The LSU Tigers suffered a disappointing 27-20 defeat at the hands of the USC Trojans on Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium.
You can’t necessarily call the defeat shocking since they did play a talented Trojan team led by the extremely impressive Miller Moss. However, the loss continued a worrisome trend for the Tigers.
Incredibly, it was LSU’s fifth straight season-opening defeat.
While head coach Brian Kelly is only responsible for three of those, there’s no denying the fact that Kelly doesn’t have the program as far along as expected.
Kelly caused quite a stir with his postgame comments. Although his assessment of the game started off calm, he quickly exploded in a rage of frustration as he slammed the interview table in disgust.
“We’re sitting here again,” Kelly began. “We’re sitting here again, talking about the same things – about not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put ’em away.
“But what we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the game’s over! And I’m so angry about it that I got to do something about it.
“I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach, and I got to coach ’em better. Because it’s unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game … It’s ridiculous. It’s crazy.”
While some fans appreciated Kelly’s passion and demand for a higher standard of performance, others accused him of refusing to accept full responsibility.
Among his critics is NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe who now serves as an analyst on ESPN’s First Take.
“I think it’s BS,” Sharpe said of Kelly’s postgame tirade. “He should have led with what he finished with: ‘I’m not doing a good enough job.’”
Sharpe pointed out that this wasn’t the first time Kelly had deflected responsibility after a disappointing loss.
“He did the exact same thing last year when Florida State thumped them,” Sharpe said, referring to a similar situation during the 2023 season opener. “He said, ‘Clearly, we’re not the team that I thought we were.’ No, you’re not the coach that you thought you were.”
Sharpe emphasized that coaching and accountability go hand in hand, and criticized Kelly for failing to own up to his mistakes, particularly in a game marred by penalties.
“At some point in time, it comes down to coaching, it comes down to accountability,” Sharpe continued. “You had 10 penalties for basically 100 yards – you either coach that behavior, or you condone that type of behavior. Oh, and ‘their quarterback outplayed ours.’ Lincoln Riley out-coached you.”
Kelly’s tenure at LSU has been marked by season-opening losses since he left Notre Dame, each one a blow to the Tigers’ playoff aspirations.
Sharpe argued that Kelly’s public admonishment of his players wasn’t the way to handle such setbacks, especially when the team showed potential.
“The really great coaches, look at Dabo [Swinney], when he got thumped by Georgia, he said, ‘That’s coaching. That’s on me,’” Sharpe explained, drawing comparisons to other elite coaches. “Coach Saban used to do it all the time.
“The really, really good coaches – the coaches that can get to their players and get them to understand – even if a player makes a mistake or does something repeatedly, they’ll take it and address it behind closed doors.”
Sharpe acknowledged that Kelly had a right to discuss the team’s recurring issues, but he argued that the manner in which Kelly did so was inappropriate.
“If he wanted to have this type of conversation, ‘Guys, we talked about this all summer. We had this problem a lot last year. We start to feel good about ourselves, and we let teams back into the ballgame. And that came back to bite us,’ I got no problem with it,” Sharpe said.
“But Brian Kelly has a repeated behavior of doing this publicly, chastising his players and obfuscating himself of responsibility.”
What are your thoughts on Sharpe’s comments?
Do you think Kelly was out of line with the way he criticized his team – at least publicly?
Of course, the Tigers have more than enough time to bounce back and get their season back on track … But in the big picture, do you view them as a legitimate national title contender???