Brian Kelly provides update on Jaquavis Richmond, offers thoughts and prayers

Following a scary scene in the LSU–Grambling game on Saturday, Brian Kelly had some positive updates to share on injured Grambling player Jaquavis Richmond. Richmond had been taken off the field on a stretcher in the second half.

On a play around halfway through the third quarter, Richmond, a linebacker, was involved on the play and suffered a significant injury. After being surrounded by teammates while down on the field, Richmond gave a thumbs up as he was taken off.

Kelly had even more good news to share after the game, although Richmond will need surgery to treat his injuries.

“There’s — he’s going to have surgery. It appears there was good news in terms of him having feeling. I’m not obviously at the hospital but we are so fortunate that he’s at Our Lady of the Lakes. He’s going to get great care there,” Kelly said.

For Kelly, it was a moment that helps keep the bigger picture — that he’s ultimately coaching a game, but a very violent one — in clear perspective.

And he wanted to make sure Richmond was the first person or thing he talked about after the game.

“We’re hoping for the very best and our thoughts are out to him and his family and certainly the Grambling State family. So, I wanted to make sure to talk about that and paid him some proper respects. Games pale in comparison to that,” Kelly said.

LSU managed to get a bad taste out of its mouth after a season-opening loss

As crushing as last season’s loss to Florida State was a season ago, this year’s Top-10 matchup might have been even worse for LSU. After FSU snatched overtime from them on the final untimed down in 2022, 2023’s edition was a beatdown as the No. 8 Seminoles won 45-24, and were up 45-17 before a late touchdown with about a minute to go, over the No. 5 Tigers.

With the final outcome repeating itself, FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt believes the people in Baton Rouge have every reason to find this annoying. While it’s not time to jump ship on LSU yet, he did highlight why the mistakes from this game were as frustrating as they were considering how last year’s game and campaign played out.

“I don’t quite think it’s time to panic for LSU. But, boy, it’s time to be frustrated,” said Klatt on his show this week. “How should LSU feel? Frustrated.”

“They made mistakes on the field last year that can be explained away because you had a new coach and kind of a new team with some transfers in there. It’s like, ‘It’s okay, we played better by the end. We won the SEC (West)’. And there was this sentiment that it was like, ‘Well, that’s going to change’. And, ‘We won’t make those same mistakes early in this season,’” Klatt said. “Guess what? It happened again.”

But with a 72-10 beatdown of Grambling, the Tigers are 1-1 and can start to build on what could still be an impressive season.