Brian Kelly admits he would run the quarterback if he was facing LSU's defense

The tone and momentum shifted in The LSU Tigers‘ game against the Texas A&M Aggies when the Aggies made a quarterback switch. That was a move that head coach Brian Kelly and LSU weren’t able to fully adjust to during the game.

Following the game, Kelly was asked about that switch and if the RPOs, or run-pass option plays, were what caused issues for the Tigers. However, Kelly pointed to the quarterback run game primarily as the issue, even noting that he’d attack LSU’s defense with it if he was on the other sideline.

“It wasn’t the RPOs as much as it was the quarterback run game,” Brian Kelly said. “It’s the million-dollar question, and I would say that we need to spend more time, and each and every week it’s gotta be part of it because, right now, I would run the quarterback against us.”

Conner Weigman started the game for Texas A&M but was struggling to move the ball against LSU’s defense, leading to the switch to Marcel Reed. An athletic quarterback, Reed only ended up throwing the ball twice, completing both passes for 70 yards. However, he also ran for 62 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Aggies to a come-from-behind win.

This came a week after Brian Kelly and LSU held another athletic quarterback, Taylen Green, to -10 rushing yards. The week before that, Jaxson Dart was held to 27 yards on 15 carries for an average of 1.8 yards per carry.

Clearly, LSU struggled to adjust to the change to Reed at quarterback by Texas A&M. However, as Brian Kelly explained, the Tigers did what they could during the game.

“Yeah, so, it’s the third quarter, about, what, six minutes. I mean, we’ve got to make some adjustments on the sideline. Now, you know, some of the things are, hey, this is what we did last week against Arkansas. An athletic quarterback in Green, guy that can run. Remember these things that we did last week? Well, we’re going to have to install these things and be ready for. Obviously, we didn’t execute those things from last week’s game plan into this game plan,” Kelly said.

“Those are things we have to look at as coaches. Like, did we spend enough time on the backup quarterback coming in and into this game? Certainly, those are the things that you have to take a good close look at and make sure that you don’t have these situations again.”

Brian Kelly will now have a bye week to address LSU’s handling of running quarterbacks. After that, the Tigers host the Alabama Crimson Tide, who are led by Jalen Milroe, another excellent runner from the quarterback position.