The LSU Tigers gained a seven-point edge against Vanderbilt walking into halftime; only then did the “fire Brian Kelly” chants halt.
Over the past three weeks, Brian Kelly has been under constant berating with serious questions about his head coaching abilities from the College Football community, or as Kelly calls it the “noise.”
LSU’s 17-24 win over Vanderbilt silenced most of those questions for now, for which he showed his gratitude to his team in his post-game conference.
“Our players and all of our coaches, they obviously had to listen to the noise that’s out there about LSU football and the indictments that are made unfortunately so early in this program’s development,” Kelly said in his opening statement. “But they, the players didn’t listen to it, the coaches didn’t listen to it. Proud of them for the way that they prepared this football team. I just appreciate our players and the way they came together this week and took full accountability for what they wanted to do and they went out and did it. So pleased for those guys and certainly our coaches did a great job of putting our kids in a position to succeed.
“The noise was there but you’re going to get noise at LSU when you lose three games in a row. But it wasn’t because of our guys not being committed and they showed that commitment this week.”
But that was not the only avenue where Kelly and Co. faced adversity.
LSU head football coach Brian Kelly on Tigers’ recruiting losses
LSU lost the jewel of its crown of the class of 2025, the top QB prospect in the nation, Bryce Underwood, as he flipped his commitment to Michigan. Several thought of it as a major hit to Kelly’s plan for the 2025 class, until the Tigers’ head coach clarified that it’s not, how it did not affect the Tigers one bit which is why they were able to secure the win.
“The recruiting doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot when you’re talking about your football team in the present. I mean everybody else certainly felt differently about that recruiting piece but that didn’t really affect our players or the coaches. You’re disappointed because you’ve put you know many many years into recruiting but it really didn’t affect the core of what we wanted to accomplish,” Kelly said.
When it rains, it pours. Yet Kelly and his team managed to find the sunlight in Baton Rouge on November 23 against Vanderbilt.
