Why Brian Kelly, LSU 'not into buying players' sends the wrong message in NIL era

LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly recently came out with strong comments about the program not being into buying players. However, for On3’s Andy Staples, that was the wrong message to send during the NIL era.

On his show, Andy Staples On3, Staples explained why the message that Kelly was sending was the wrong one to send. He also broke down a better way for Kelly to have sent the message.

“That’s not the way you say it in the year of our Lord 2024, Brian Kelly,” Andy Staples said. “Because everybody’s buying players. There’s nothing wrong with buying players. It’s perfectly within the rules. When you say that, you know what the world thinks you are? A broke boy. They think your collective is broke. They think you can’t afford anybody. They think you don’t want to live in this world.”

One major issue that Andy Staples has with Kelly’s comments comes down to why he’s at LSU in the first place. No coach in Notre Dame history has won more games than Brian Kelly. However, he left to go to a school more willing to do the things necessary to win a national championship.

“They think the guy who left Notre Dame because Notre Dame does a lot of things, like having higher academic standards, the way players live with regular students, all of that stuff that Notre Dame does, makes it harder to compete for a national title. Notre Dame does it by choice, and if you’re at Notre Dame you make those choices for a reason, but you left Notre Dame to go to LSU because you wanted to compete for national titles,” Staples said.

“Because LSU does the things that allows a team to compete for national titles, like Ohio State does, like Georgia does, like Alabama does. And, now you say you don’t want to do the things that people do to compete for national titles? You say you’re not into buying players. LSU is into buying coaches. They bought you for $10 million a year to win national championships. They didn’t buy you to say, ‘We’re not into buying players.'”

Brian Kelly on recruiting defensive line through Transfer Portal

Brian Kelly made his comments on NIL while specifically talking about recruiting defensive linemen in the Transfer Portal. In particular, he was explaining why LSU hadn’t brought in more defensive linemen this Spring, despite it being a need.

“We were in the market in recruiting in the transfer portal, looking for defensive linemen. It hasn’t fared very well, quite frankly. Because we’re selling something a little differently and that is — we want to recruit, we want to engage, build relationships, develop, retain, and have success. We’re not in the market of buying players. And unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought,” Kelly said.

“We will develop you and get you ready for the next step. As we did with Jayden Daniels, as we did with Malik Nabers, as we did with Brian Thomas. We developed three defensive linemen that all got drafted this year and we’ll do that again. But if you’re just looking to get paid, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you like all the things we do here in developing our players, bringing you into a championship program, playing in front of the best fanbase in America, playing for championships, and having an opportunity for NIL — you should be a Tiger. If you just want to get paid, this is not the place for you.”

Andy Staples explains the right way for Brian Kelly to send his message

Notably, Andy Staples feels that Brian Kelly sent the message on NIL the wrong way. He doesn’t feel the message was entirely wrong.

“Now, here’s the correct way to say that, because Brian Kelly was not entirely wrong here. Brian Kelly is making a decent point. He’s just not making it with the correct words. If instead of saying, ‘We’re not into buying players,’ Brian Kelly had said, ‘We’re not into this particular type of player in this market,’ then it would have been understandable, and it would make sense, and it does make sense.”

A major reason why Staples thinks not buying players in the Spring makes sense is that there really isn’t a ton of talent available in the Spring. That scarcity then creates an environment where teams overpay.

“Here’s the thing. In the Spring Transfer Portal window, everybody’s still looking for defensive linemen but there aren’t a lot of good defensive linemen available. So, when you get a Damonic Williams or a Simeon Barrow, the price for that person is significantly higher than it would have been in the winter window or it would have been had you signed a good defensive tackle a year ago, two years ago, and developed him and paid to retain him. What you’re saying is we’re not willing to pay the market value right now because we believe that person isn’t necessarily worth what the market says they’re worth right now,” Staples said.

“That is a completely fair statement. Completely fair. Trying to get a defensive tackle in the Spring Transfer Portal window — I say this as a Florida resident — I realize a lot of you LSU fans live in Louisiana so you understand where I’m coming from, it’s like trying to find batteries and bottled water six hours before the hurricane hits, or like trying to find lumbar 12 hours after the hurricane hits. It’s really expensive if you can find it but it’s not worth any more than it was before depending on where you’re at.”

That doesn’t absolve Brian Kelly of criticism. He has previously failed to bring in defensive linemen. Now, that problem is coming back to haunt LSU.

“That’s the issue. LSU didn’t sign any d-tackles in 2023, which was Brian Kelly’s first full recruiting cycle. If they’d done that, they might have some people that they developed. They signed a big class in 2024. They got Bo Davis, one of the best defensive line coaches in America, who’s great at developing talent. We’re gonna talk about him when we talk about LSU’s floor and LSU’s ceiling, but… he’s really good at it. So, this time next year, this might not be a problem. This time this year, it is a problem because you’re coming off having maybe the worst defense LSU’s ever had,” Staples said.

“You’re still thin at corner, and you’re still thin at defensive tackle. You should have addressed it in the winter. You didn’t. It left you desperate and grasping and getting into these bidding wars in the Spring, which I understand if you said, ‘We’re not going to do that.’ Because there’s several reasons to say, ‘We’re not going to pay the going rate for this particular person.'”

There are good reasons not to overpay transfer players, especially if a coach doesn’t think they deserve the money. However, given the situation at LSU, Staples maintained the messaging from Kelly wasn’t what it should have been.

One of those reasons is you don’t think they’re quite good enough to command that and that’s perfectly understandable. The other reason is if you did give them that money, and you bring them into the locker room, where everybody’s not making what they’re making and the players realize this person is not that good, then you have a problem. Because the other guys are gonna want to re-do their deals. Like, players are smart. If you bring in a guy who’s going to be a first round defensive tackle and pay him a bunch of money, they’re like, ‘That’s fine. No problem. I see this dude at practice. He’s awesome. Let’s go.’ But, if you bring in somebody who’s just kind of as good as everybody else you got and you paid him a bunch of money, that’s gonna be a problem,” Staples said.

“So, that’s the issue that Brian Kelly should have pointed out, instead of saying, ‘We’re not gonna buy players.’ Yes, you are gonna buy players.”