Brian Kelly talks scholarship breakdown, plan to build roster

The LSU Tigers are in the midst of their spring ball practices with a lot of new faces this year, and one of them is new Tigers head coach Brian Kelly. Kelly has been hard at work rebuilding LSU’s roster in such a short time, using the transfer portal, and increasing the number of scholarship players. On Friday, Kelly explained his plan to build the Tigers roster going forward.

“As I said, you know, on January fourth we had 39 scholarship players, 39. On August 4th, when we report our first day, we’re going to get to 84. We might not get to 85, but we’re going to be at 84. So we’ll get the roster back to where it needs to be in very short order. You know, mid-years, as you know, we took 17; that is not how I will build a program here at LSU year and a year out. But we needed to address that gap that I just mentioned to you,” said Kelly.

For Kelly and LSU, the biggest thing is to field a team that will be competitive and arguably the most Dominic conference in college football, the SEC. As the Tigers head coach continues, he explains the importance of getting to that magic number of 84.

“For us to get to 84, you know this isn’t AAA. This is the SEC. So you better have a full roster of really good football players when you show up. You can’t have 72 scholarship players or the guys running down on the field they’re not going to be SEC players. So, we had to address it. We did, we’ve got within there a number of guys. 10 in particular from the state of Louisiana that are either high school or mid year transfers that love the state.”

Myles Brennan gives candid take on Brian Kelly’s leadership style

With spring ball underway, LSU players are transitioning from Ed Orgeron’s leadership style to new coach Brian Kelly’s. Saturday, Tigers quarterback Myles Brennan offered a candid take about what Kelly has brought to Baton Rouge.

Brennan said one of Kelly’s focal points is on accountability — and not just in a football sense. Kelly is all about making sure players are going to class, tutoring sessions and anything else they need to do. Brennan hinted that could be a change for some of the players, and they need to adjust to Kelly’s expectations.

“That’s one thing Coach Kelly’s been harping on is accountability,” Brennan said. “I know you have to talk about the standard board and the questionnaires every day and things like that. There’s really no pushing something to the side. If you’re late, you’re late and you’re going to pay the consequences. If you don’t show up for something, tutoring, class, everything’s mandatory.

“There’s no getting around it. If you don’t do it, you’re going to get caught. I think some guys may have previously have been able to get through it, and I think now they know we all have to be accountable to each other.”