Brian Kelly assesses the true health of Jayden Daniels entering SEC Championship vs. Georgia

The biggest question for LSU entering Saturday’s SEC Championship is the health of Jayden Daniels. He suffered a sprained ankle against Texas A&M, but played through it in the Tigers’ season finale last week.

Brian Kelly addressed Daniels’ health before Saturday’s matchup and said the Arizona State transfer is ready to roll against Georgia.

“He obviously had the sprained ankle,” Kelly told SEC Network’s Alyssa Lang. “Finished the game against A&M. He was a little bit sore, I think, on Monday. Tuesday, he was able to practice, Wednesday, Thursday, and looked like himself, obviously, or we wouldn’t play him. But we got Garrett Nussmeier a lot of work. He’s an outstanding quarterback, too. We’re blessed, we’ve got two really good quarterbacks.

“Jayden will start, and we expect him to play.”

Getting the quarterback healthy is one thing. But it’ll be another to get something going against a tough Georgia defense, which enters play Saturday ranking 18th in the nation in passing defense, 22nd in rushing defense and 13th in points allowed. Kelly said the Bulldogs don’t make many mistakes, which makes it hard to fool them.

That’s why the key word for his offense will be balance.

“Obviously, it’s stout, it’s physical,” Kelly said of the Georgia defense. “It’s fundamentally sound. … I think eliminating negative plays, I think that’s probably the most important thing. And then, you’ve got to pass protect. This is a stout defense and it’s sound. You’re not going to trick them.

“You’ve got to be able to make plays down the field, you’ve got to get some big chunk plays. You can’t just methodically go down the field. And then, obviously, you’ve got to establish some kind of balance on offense, so those are the things we’ll look to do.”

But for Kelly’s defense, the biggest challenge will be stopping the Georgia tight end tandem of Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington. That dynamic presents a big challenge, and Kelly said it’ll start with getting to quarterback Stetson Bennett.

“I don’t know, do you have any suggestions?” Kelly jokingly asked Lang about how the Tigers will contain Georgia. “It’s really difficult. They stress you. You have to find ways to limit the big plays, they’re going to get their catches. It requires you to do some things defensively that you’re not used to. That’s why they have such a great advantage. Again, we have to do some things that take the quarterback and put him in a position where it’s longer yardage and get him off schedule a little bit.”