Brian Kelly makes joke when asked about his involvement with Mike Denbrock in offensive play-calling

While speaking to the media ahead of LSU’s next game against Ole Miss, Brian Kelly was asked to explain the play-calling process. In particular, whether or not offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock has autonomy or if Kelly is involved. For Kelly, it was an opportunity to make a joke.

“Mike calls all the good plays and I call all the great plays,” Brian Kelly laughed, before answering more seriously. Essentially, he lets Mike Denbrock do what he needs to do while guiding him based on the situation.

“So, it comes down from Mike. Then, Cortez [Hankton], obviously, has got them on the sideline. They’re going through our signalers.”

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“So, I’m hearing them and I’m just making–look, there’s a couple of voices. One, you know, is obvious enough. You can’t have three or four voices when you’re getting the play and you’re getting into a flow. The one thing, and I’ve been a play caller, you can’t get a million suggestions going. You’ve got to let a play caller go and, for me, I’m reminding him on whether we’re going for it on fourth down and what we need to go for it on fourth down–how many yards. Hey, we’re going for it on fourth and three here. So, you can run it twice,” Brian Kelly said.

“I’ll give him suggestions like that during the series and other than that kind of allow him to keep in the flow of the game. I’m reminding him of time and timeouts and really time management issues more than anything else.”

By now, Brian Kelly and Mike Denbrock should have a certain amount of familiarity with one another. Denbrock was both an offensive and defensive coordinator for Kelly at Grand Valley State. Later, he’d be an offensive assistant for Kelly at Notre Dame, including as the offensive coordinator in 2014.

Mike Denbrock joined LSU’s staff when Brian Kelly took the job. He had been the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati since 2017.

Brian Kelly had a laugh with Chris Doering

Chris Doering is a Gainesville native who played at Florida. The rivalry with LSU means a lot to him. Now a host of the show SEC This Morning, Doering lost a bet over the game and had to appear on the show as Chuckles the Sad Clown. Then, he got to interview Brian Kelly.

“I could see him yeah,” Brian Kelly said. “I had no idea no; I didn’t know that he was going to dress like a clown. But I think if you keep betting, you get what you deserve there. Because I think he’s 0-4. In that situation, I think Pete should just up the ante, at this point. And make sure that there’s no dress that he comes out in next time. Then, there won’t be anymore betting.”