Brian Kelly explains mixed emotions on field-rushing: Love the celebration, but unsettling
LSU’s thrilling comeback Saturday to upset Ole Miss in overtime, 29-26, may well be remembered as much for Tiger Stadium’s late-night field-rushing celebration as for the Tigers’ late-game heroics.
Just seconds after Garrett Nussmeier’s walk-off touchdown strike to Kyren Lacy, fans and light-up bracelets began flooding down onto the field just as quickly as fireworks exploded into the sky overhead.
Coach Brian Kelly admitted Monday some mixed emotions on the increasingly common practice in recent years, including now three times in his three-year tenure in Baton Rouge.
“I mean, look, it always is the result of a good thing, and so from that perspective, I guess your mindset is ‘OK, that’s good,'” he said. “But it’s not comfortable. You’re in a mass of people, and you’re being moved through a crowd of people. And you’re worried about somebody getting knocked down. It’s not something that you enjoy, let’s put it that way.
“You love the fact that you won the game. You love the fact that people are celebrating an incredible victory. But the implications of what has to happen next is they’re rushing you off the field, and it quite frankly is unsettling.”
The Southeastern Conference announced Sunday its $250,000 fine of LSU for its second violation of the league’s “access to competition area” policy, revised at its 2023 spring meetings.
“Institutions shall limit access to competition areas to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly credentialed or authorized individuals at all times,” according to the policy. “For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest may spectators enter the competition area.”
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Fines range from $100,000 for first offenses to $250,000 for second offenses and $500,000 for subsequent offense and, for conference matchups, are paid to the opposing university.
LSU has paid a league-high $955,000, according to AL.com, since the SEC first implemented a rule regarding field-rushing in 2004.
That total includes four instances — all in Tiger Stadium — prior to the latest policy revision last spring and now $100,000 for the rush of the court Feb. 21 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center following an upset of Kentucky and Saturday’s football upset of Ole Miss.
Fans rushed the field following the Tigers’ defeated of Ole Miss and Alabama in Brian Kelly’s first season in 2022, each of which instance resulted in $250,000 fines.
