Paul Finebaum reveals what could happen if LSU struggles in Year 1 under Brian Kelly

If all the offseason banter about the southern accent Brian Kelly tried on and took for a spin was fun, the Notre Dame coach is finding out in a hurry he’s now onto the “and games” portion of the exercise.

After suffering a 24-23 defeat against FSU, LSU and Kelly are reeling a bit. The Tigers were the only SEC team to lose on opening weekend, and the news went from bad to worse when a Monday MRI confirmed star defensive tackle Maason Smith suffered a season-ending torn ACL.

Just one game into his tenure, Kelly is already hearing some noise. And according to ESPN and SEC Network personality Paul Finebaum, that noise will only get louder if LSU can’t turn things around quickly in his first season on the Bayou.

“It’s going to be negative for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is there are just people waiting in bunkers for him,” Finebaum said on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show. “You already have the Notre Dame contingency. You have a lot of people in the national media who just don’t like Brian Kelly. And by the way, all that’s understandable.”

Brian Kelly’s Year 1 could be a challenge, but he’s capable

Kelly’s credentials are impressive, to say the least. He went 92-39 (.702) while at Notre Dame from 2010-2021. The Fighting Irish made a BCS national title game appearance in 2012, as well as playoff appearances in the 2018 and 2020 seasons.

Of course, LSU is also no stranger to playoff success, having won the national title as recently as 2019. Since that magical 15-0 season, though, it’s been all downhill for the Tigers.

LSU is just 11-13 in its last 24 games dating back to the start of the 2020 season. That’s the backdrop Kelly walks into, now compounded by an ugly season-opening loss to the Seminoles in which the Tigers struggled to keep quarterback Jayden Daniels on his feet and Daniels struggled to hit open passes in the few opportunities he got to make them cleanly.

“He’s got a dual battle ahead,” Finebaum said of Kelly. “I think it’s not only on the football field and in recruiting, but it’s managing the public relations and not appearing to be throwing players under the bus. Because that will turn people off.

“We already know the LSU fanbase is really unlike a lot of other fanbases. There’s almost a professional mentality down there. It’s why they’re so great. Because when they’re in, they’re in on some doozies like (Les) Miles and (Ed) Orgeron. But they can turn on you and they can be harsher, I think, than even the normal SEC fanbases with the possible exception of Florida. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not a PR guy, I’m a talk-show host. But he can’t lose it. He can’t let some PR guy run into the office and say, ‘Hey, so-and-so just trashed you on First Take.’ He has to shut all that down.”

Finebaum ended with a simple bit of advice for Brian Kelly in Year 1.

“I would ban his family from watching any television or listening to any talk radio.”