Brian Kelly calls for wholesale improvement from LSU's passing game

LSU was able to pull off a come-from-behind win over Auburn last week after being down early in the second quarter 17-0. LSU held Auburn scoreless for the remainder of the game, scoring 21 unanswered points in their victory. The win was a big one for the Tigers, as they remain undefeated in conference play and won their fourth consecutive game in a row, but the elephant in the room was LSU’s lack of production in the passing game, which head coach Brian Kelly was not afraid to address.

“I would continue to answer the question and I’m gonna be honest with you, everybody should be asking the same questions,” Kelly said.

LSU threw for just 80 yards in their most recent victory, and rank eighth in the SEC in passing at the moment. Quarterback Jayden Daniels has shown a lot of promise so far this season in the running game, but ranks towards the bottom of the conference’s starting quarterbacks in passing yards and touchdowns.

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“But I will tell you that it starts with putting together a comprehensive plan that can be repeated in the game, and the guy that has his hands on the ball is the quarterback,” Kelly said. “And he’s going to get most of the notoriety when we do well, and he’s gonna get a lot of the blame when it doesn’t go well.”

Kelly explained how there are a multitude of factors that have contributed to their lack of production in the passing game, and how the blame shouldn’t fall on just one person, calling for an improvement in Daniels and his wide receiving group as well.

“So the quarterback is part of this, the wide receivers have got to be better at attention to detail, their routes have to be better, we’ve got to throw it better and catch it better. There were probably five or six, and you probably can all remember them, where there needed to be a little bit better of a throw and a little bit better of a catch,” Kelly said.

One of the biggest disappointments this season has been the use of LSU star wide receiver Kayshon Boutte, who in a six-game season shorted by injury last year had 38 receptions for 509 yards and 9 touchdowns. So far this season, Boutte is the Tiger’s sixth-leading receiver with just 11 catches for 97 yards and has not yet reached the end zone, which could change if the Tigers make some changes in the play calling department.

“And so that also goes to play calling, we’ve got to be able to look at are these the plays that we can repeat and are we doing too much. I think we’re looking at it in all of those areas because this is not going to work, we can’t throw for 85 yards with the talent we have,” Kelly said.

The Tigers will definitely need more than 85 yards in the air this week if they want to keep with a Tennessee offense that currently leads the nation in both total offense and passing yards per game. The Tigers play at home versus the Volunteers at home this Saturday at noon in a game with will air on ESPN, as LSU tries to hold onto their newly earned No. 25 ranking in the latest AP Poll.