Defining expectations for LSU in 2024

It’s tough to sum up what LSU’s expectations are in 2024 as Brian Kelly starts his third season as head coach of the Tigers.

The Bengal Tiger’s Billy Embody joined Andy Staples On3 and basically said championship or bust. Fair or not, that’s the regular expectation of the program.

With veterans back, LSU could be very good or the team could stumble and fall to the middle of the pack of the SEC.

“I mean, the expectation obviously, is to be, you know, competing for national championships,” Embody said. “I mean, the only higher expectations around LSU are for the baseball team. And so I mean, right or wrong, that’s just the reality of it. But LSU has a team that if they can be coached up better, and we talked about that with Bo Davis, coaching that group at Texas on the defensive line, Blake Baker is obviously taking over as defensive coordinator, and they’ve got a really good staff on that side of the ball. 

“Just schematically and putting it together, better and more organized, can help them improve into the, let’s say the 70s of college football defenses. That would be a win and then it’s about the offense holding up its end of the bargain that they have. Even when Jayden Daniels was still kind of learning as LSU’s first year starter, they were showing some flashes, some promise and had some good games as well. But you could see this team honestly going anywhere from eight wins to running the table.” 

Running the table would be great for LSU football fans. The Tigers had their chances last season with an unstoppable offense.

What will expectations look like for LSU this fall?

But the defense held them back. Things could change in 2024.

“I mean, look at how close they were last year to doing it with a historically bad defense,” Embody said. “And that is so hard to do … LSU fans kinda got a taste of Texas A&M with Johnny Manziel or Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech … and they still won 10 games. So Brian Kelly has a good floor for this program year in year out because of how he prepares his team. 

“The six days of the week leading up to Saturday. I mean, he has an analytical approach. He has a good feel for his game and you see them be able to capture some big wins. You also have seen them miss out on having really, really good teams because of some things that whether you can pin it on Brian Kelly because he’s in Year 3 or whether you can in certain instances, look back at the past and say they’re in this position because of all the things prior to Brian Kelly arriving. It’s been such a fluid rebuild.”

Stemming from the 2019 national championship team, it was pretty much downhill from there. LSU was a historic team five years ago.

Since then, it’s been tough sledding but Kelly seemingly put it back on track. But a great coach like Kelly with more resources at LSU compared to Notre Dame will put the pressure on the experienced coach.

“They gotta go out and address quarterback, alright bring in Jayden Daniels, check,” Embody said. “All right, offensive line, wow Brad Davis has really made that better. But defense it just didn’t work out after hitting on their transfers year one the way they did. It kind of blew the expectations even out of the water for year two, year three, year four where they didn’t have the same luck in year two hitting on defensive transfers and so we saw that defense suffer because of it. 

“And now they’re in the same position of trying to rebuild that defense. And there are certain spots that they’ve been able to continue to develop with guys that they already have, but they also have not gotten to the point where they’re feeling comfortable yet with other positions because it still takes years to rebuild the way Brian Kelly would prefer to, which is really through the high school recruits.”