Can Brian Kelly and LSU leapfrog Alabama and fill the power vacuum in a Nick Saban-less SEC?

The hits keep coming for Alabama. 

One day, it’s a couple 5-star decommitments from the 2025 class. The next, it’s a rash of transfer portal declarations. 

Wednesday delivered the worst news of all for the Tide, with star safety Caleb Downs officially entering the portal. Former 5-star Kadyn Proctor, who started all season at left tackle as a true freshman, also announced his decision to transfer. 

Nick Saban’s stunning retirement has created an unintended domino effect that has wounded Alabama’s program, and while the Tide wheeze their way through the transition from the GOAT to Kalen DeBoer, Alabama’s chief rivals smell blood in the water. 

No program in the country will benefit more from Saban’s retirement than Georgia, and Kirby Smart has the Bulldogs positioned to reclaim the top spot in the sport. 

But somewhat quietly, one of the Tide’s other famous foes has also made some major moves this offseason to reload with hopes of filling the power vacuum possibly left by Alabama in a Saban-less world: 

The LSU Tigers.  

The Tigers exited the 2023 season in a strange place, rallying to beat Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl to win 10 games for the second straight year under Brian Kelly. Yet the fall felt like a wasted season because the Tigers had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, but Matt House’s defense was so bad, Jayden Daniels’ weekly heroics could only lead the program so far. 

A year removed from beating Alabama and making the conference title game, the local faithful had even started to grumble about Kelly’s ability to manage a staff and win big in the SEC. 

But Kelly has done the thing this offseason — almost resetting his clock by piecing together a message board’s dream-list of LSU defensive assistants, while also landing the No. 1 player in America in 2025 in quarterback Bryce Underwood. 

After beating the Badgers in the bowl game, LSU cleaned house defensively — with Kelly firing his entire staff on that side of the ball. 

He then went big-game hunting, luring Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker, Texas defensive line coach Bo Davis, Missouri defensive ends coach Kevin Peoples, and most recently, defensive backs coach Corey Raymond back to LSU. 

It was just two years ago that Kelly deemed Baker and Raymond unworthy of being on his inaugural staff, but the situation has clearly changed, and it’s not hard to see what Kelly is doing here. 

He’s bringing a host of assistants with lengthy Louisiana ties back to Baton Rouge, many of whom (Baker, Davis, Raymond) have prior purple and gold in their blood, too. 

Kelly has both repaired some goodwill with the LSU faithful, while also making the program better. 

Baker, who helped Missouri post its best season in over a decade, is a strong Xs and Os tactician, who ideally can better utilize LSU’s athletic freaks (see: Harold Perkins Jr.) on defense. Davis, Peoples and Raymond are all solid position coaches, but mainly, killer recruiters. 

With Underwood, as well as Dakorien Moore, the nation’s top-ranked receiver, and Harlem Better, the No. 1 running back in 2025, the Tigers already have the top-ranked recruiting class for next cycle, and with Davis and Raymond in the fold, LSU should only continue to lure blue-chip prospects. They should be able to lock down the state of Louisiana, while also dipping into Texas and Florida for top talent. 

LSU has recruited fine under Kelly the first two seasons (5th, 7th nationally), but the Tigers now have a staff capable of landing the best class in the country. 

And in a Saban-less SEC, that could be the difference between Kelly coming close to a national title at Notre Dame, and actually winning one at LSU. 

Brian Kelly understands the stakes here. 

He came to LSU to win a national championship, and he’s burdened with the expectations that both coaches since Saban (Les Miles and Ed Orgeron) did just that. 

The 2023 was an abject disappointment. Kelly tried to temper expectations during the preseason, and while he was correct in his assessment that a patchwork secondary was not ready to compete for a championship, the Tigers shouldn’t have been an afterthought in the conference title race with the year Daniels delivered at quarterback. 

LSU isn’t going to get replicate production from Garrett Nussmeier at quarterback in 2024, but the the Tigers could actually be a better team with improved defensive coaching, some nice portal upgrades (with possibly more to come) and a softer SEC slate (no Georgia, Texas or Missouri, while Alabama, Ole Miss and Oklahoma are all at home). Kelly still needs to hire a replacement for Mike Denbrock at OC, but quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan did wonders with Daniels’ development and he was the lead recruiter for Underwood. 

The post-Saban feeding frenzy happening with Alabama’s roster right now is showing no signs of slowing down. DeBoer also has his work cut out for him to play catch-up in the 2025 recruiting cycle.