Brian Kelly criticizes team following USC loss: 'You've gotta have a killer instinct in this game'

LSU has to be none too happy to be starting a fifth straight season at 0-1. Brian Kelly clearly isn’t either based on what he had to say postgame on Sunday.

Kelly expressed his frustration with the Tigers during his press conference following the 27-20 loss to USC in Las Vegas. He said that it’s the first time in his three-year tenure there as head coach that he’s as mad as he is at his team.

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“Yeah, I think it’s the first time since I’ve been here that I’m pretty angry at our football team,” said Kelly to open.

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“That’s what I said to the team. We had some guys play their butts off tonight and we’re sitting here again – we’re sitting here again talking about the same things!” said Kelly as he punched the table. “About not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away. But what we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over. I’m so angry about it that I’ve got to do something about it.”

Much of Kelly’s frustration had to do with his team’s approach when leading tonight. Rather than closing it out, USC was able to take it from them in the fourth quarter. He sees a continued lack of impulse to end things when they have the chance which still bothers him.

“Unfortunately, it’s clear that, when we get up in a game, we do not know how to handle ourselves,” said Kelly. “You’ve got to have a killer instinct in this game. You’ve got to put teams away. We had an opportunity to put this team away. We get complacent, we make more mistakes when we’re ahead instead of having a, you know, better focus and a steely-eyed, killer instinct. That’s disappointing.”

In the end, though, Kelly also places blame on himself for them not having that yet to begin with.

“For us to be the kind of football team I want, we have to eliminate the foolish mistakes. We have to be able to have a mindset that, when we have an opponent down, we have to be able to go for the – have that killer instinct. Then, finally, we have to be able to play off of each other much better.”

“I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach. I’ve got to coach them better because it’s unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game,” said Kelly. “It’s ridiculous. It’s crazy.”

Kelly slams table in frustration during press conference following loss to USC

Brian Kelly let out some frustration about his team following a third-straight opening loss in his tenure at LSU.

After the 27-20 defeat to USC tonight, Kelly punched the table during a response in his postgame press conference.

Brian Kelly was HEATED after tonight's loss pic.twitter.com/lw3bK85YzB

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