Brian Kelly explains how LSU attempted to adjust to Marcel Reed

Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed checked in during the third quarter and took over for the Aggies in their 38-23 win over LSU. That now has Brian Kelly re-evaluating several things about how the Tigers have to handle adjustments

Kelly discussed Reed’s performance while on ‘The Paul Finebaum Show’ on Monday. He said that their defense tried to input some of the aspects of their scout from the week prior against a similar quarterback. It didn’t work, though, based on how the second half went.

“Yeah, so, it’s the third quarter, about, what, six minutes. I mean, we’ve got to make some adjustments on the sideline,” Kelly recalled.

“Now, you know, some of the things are, hey, this is what we did last week against Arkansas. An athletic quarterback in Green, guy that can run. Remember these things that we did last week? Well, we’re going to have to install these things and be ready for,” said Kelly. “Obviously, we didn’t execute those things from last week’s game plan into this game plan.”

Conner Weigman started for Texas A&M and began by going 6-18 (33.3%) for just 64 yards through the start of the second half. That led to the insertion of Reed, who played several games earlier this year.

Reed got loose from there as he had nine rushed for 62 yards and a trio of touchdowns while also completing both of his two throws for 70 yards. His output also is what helped turn what was a 10-point deficit into an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter as he ran for all three of his scores on consecutive possessions

With what took place, Kelly is wondering who among them can do more so it doesn’t happen in the future.

“Those are things we have to look at as coaches. Like, did we spend enough time on the backup quarterback coming in and into this game?” Kelly asked. “Certainly, those are the things that you have to take a good close look at and make sure that you don’t have these situations again.”

“Again, I think you have to be prepared for, you know, a guy that could be in the game. I mean, like you said, he wasn’t way down on the roster. He did play a lot of football so we can’t be surprised if, you know, a quarterback that is a running quarterback comes into the game,” said Kelly. “Certainly, we played defense well enough that we can muster, you know, the assignments. We just didn’t execute our assignments. Look, I’ll tell you what it comes down to really is, you know, when you get into these moments of adversity, right, you become distracted and you start to do somebody else’s job instead of what we have been doing in our own job. Those things happen. I hope, you know, it’s a learning moment for everybody that you have to stay focused on doing your job.”

Reed came in and essentially stole one from LSU in the 15-point win in College Station. Kelly just now hopes they remember that for their collective lack of preparation for it.

“You know, the moment that those things happen? Bad things occur and that’s what happened defensively,” Kelly said.