Strong first season under Brian Kelly has LSU receiving a lot of hype in 2023

There’s plenty of excitement down at LSU for Brian Kelly’s second season as head coach. To On3’s JD PicKell, it’s all there because of the bar that he set with the Tigers in his first year with the program.

PicKell addressed some of the programs with the most hype heading into the 2023 season during a recent episode of ‘The Hard Count’. He named LSU as one of those teams because, considering what Kelly did in his inaugural season in Baton Rouge, the fanbase is expecting even more from the Tigers this fall.

“The Tigers of LSU have enormous hype and the reason behind that is what they did in year one. I’ve said this before about Brian Kelly. But I like to think about how Brian Kelly in his first year like a relationship when you give your significant other a Christmas gift,” PicKell explained. “Brian Kelly in year one at LSU? The year that was supposed to be rocky? The year where they were supposed to win seven games? Brian Kelly gifted LSU and SEC title game appearance his first year there. You gave your significant other a car in your first Christmas together.”

“That second Christmas? There’s going to be a lot of hype around it now. You’ve been together for about two years now. There’s been some more time, there’s been some more development in this relationship, there’s been some more development in LSU as a team. If you got a car in year one, it’s now what are you getting me in year two?,” asked PicKell. “Are you getting me another car? Getting me a jet? What are we doing here for year two? That’s the feeling at LSU right now. They feel like they totally just skipped over all the growing pains. And they very well may have done that. But that’s the reason why there’s the hype.”

LSU went 10-4 during Kelly’s first year after he spent the previous 12 with Notre Dame. The 10 wins were just one shy of what the Tigers combined to do overall in 2020 and 2021 under Ed Orgeron.

As a season, it featured Top-10 wins over Ole Miss and Alabama, an appearance in the SEC Championship, and a blowout win over Purdue in the Citrus Bowl. Their losses weren’t that bad either as three of the four came against teams who finished in the Top-12 of the final AP Poll.

That’s quite the foundation for Kelly to now build off of heading into year two. Add in the production that LSU is bringing back from last year too and, come kickoff, PicKell believes the Tigers have every reason to be galvanized for what they could accomplish next season.

“Big pieces are coming back…They got some pieces now to do some really exciting things at LSU,” PicKell said. “That’s why there’s excitement, that’s why there’s hype. And, for LSU, it’s all warranted. I don’t say hype in a negative way. But the hype is absolutely palpable in Baton Rouge.”