Brian Kelly breaks down LSU's hirings of Alex Atkins, other key staffers

With the bulk of LSU’s roster additions in place before the start of the spring semester, the Tigers’ finalization of their staff has taken the forefront the past two weeks.

Coach Brian Kelly detailed the latest updates in that process, headlined by Alex Atkins‘ hiring as running game coordinator and breaking the news of Antonio Parks‘ joining the home-state program.

Davis, the former Florida State offensive coordinator, will coach the Tigers’ tight ends in addition to his coordinator role.

Atkins served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, UT-Martin, in 2007 to begin his nearly two-decade coaching career thus far, including three seasons at Tulane from 2016 to 2018 and the past five at Florida State.

“First of all, excited about Alex and his addition to our staff,” Kelly said, “He brings a great deal of experience as a coordinator, but more importantly his depth and background in the run game. As an offensive line coach, he adds another perspective in that room with (offensive line coach) Brad (Davis). He will not be stepping on Brad’s toes. Brad’s done an incredible job.

“This is really having somebody that will coach the tight ends and have a specific focus towards our run game and how it marries and matches to what I’m looking for within our overall offensive structure. Having somebody that is dedicated to that, having somebody that has his eye on it every day, I felt where we are today that that was a great need and to get somebody with his kind of experience in building run games in particular. Again, I just think the need, the timing, all of those things make it a great fit.”

Kelly also spoke on the hirings of four new analysts: Aman Anand on special teams, Tim Rattay and Parks on offense and Noah Joseph on defense.

Anand has coached in the college ranks since 2011, including one season at Penn State, three at Baylor and the past two as special teams coordinator at Texas Southern and Grambling State.

Rattay, the former Louisiana Tech and NFL quarterback, has coached his old position for the past five years at Oklahoma State.

Parks, a former East St. John standout who played collegiately at Arizona and UTSA, has spent time on the UTSA, Arizona State and, most recently, Oregon staffs with experience as an analyst on both sides of the ball and serving as a key recruiter.

Joseph was slated to join the East Carolina staff this winter as a general manager after spending the past two years at Purdue as the most recent stop in a two-decade coaching career that includes previous tenures at Missouri, Indiana, Rutgers and North Texas.

“We’ve hired Aman Anand to be involved in our special teams,” Kelly said. “He was at Grambling. Really excited about him. We’ll add another special teams coach to the mix there to just support that unit, those units in particular and feel really good about that. We’ve added a defensive analyst in Noah Joseph, who’s an experienced coach both on and off the field, primarily worked with (defensive coordinator) Blake (Baker) at Missouri, so obviously they’re familiar. He’ll work on the back end of our defense. Tim Rattay, who many know probably from his time at Louisiana Tech, will work on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve added another offensive assistant from Oregon, Antonio Parks. He’ll work with the wide receivers. And we have a couple of others that are pending HR that I can’t talk about today. But I think in total we’re talking about eight positions.”

Recent Miami defensive coordinator Lance Guidry, a Welsh native and longtime coach in the region, has also been anticipated to join the staff as a defensive analyst.

And the Tigers are in the process of adjusting their recruiting staff as well, including the promotions of Jon Randall “J.R.” Belton and Donovan Tate and the return of Morgan Phillips after a season at Ohio State.