Brian Kelly details LSU's disastrous night on special teams, what he tried to change in-game

Special teams don’t usually steal the headlines when it comes to college football. That wasn’t the case for LSU in their loss to Florida State and it was for all the wrong reasons. With at least five mistakes coming throughout the course of the game from that unit, it’s a wonder how they were in it in the final moments at all. It’s an issue that arguably cost the Tigers the victory and is something that Brian Kelly wants to fix immediately.

Kelly addressed the disastrous special teams play for LSU during his press conference on Tuesday. First, he opened up on the pair of muffed punts from sophomore wide receiver Malik Nabers. While it’s on Nabers as the athlete to perform better, Kelly took some responsibility for not adjusting there after the first muff.

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“We had the first muffed punt and it was my decision to stick with Malik. We always are benefitted by hindsight. I felt like he’s an elite athlete, he’s confident, and I wanted to show that confidence in him. That’s my call in that situation,” said Kelly. “So, one of them is on him and the other was on Coach Kelly sticking with him I guess you could say.”

However, that wasn’t all for LSU. Florida State blocked a field goal and the Tigers picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a kickoff. That’s not to mention what we all know happened on the final kick of the game. In response to the kicks, Kelly said that was an aspect of the game the team did make changes in. Whether for a change of personnel or a lack of execution, though, those changes didn’t matter and they cost them in the end.

“We made game changes on PAT field goals. We thought we had them remedied. (It) didn’t prove to be that way,” said Kelly. “As it relates to the field goals and extra points situation, we made a change. We flipped personnel over from that left side and moved somebody over there that we felt would shore that side up. We kicked the extra point with success and had the look we wanted. And then, on the final PAT, we didn’t execute the way we needed to.”

For all the other mistakes LSU made, this was by far the most frustrating aspect of it. Special teams are rarely in the news to this degree and, as a program, Brian Kelly can’t allow it. While he made in-game adjustments, Tiger faithful are hoping to see some overall changes when they take the field this weekend against Southern.