Andy Staples criticizes Brian Kelly for 'deficient' LSU roster, job performance in Year 3

Brian Kelly was brought to LSU to help the Tigers get back to competing for national championships. Thus far, he has been unable to do that.

LSU was still in College Football Playoff contention heading into this past weekend, before being blasted at home by Alabama, likely ending the Tigers’ chances.

On3’s Andy Staples appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday and evaluated how things are going at LSU in Year 3 under Brian Kelly.

“I think he’s doing a good job but not good enough by LSU standards,” Staples said. “Because LSU standards are, the last three guys won a national title, you need to win a national title. And I don’t think they have really improved talent wise since he got there.”

Brian Kelly took over the LSU program when it was a bit of a mess. The Tigers went 5-5 and 6-7 the two years before he was hired.

Kelly did win 10 games each of his first two seasons, but those years ended with wins in the Citrus Bowl and ReliaQuest Bowl. Winning 10 games, including a bowl, is great for some schools. However, LSU is not one of those schools, and by now, the Tigers were expected to be better.

“You could say, ‘Well I inherited a tough situation.’ But in the year of our Lord 2024, you don’t get to say that in Year 3,” Staples said. “If you don’t like your roster in Year 3, that is your fault. If there are guys that you feel like we probably shouldn’t be playing right now, that’s your fault for not recruiting over them, not getting guys out of the portal to replace them.”

LSU does have a really good win over Ole Miss, but the Tigers also lost to USC, Texas A&M and Alabama, with the two most recent losses coming by double digits.

Alabama dominated LSU from start to finish this past Saturday and showed Brian Kelly that there is still plenty of work to do.

“They have got to make the roster better. What you saw against Alabama was a deficient roster. They’ve gotta make it better,” Staples said. “Now you look at the recruiting class they’ve got coming in, they certainly seem to be trying to do that. But until we see them do that they’re going to be stuck in that 9-10 win zone, which is good. It’s just not good enough at LSU.”

To Staples’ point, LSU does have the No. 4 recruiting class in the country for the class of 2025, per the On3 Industry Rankings. We will see if that class can help LSU get back to competing for titles.