Brian Kelly knows he generated significant buzz this offseason with his comment that LSU wasn’t into buying players. He also knows, much like his daily commute from Baton Rouge to the LSU football complex, the road was a bit rough.
“I know what I get into when I open my mouth,” Kelly said during a Sirius XM interview with former Tigers fullback Jacob Hester, Peter Burns, and Chris Doering at the Southeastern Conference spring meeting. “Transparency sometimes is not the best way to do it.”
Earlier this month, Kelly discussed the importance of maintaining team chemistry and avoiding lucrative NIL deals for one-year transfers that might disrupt it. He referenced two defensive tackle transfers—Simeon Barrow from Michigan State and Damonic Williams from TCU—who chose Miami and Oklahoma over LSU, respectively.
Three weeks later, Kelly’s stance remains firm.
“This is a slippery slope,” he said. “Maybe in retrospect, I shouldn’t talk about it in terms of those kinds of one-on-ones. But that’s who I am.
“My whole career has been built on developing your son. I don’t know what your worth is. But I know when you come in and all you care about is money, that’s not what we’re doing this for. We’re in it for developing you holistically. And we do have NIL as well. But if you’re coming here and all you care about is money … we’re not going to buy players.”
Kelly believes many recruits for the 2024-25 class and beyond understood his comments as intended.
“I think we hit many of the recruits in the right way because they heard the whole piece,” he said. “Those who didn’t took what they wanted to hear.”
LSU did secure another defensive tackle transfer, Jay’viar Suggs from Grand Valley State, where Kelly had his first head coaching job in the early 1990s, along with Gio Paez from Wisconsin. After that, Kelly closed the portal for that position. The Tigers also picked up punter Blake Ochsendorf from Louisiana Tech and have room for one more under the 85-man scholarship limit. Now, Kelly is focusing on building with the current roster and coaching staff.
This includes new defensive coordinator Blake Baker from Missouri, who leads an entirely new defensive staff after a disappointing season under Matt House.
“I enjoy being around him,” Kelly said of Baker. “He’s got a great energy. We had three defensive tackles drafted, but we didn’t play like a defense with a lot of NFL talent. It’s not just about talent. It’s about how you get your players to play. Blake’s ability to communicate and get players to do things they normally wouldn’t do on their own will be crucial.”
Kelly attended most of Baker’s meetings during spring practice.
“I wanted to get that sense and feel,” Kelly said. “He’s going to get that group to play hard and play the right way each and every down. In the short time I’ve been with him, I can already feel that.”
Offensively, LSU is transitioning from Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels to Garrett Nussmeier, who led the Tigers to a ReliaQuest Bowl victory over Wisconsin and is a contender for this year’s Heisman.
“What I’m most excited about with this transition is that you’re going to go from a Heisman Trophy winner to maybe one of the best leaders that I’ve had here at LSU,” Kelly said. “He does all the little things the right way, not because he wants to be patted on the back, but because he just naturally does them the right way. It’s really going to be exciting to see this team move towards Garrett Nussmeier as its starting quarterback.”
Nussmeier will start when the Tigers open against USC in Las Vegas on Sept. 1.
“Lincoln Riley (the USC coach) and I both have the same agent,” Kelly said, referring to Trace Armstrong. “He certainly doesn’t want us to play this game.”
But the game will be played, and it’s significant for both programs. On that point, Kelly was perhaps transparent to a fault.
“Both teams are going through a reboot on defense,” he said. “Look, I haven’t won an opener since I’ve been here. It’s an important game for us, and I know they want to get off to a good start as well.”
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