Brian Kelly lashes out at LSU Tigers following loss to USC Trojans

Yet again, it was not a pretty sight for the LSU Tigers after a 27-20 Week 1 loss to USC. Much went wrong leading up to the Tiger’s opening loss and head coach Brian Kelly was not happy. 

For the fourth straight season, LSU has dropped their opening game of the season. The last time LSU won in Week 1 was in 2019-2020 when LSU won a National Championship. In Brian Kelly’s three years at the helm, he still has yet to win a season opener. 

The opportunities have certainly been present for Coach Kelly. The Tigers have opened up as favorites over the last two years where they lost to both Florida State in 2023, and now USC in 2024. Ranked as the 13th-best team, LSU fell to the likes of Lincoln Riley and the 23rd-ranked Trojans. 

The Tigers opened up as 4.5-point favorites and the likely pick to win. However, USC had other ideas and the Tigers failed to close out to the Trojans. 

“I think this is the first time since I’ve been here that I’m pretty angry at our football team,” Brian Kelly said following the loss. “From a big picture we didn’t play complementary football, we did some good things on the offensive side of the ball, but we didn’t complement that defensively; and vice versa. The thing that is most concerning to me is the personal fouls. The penalties that are selfish – both of them led to scores.” 

LSU certainly made some costly mistakes including the unforced errors caused by Kyren Lacy, Major Burns, and Jardin Gilbert. LSU seemingly had the game in control after the defense held USC to just three points off a field goal. Garrett Nussmeier then led the LSU offense down the field where he cashed a check in the endzone off a pass to Aaron Anderson. 

In an attempt to answer back, LSU stopped a long drive from the Trojans where they came up with a huge 4th and 9 stop. To this point, the game was starting to turn in favor of the Tigers. The LSU offense could not capitalize off this and allowed the ball back into the hands of Miller Moss. 

Moss successfully led the Trojans downfield where he too cashed a check in the endzone to Ja’Kobi Lane. The LSU offense would fire back, though penalties would stall the drive and lead to a field goal. 

Following this, the game was up for grabs as Miller Moss had just under two minutes to successfully get the Trojans in field goal range. An incredible grab by Kyron Hudson plus Jardin Gilbert’s targeting penalty easily brought the Trojans into field goal range.

However, it did not matter after Woody Marks brought USC into the endzone one last time. 

“It’s clear that when we get up in these games we do not know how to handle ourselves. You gotta have a killer instinct in this game, you gotta know how to put teams away… I am angry at those things that I have to do a better job at shaping our group.” 

Kelly’s clear frustration is a result of the complacency LSU displayed in the fourth quarter. The Tiger’s self-inflicted wounds caused the momentum to rapidly turn. USC outscored LSU 14-3 in the fourth quarter alone with the biggest touchdown coming in the final seconds. 

“We had some guys who played their butts off tonight and we are sitting here again talking about the same things, about not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away,” Kelly said slamming the table in front of him.

“But what we are doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over. And I am so angry about it, that I gotta do something about it. I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach and I gotta coach ‘em better because it is unacceptable for us to have found a way to not win this football game. It’s ridiculous and crazy.” 

Kelly’s voiced frustration will have some time to be cleaned up as LSU will face Nicholls State College next week at home. For the time being, it is another head-scratching loss for the much-anticipated LSU Tigers. 

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