Brian Kelly opens up on how LSU is 'keeping the fire lit'

Until LSU upset Alabama, the Tigers continued to quietly creep up the SEC West standings after a slow start to the season. Now, they’ve won three straight games, are rated No. 7 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, and have a path straight to the SEC Championship if they can take care of business in the final weeks of the regular season.

Tigers head coach Brian Kelly explained that his players have done a wondrous job motivating themselves throughout the week, and it’s directly translating to their play on the gridiron.

“If they’re asking me to keep the fire lit, we’re in trouble,” Kelly said Thursday. “I’ve never been a guy to subscribes to the theory of it’s my job to motivate them. It’s their job to motivate themselves. So building that intrinsic motivation through their preparation is my job – I need to prepare them. That’s my job. But through preparation, they’ll build confidence that they’re ready to play. But if I’ve got to go give rah-rah speeches and do all that kind of stuff, we’re going to be an up-and-down football team – and that hasn’t been the case.

“We’ll continue to work on preparation, we’ll continue to work on the things that are important to being success on Saturday. One of those things is that it’s their job to motivate themselves.”

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Luckily for the Tigers, their hardest stretch of games are being them. Coming up, LSU will have a battle on the road at an Arkansas team that was just upset by Liberty in Fayetteville. A non-conference matchup against UAB will come next before they round their regular season out in College Station against a 3-6 Texas A&M squad.

Kickoff between the Tigers and Razorbacks is set for noon ET live on ESPN. LSU currently stands at a 3.5-point favorite heading into Saturday.