Scooter Hobbs column: Kelly opens SEC Media Days with opener on his mind

American Press

21 hours ago

Brian Kelly wasn't just spouting coaching gibberish when he led off the talkfest known as Southeastern Conference Media Days on Monday morning.
You know the drill. Ask any of these coaches about, say, a key November rivalry war and they'll dial up an off-stage hook to eject the offender.
Their sole focus, coaches will tell you with a straight face and schoolmarm finger point, is on the rent-a-win game the schedule has served up on a platter as a season-opener.
If the sky-cam added to this year's media days is on alert, it can scan the media hordes and catch many eyes rolling toward the ceiling.
But Kelly gets a pass there. With Kelly, season openers have hit critical mass.
Never mind that LSU long ago discarded the season-opening, tune-up scheduling ploy.
The Tigers have been playing real teams out of the gates, for sure, but are 0-3 in openers on Kelly's watch, an LSU streak that reaches five with the last two years of Ed Orgeron.
Kelly is well award of it. He is also fed up and he's done dancing around the subject.
He's pushing all his cards for the season out there right off the bat, going all-in for this year's opener at Clemson.
The LSU weight room has the familiar Clemson tiger paws on the bags his own Tigers hit every day. The TV screens therein shine with the singular message, '1-0.'
'I think it is important for us to have a tangible, specific goal,' Kelly said.
'We needed to do some things differently this year. That is, embrace this opener … that this is a big game … let's not warm up into the season.'
'We know what our past records have been,' LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said. 'Every day we go into work to change that narrative.'
Kelly's failures came twice against Florida State and last year against Southern Call.
The two years before that it was Mississippi State and UCLA.
Kelly is drawing the line in the sand against a Clemson team that should be the toughest of his LSU openers — and it's in the wrong 'Death Valley,' Clemson's Memorial Stadium.
'That's what you want,' Weeks said. 'You want to go play a good team you don't want to lollygag into the season; you want to get into a fistfight the first week.'
Fine.
The LSU-Clemson winner will put itself squarely in the playoff discussion.
But, in truth, the opening-game failures have not been the death kneel for any of Kelly's LSU teams. And as much as falling short on the scoreboard, the Tigers didn't play well in any of those ugly openers.
They pretty much recovered.
Last year, for instance, Kelly's Tigers recovered from the late loss to USC and were seemingly cruising along at 6-1 before a collapse at Texas A&M was a prelude to a three-game losing streak.
His first year, with his least talented roster, he overcame an opening loss to Florida State to beat Alabama en route to the SEC championship game.
Going 0-3 in openers hasn't kept the Tigers from going 3-0 in bowl games, which naturally raised the expectations before the following season-opening flops.
Of course, none of the postseason successes were playoff games, which with the expanded field will be the new measuring stick for teams of LSU's ilk.
Yet Kelly is willing to raise the bar now and put it all on the line against Clemson, seemingly willing to worry about Florida in Week 3, Ole Miss in Week 5 and South Carolina in Week 6 when the time comes.
He seems to know his team, which he really likes — likes it enough to put a tough goal in front of them from the very start.
Why? His confidence seemed to be genuine.
Never mind that the SEC will be as tough as ever.
Mainly, he said, it will be the best top-to-bottom LSU roster he has had, with no excuse not to be the best team.
It is even threatening to play some real defense, which would be a start with another prolific offense seemingly assumed.
'I love our roster, our team,' Kelly said, 'The camaraderie of the group, the seriousness and focus. I think we're going to have a defense that's going to be representative.'
That would be a start.
'Anytime you go on the road and play a team like Clemson, you better bring a defense with you,' he said.
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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics for the Lake Charles American Press.