Brian Kelly compliments team following first half vs New Mexico

LSU was in front of the New Mexico Lobos by the score of 17-0 at halftime on Saturday night. The Tigers didn’t have too much trouble with New Mexico, but they could have tacked on another touchdown. LSU had a 76-yard punt return from wide receiver Jack Bech, but it was called back due to a blindside block by the Tigers. At halftime, LSU head coach Brian Kelly spoke with the sideline reporter about his team’s performance in the first half. Overall, he was quite pleased.

“Yeah, pretty good. I mean, we’ve got four starters out on defense. But, I think we’ve grinded pretty good on defense. You know, we lost our eyes on the back coming out of the backfield. We’ll make that adjustment. Other than that, I think the guys have been pretty disciplined on defense,” Kelly said.

Kelly also stressed earlier in the week how his team needed to cut down on penalties. He talked about what he was looking to clean up with some of the penalties in the second quarter.

“Yeah, well they’re not penalties that are self-inflicted. I think we’re playing good football. Look, I’ll have to look at the film, but our guys are playing hard. Let’s just put it that way. It’s just, some of those things happen when guys are competing really hard,” Kelly said.

Tigers’ quarterback Jayden Daniels got off to a hot start early on in Saturday night’s game, connecting on 7 of 8 passes for 106 passing yards after two possessions. LSU running back Armoni Goodwin had two rushing touchdowns in the first half. The Tigers had 291 total yards on offense in the first half. Both Daniels and Goodwin would later exit the game with injuries in the third quarter, but did not return, since the game was well in hand.

The Tigers finished with 628 yards of total offense on Saturday night, including 214 yards on the ground. The LSU defense got their first shutout since the 2018 season. The Tigers would go on to win the game in a 38-0 blowout.