-sec-competition-for-elite-in-state-piece-of-2025-recruiting-class/

[WyomingTiger8888]

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/lsu-football/lsu-picks-up-2025-commitment-from-4-star-in-state-ol/

LSU picks up 2025 commitment from 4-star in-state OL Devin Harper

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Brian Kelly assists LSU Vet Med in release of bald eagle
Paul Harvey | 11 minutes ago

Kelly shared a photo of his assistance with LSU's School of Veterinary Medicine. Kelly praised the program for their work and thanked them for allowing his presence to help release a bald eagle back into the wild.

Kelly said his daughter, Grace Kelly, is a graduate assistant with the vet school. It is Grace who has been  "bringing everything to light" per Kelly.

As for assisting with the eagle, Kelly called the event fabulous and majestic while once again crediting LSU's Vet Med program for all their work in caring for a variety of animals:

"This is what it's like being involved in the university and the flagship university like LSU. So this was fabulous, majestic," Kelly said. "And again (the bald eagle) is back in the habitat and our vet school just does an incredible job caring for so many different animals."

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Brian Kelly emphasizes importance of maximizing Harold Perkins in 2024
by:
Thomas Goldkamp
•

Following a freshman season that had many thinking he might be able to make a legitimate push at the Heisman Trophy, Harold Perkins had a relatively quiet sophomore season, at least by his lofty standards.

The LSU star just never quite seemed to click into high gear and dominate games the way he did against Arkansas in 2022.

"Well certainly we didn't maximize Harold last year, and that's not, again, a knock on Harold or the coaches," Kelly told On3's JD PicKell. "But the reality of it is he's an elite athlete that we have to get on track this year. Both Harold has got to play better and our coaches have to get him involved more."

Perkins finished his sophomore season at LSU with 75 tackles, 13.0 tackles for a loss, 5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, an interception and six passes defended.

[jbcarol]

Why LSU could be a team that regresses in 2024

by:
Barkley Truax
•

On3's Andy Staples, Ralph Russo of the Associated Press explained where he believes the Tigers stack up as they look to find a new identity on offense before the start of the 2024 college football season.

"The defense will get better because it can get much worse," Russo explained to Staples. "But the offense will almost certainly regress because there's no way it's getting better without a quarterback who had one of the great years we've seen in recent college football history and two first round draft pick wide receivers. ... I was skeptical about the sunshine were were throwing at LSU last year. I was not in on the LSU was a national championship contender last year."

Since LSU didn't meet its ultimate goal of the College Football Playoff, Russo believes the Tigers a bit of a disappointment relative to those lofty expectations. They landed right around where he thought Russo though they would.

"One of the things I was skeptical about last year was that it was simply year two for Brian Kelly," Russo continued. "Simply being year two and hadn't had a chance to build up the roster through recruiting. Remember, he took over a roster that had I think 38 scholarship players left from that [previous year's] bowl game. Now, I know they had a recruiting class coming in on top of that. ... That recruiting class and the last couple of recruiting classes — that's what you need to be a contender at a high level in the SEC."

Russo theorized the fact that Kelly now has three full recruiting classes under his vision in Baton Rouge, mixed with transfer portal additions should be enough to offset the loss of Daniels, Nabers and Thomas.

[jbcarol]

Brian Kelly responds to Louisiana governor calling for new national anthem protocols

by: Dan Morrison
•

LSU Tigers football coach Brian Kelly has now weighed in on the national anthem controversy and Louisiana governor Jeff Landry calling for new national anthem protocols, stemming from the LSU women's basketball team being in the locker room for the anthem prior to playing Iowa.

Shortly following the game, Landry publicly called out Kim Mulkey and LSU for still being in the locker room during the national anthem. Since then, he's urged for a push to standardize procedures during the national anthem.

"I saw it and clearly I think everybody has had their comments about it," Brian Kelly said. "And I know we made a statement. Scott Woodward has made a statement about it as well. Look, I think that our football players would echo this, is that if at any time we're told to be out there, we're going to be wherever we're told to be, and that's the bottom line."

Ultimately, if there were to be a change that forced players onto the field for the national anthem, it would be a change in routine for Kelly, who has rarely been on the field for it during his career.

"If our administration wants us out there for the national anthem, we're going to stand proud for the national anthem. It's just the way that it has been scripted, and I've been doing it for 33 years, I can on my hand tell you how many times I've been out for the national anthem in 33 years," Kelly said.

"That's not to say that we're against what the governor is saying. We understand where the governor is coming from. We'll re-look at the policies and I think I stand by what Scott has said. We'll look at everything."

Kelly then pointed to when LSU hosted Army last season, using it as an example of the program and fans showing how patriotic they are.

"But I look back at the Army game and how proud we were of that moment to have Army in our stadium and what we did to that stadium to really show our patriotic backing. So, hopefully, we'll be able to get past this pretty soon.

For her part, following the initial incident, Kim Mulkey insisted that the team didn't miss the anthem intentionally.

LSU AD Scott Woodward responds to national anthem criticism from Louisiana governor

"We have reviewed Governor Landry's letter on the national anthem," Woodward said. "At LSU we have and will always be dedicated to the flag, the anthem and the country. We consistently look at all our processes and will do so again. As Louisiana's flagship university, LSU always strives to represent the higher ideals and values of our students, our state and our country."

Report: LSU settles sexual misconduct lawsuit involving Derrius Guice...

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First and 10: Brian Kelly'ss getting an elite foothold on high school recruiting at LSU
Matt Hayes | 

It took 3 classes, yet... .

After his first 3 classes ranked No. 12 (2022), No. 6 (2023) and No. 7 (2024), Kelly is closing in on No. 1 for the 2025 class. LSU is No. 2 — yet only because No. 1 Notre Dame has commitments from 7 more players.

LSU already has commitments from 5 of the top 130 players, including No. 1 overall (QB Bryce Underwood), No. 4 (WR Dakorien Moore) and No. 44 (RB Harlem Berry).

Kelly and his staff have secured commitments from the top 3 players in the state of Louisiana (all 3 among the top 130), and 4 of the top 6. LSU is also among the leaders for 2 more 5-star recruits: CB DJ Pickett and WR Kaliq Lockett.

[jbcarol]

Brian Kelly shares biggest difference in LSU program now compared to when he employed a fake southern accent

by: Matt Connolly
•

Brian Kelly enters his third season as the LSU head coach.

LSU won 10 games in each of Kelly's first two seasons, and despite losing several talented players, including Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, Kelly believes the Tigers are ready to start competing for championships this fall.

During Saturday's spring game, Brian Kelly spoke with ESPN about how the LSU program is different now

"I think they're just at a point now where they understand what the standards are," Kelly said. "It's an attention to detail, it's a laser focus, it's every single day. This is hard.

"If you want to compete for a championship in this league, you've got to be elite. And you can't get by with just doing it at 90 percent," Kelly said. "You've got to be at 100-plus all the time. So that constant attention to detail is what this team is a lot better at."

Kelly explains how LSU offense will be different with new OC, QB