Brian Kelly Talks A Good Game About LSU, Convey Strong Message To Fans And LSU Staff’s
The ear-splitting noise emanating from the speakers in Tiger Stadium’s South Stadium Club at Wednesday’s jam-packed Rotary Club luncheon sounded like an ocean liner’s foghorn being melted in a blast furnace.
LSU coach Brian Kelly, the reason hundreds of people were there and willing to endure the metallic rending sound, decided he didn’t want to deal with it.
“I don’t need a microphone,” LSU football’s head man said as he took the podium.
Kelly took charge, then in a loud voice that carried easily above the rapt room he spent most of the next 20 minutes basically describing how he is in charge of a talented, promising, well-supported and well-funded football program. A team that he said is comprised of players who understand attention to detail and are following the right leaders within the team (he ticked off three: quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, linebacker Whit Weeks and offensive lineman Bo Bordelon) to help them get there.
“LSU football and LSU athletics is about being elite,” Kelly said. “It’s about a standard, a Tiger standard, that is a high bar, that we expect you to meet and exceed every day. That’s called accountability. That’s my job as the head coach, to create the culture and maintain it on a day-to-day basis.
The ear-splitting noise emanating from the speakers in Tiger Stadium’s South Stadium Club at Wednesday’s jam-packed Rotary Club luncheon sounded like an ocean liner’s foghorn being melted in a blast furnace.
LSU coach Brian Kelly, the reason hundreds of people were there and willing to endure the metallic rending sound, decided he didn’t want to deal with it.
“I don’t need a microphone,” LSU football’s head man said as he took the podium.
“What’s important to our guys? Those traits of excellence: Being on time, having good habits, having attention to detail, having a good attitude, showing some grit. That’s the most important thing to us when we talk about thinking the right way. That standard is high at LSU. That’s why I love being here, because that standard has been set.”
Then Kelly asked and answered the question that was on everyone’s mind in attendance, and perhaps millions more minds of LSU fans everywhere.
Kelly talks a good game. He’s always talked a good game. That take-charge voice, those words preaching attention to detail and commitment to a high-minded goal of developing players as people and trying to win LSU’s fifth national title along the way is heady, convincing stuff. Coming from a person who has been in this head coaching business for over 30 years, it carries even more of a visceral impact in a very Nick Saban-like manner.
But there could be no clearer delineation of the transition now facing Kelly and his program than his annual appearance at the Rotary Club luncheon, always his final preseason speaking engagement.
The time for talking is over.
The time for doing is at hand.
It’s why Kelly also talked about doing something for the first time in his career: creating an atmosphere within the football complex to have his Tigers tunnel in on their Aug. 30 season opener at Clemson. It will likely be the most highly ranked opener for LSU since 2011, when No. 4 LSU beat No. 3 Oregon 40-27 at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium.
He talked about the Clemson paw prints all over the weight room and Clemson videos on all the TV monitors. He even poked the bear (or, in this case, the other Tiger) by taking the schools’ Death Valley rivalry up a notch.
“You want attention to detail on fourth-and-goal,” Kelly said. “You want great habits when they’re needed when you’re on the road and playing at Death Valley Junior – not the real Death Valley. Within that, it’s our job to prepare our players totally.
“When they say ‘Coach is really confident about his team,’ it’s because I see those traits in action.”
So, take Kelly at his word. This is a committed, focused team, the most talented one on paper, he says, in his four seasons at LSU. None of that is guarantee of victory at Clemson, nor enough victories to get the Tigers back in the College Football Playoff for the first time since they won it all six seasons ago. But it seems to move the odds in LSU’s favor.
Kelly makes it all sound very good. It simply has to be good on the field, in a season that has so much riding on it.
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