Brian Kelly explains why LSU will be transparent with injuries in 2023

LSU made a bit of ripple early in the week when news broke that the Tigers would be releasing NFL-style injury reports twice a week leading into games and an available/unavailable list on game days. Head coach Brian Kelly explained the impetus for the decision.

It mostly centers around the proliferation of sports gambling, which has recently caused a number of scandals at various college athletic departments. Kelly doesn’t want there to be any pressure or ambiguity around the players on his roster each week.

“We thought it was important, given the nature of what is going on today out there relative to reporting and gaming that we wanted to make sure that we were transparent with injuries, not putting any pressure on anybody here to guess who’s in, who’s out,” Kelly said. “So we came up with a protocol and procedure that’s similar to what the NFL does relative to reporting injuries. So we’ll do that twice during the week so you’ll have a good sense who’s in what state and then, you know, we get to Saturday if somebody was doubtful, we’ll give you available or unavailable.”

Kelly added the only exception would be a player getting sick, but he intimated that were that to happen the coaching staff would be forthright that an illness was keeping a player out.

It’s all part of push to be proactive on the issue, Kelly said. He didn’t say if LSU players had been asked or pressured in the past about injuries in the like, but he made fairly clear that he doesn’t want that to be an option.

He also explained how it fit with a bigger notion of vigilance around sports wagering and not letting it be part of what happens for the LSU football program.

“I think it’s better to be proactive in those situations and take away even the temptation to even have that in this building and not be that next school that goes down that path. We talked about, clearly, nobody should have a gaming app on their phone. There are geolocaters on your phone for every one of those apps. And so getting those apps off your phone and making sure there’s no geolocaters because they know where you are. And there should not be any of those on any of our players phones or anybody that’s in this building. So I think it’s just much more about being proactive than reactive than anything else,” Kelly said.

The biggest difference this will create going forward in Kelly’s mind is consistency. He’s sure he’s tried to be up front about injuries in the past and equally sure he’s fallen short or not done it week-to-week.

By creating a weekly protocol to regularly report these things, the whole process develops a rhythm and expectation and the consistency that Kelly is seeking.

“I think there have been weeks where I’ve tried to do that and then it got into — I’ve had a hard time figuring out the difference between a cruciate and a posterior ligament. And half of the time I think I’ve been wrong. So it just makes it easier. I think it’s cleaner,” Kelly said. “I think it becomes more consistent and I think then you have the expectation of knowing what you’ve got in front of you each and every week as you look at what player could be probable, questionable, doubtful, out moving throughout the entire week. And then everybody else does, too.”