Not a Perfect Fit

By Jim Gazzolo

When Brian Kelly came to Baton Rouge, he made sure to tell the world it was in order to win national championships.

That was it.

It wasn’t to play for SEC titles or win rivalry games. 

He even threw shade on the place he was leaving, Notre Dame, saying he could not win championships there. This was despite the Irish being fifth in the country at the time he flew south.

Three years into his time on the LSU sideline and maybe we have found out what many thought, that it was Kelly and not the Golden Dome that was the problem.

Last Saturday, with the country watching, Kelly’s Tigers lost their biggest game of the year. It was a crushing 42-13 debacle at the hands of Alabama.

In what basically amounted to a playoff elimination game, Kelly’s club was eliminated by halftime. 

Outcoached and overmatched, Bama ran circles around the Tigers, who looked lost and unprepared despite having two weeks to get ready. 

Over the last six quarters of football, the most important stretch of the season, LSU has been outscored 73-20. The defense has been unable to stop two running quarterbacks.

As for the Tiger offense, it could not match their opponents’ firepower.

With three games remaining against unranked foes, the Tigers are not officially eliminated from the new 12-team college football playoff, but really nobody thinks this team looks like a postseason threat. 

Maybe we should have known that when they lost the season opener for the third straight time under Kelly, a loss to a Southern California club that now has been beaten five times.

Just a side note, Notre Dame is in the playoff hunt as November moves on. LSU hasn’t been in that position in any of Kelly’s years in town.

What also hurts is the Alabama loss was Kelly’s first under the lights in Tiger Stadium, something that isn’t supposed to happen. And it was done in front of more than a couple of high-ranked recruits who are in the process of making their big decision.

While those guys were greeted by a screaming crowd, they left the field with most of the seats empty, except for those occupied by Alabama fans.

It was not a good look. 

We are now left to wonder, in the new-look SEC if LSU is really one of the league’s elite football programs. Since even before Kelly’s arrival the Tigers were slipping.

Since the last national championship led by Joe Burrow, LSU has not really made a championship run.

Sure, the Tigers went to the SEC title game in Kelly’s first season, but that team had two losses and was quickly dismissed by Georgia. That seems like a fluke now. 

Kelly still doesn’t feel like a great fit at LSU. He stands out like a tuxedo in a bib-overall world. 

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles