Brian Kelly calls Alabama, Georgia success the 'benchmark' for LSU football

Brian Kelly impressed in his first season at the helm for LSU, leading the Tigers to a 10-4 record and an SEC West division title. But of the biggest highlights of the year was LSU’s overtime victory over Alabama, defeating the Crimson Tide for the first time in Tiger Stadium since 2010.

Beating Nick Saban and company in your first season in the SEC is definitely impressive, and at SEC Media Days, Kelly was asked how that particular win can catapult the trajectory of the program moving forward.

“Yeah, I was asked that question earlier,” Kelly said. “Look, Alabama and Georgia are the benchmark of what we’re looking for and what is that in particular? It’s consistency in performance year in, year out. We did it one time, so we’re not in that conversation at this point.”

Kelly may have made some noise in his first year in what most regard as the most competitive conference in college football, but he’s definitely not resting on his laurels.

Instead, he showed respect for the Alabama and Georgia programs for their impressive recent seasons in the conference and spoke about how competing with those teams in year one at Baton Rouge has impacted the program’s vision and recruiting.

“So what we’re hoping that it catapults us to is a more consistent football program that is competing for championships year in and year out,” Kelly said. “We don’t want any dips in our programs at all, and I think when you look at it from a tangible standpoint, what it did for us is it helps us in recruiting that we don’t have to paint a narrative that that’s not true.”

Every team in the SEC can sell playing in the top conference in college football during recruiting, but not every team can sell winning consistently in that conference for their recruits. And while LSU does have a ways to go in establishing that narrative, they’re surely off to a great start with Kelly at the helm, and definitely have the potential to build on the solid foundation they established a season ago.

“In other words, we can say look we’re gonna compete with Alabama, we’re going to be able to beat Alabama. It’s not a fantasy, it’s a reality and so there is some tangible evidence there that you can use in recruiting. But the rest of it is really about it giving you momentum for consistency in performance,” Kelly concluded.