Brian Kelly explains decision to bring John Emery Jr. back to LSU

LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly explained on Wednesday why he made the decision to bring running back John Emery Jr. back to the program.

There were several reasons why Kelly decided to give Emery another year with the program. The first was that Trey Holly was dealing with legal issues that made his status unclear. On top of that, Emery earned his degree and made it clear he was in a position to give it another go at LSU.

“There was a bit of uncertainty with Trey Holly’s situation, which opened up the opportunity,” Brian Kelly said. “At that position, I think that was one thing. I think the other was that he’d graduated and we kind of put a mandate on that he had to do the work academically.”

John Emery Jr. initially came to LSU before Brian Kelly was there and when he did he wasn’t incredibly highly touted. A five-star recruit in the Class of 2019, Emery was the 12th-ranked player overall in that cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings.

Over his career, Emery has played in 37 games and has spent five years at LSU. He has 1,062 career rushing yards and 14 career rushing touchdowns. He also has 36 receptions for 320 yards and two touchdowns on his career.

Last November, Emery suffered a torn ACL that cut his season short. Since then, he had opportunities to transfer out of LSU and hit the restart button. Instead, with the offer for him to stay at LSU, Emery decided it was best to return for 2024.

“I think the third thing was that he really did an incredible job rehabbing from the injury. Like compliance-wise. He was very committed to playing again. Like, if he was kind of so, so about playing — he was committed. He was gonna play,” Kelly said.

“So, when we added all that up, it just and Frank and I talked about it, said, ‘Look, we’ve got a kid here that a lot of things didn’t go his way, some of it was self-inflicted but he’s really shown that he wants to do this one more time.’ So, we sat down. We thought about it and we offered him the opportunity, and he had other offers out there and he felt like this was the best opportunity and we’re glad he’s back.”

This will be Emery’s sixth season with the LSU program. As Kelly added without giving much detail, he has another year thanks to a medical issue.

Heading into the 2024 season, Brian Kelly has nine running backs on the roster. That group includes Holly as he has been able to maintain eligibility. On top of that, LSU has experienced backs like Josh Williams and Kaleb Jackson, as well as an intriguing freshman in Caden Durham.