Brian Kelly describes how LSU avoids outside noise, maps out steps to bounce back from Week 1 loss

Brian Kelly lost quite the opener to start his LSU career. The Tigers raced with the clock winding down but still ended up losing in a dramatic, 24-23 defeat to Florida State on Sunday. That game holds a mixed bag of things for LSU that went well but also went poorly. It’s now on Kelly and his roster to sort through it all to determine what they can use moving forward and what needs to be left behind.

Kelly spoke about the impact of the loss during his press conference on Tuesday. He says a lot comes with playing for the Tigers so, while he wants to protect his players, there needs to be critical looks at everyone so the program can improve as a unit.

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“It’s a high-profile program. They come to LSU with an understanding that with success comes a responsibility. They have to be able to balance that. I’m not up here to make excuses for our guys, but there is a line too where you don’t want it to get so crazy that we’re attacking people,” said Kelly. “We can (all) be critical and we’re critical. We should be critical of our coaching and our play. Critical analysis is going to get us better.”

LSU just came off as very sluggish throughout the game. They didn’t score their first touchdown until the end of the third quarter. They hustled to nearly tie the game by the end of the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late. That doesn’t even begin to mention the mental errors and special teams botches.

Brian Kelly wants his team to focus on the positive takeaways from the loss. He wants this to be a learning lesson for them to start on a better foot or to at least show consistency throughout the course of a game.

“The thing that was most important within our room and our team meeting was there were things that we did well. We showed resolve, but what we have to do better is consistent execution. What we learned is we’ve got to play four quarters of football,” said Kelly. “That means we’ve got to start fast. We did not start fast, the second and third quarter was hit and miss, but we finished strong. We’ve got to play four quarters of LSU football and we’ve got to execute better. That was really the emphasis in that meeting and for us to stay focused on what’s important now.”

The LSU faithful will expect much better from Brian Kelly’s team as soon as Saturday when they play Southern. There were positives in the defeat but, for now, their only reminder is just a tally in the loss column. Adding one to the winning side this weekend, and doing so convincingly, would go a long way in Baton Rouge.