Brian Kelly combats scrutiny of No. 3 LSU’s offense with a rant after a win over Florida

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU coach Brian Kelly went on the offensive.

The No. 3 Tigers had just beaten Florida, 20-10 on Saturday night. But during Kelly’s postgame meeting with reporters, a question quickly came up about an LSU offense that produced one touchdown, had seven drives end with punts and one with an interception.

“Stop,” Kelly said. “Really? Is that the first question? We won the game 20-10. Try another question.

“You are looking at this from the wrong perspective,” Kelly continued. “LSU won the football game. Won the game. I don’t know what you want from me. What do you want? You want us to win 70-0 against Florida to keep you happy?

Kelly tends to have a dry, ironic sense of humor, making it difficult to discern if he was genuinely angry about the question or merely making fun of it in a dramatic, incredulous way.

“Those are ridiculous questions. And I am getting tired of it,” Kelly said. “That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win and you want to know what’s wrong. You know what? You’re spoiled.

“I see it so differently than you guys. You want to immediately attack it,” Kelly said. “They found a way to win. If you guys don’t like that, I really don’t care. Because I am so happy for those guys. … They are in (the locker room) singing because they worked their tails off tonight. And that’s the point. I’m not trying to embarrass you, but it was a stupid question.”

Soon after, another reporter brought up defensive back Dashawn Spears, who had his first two career interceptions and returned one 58 yards for a touchdown in the second half.

“That’s a great question,” Kelly exclaimed, raising his outstretched arms. “You’re my favorite reporter now.”

In the hallway afterward, Kelly was smiling as he explained that it was more the timing of the question that set him off than the substance of it.

Had it been the 10th question, it “would have been fine,” Kelly said.

Indeed, his offense has not met his expectations, particularly during its past two games, which included a 23-7 victory over Louisiana Tech in which LSU’s offense reached the end zone just twice.

Senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier came into the season with plenty of preseason Heisman Trophy hype, having thrown for 4,052 yards last season. Kelly raved during August camp about how deep, talented and fast his receiving corps was.

So Kelly, who has repeatedly said he wants Nussmeier to understand when “zero is a good play,” clearly was disgusted with his interception on a throw across the middle after LSU had driven into field goal range.

As Nussmeier came off the field, Kelly was scolding him and followed his QB to the bench.

“Obviously, the interception can’t happen,” Kelly said. “I’m not going to beat him up here. He knows. We’ve got to take care of the football.”

Kelly also mentioned that the offensive line remains a work in progress after losing four 2024 starters to the NFL draft.

“These guys are working hard to get better. I’m with them every single day,” Kelly said. “They’re going to have to get better, there’s no doubt. But they’re committed.”

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