LSU ranked No. 13 in preseason AP Top 25
The first AP Poll of the year is out and it has LSU ranked as the No. 13 team in the country. The ranking has the Tigers as the sixth best team in the SEC coming off of a 10-3 season. LSU has plenty of changes on both sides, but with perhaps the best offensive line in the country and Brian Kelly entering year three, there’s reason for optimism as Kelly gets to mold this team entering the season.
“The work you do in the offseason and all the preparation to watch your process take place over a period of time is what excites me,” Kelly said. “It’s the development of your team and what they look like and how they handle themselves. I’ve told this story many times, my first camp in year one I had guys taking their helmets off and throwing them at one another. It was total bedlam. Now, we’re at the point where they don’t take their helmets off for water breaks because they know they’re not supposed to. It’s just the development of your team that you want that’s more exciting than anything else.”
Kelly knows how important year three is and this season will mark a point of inflection as the culture and recruiting that he’s brought the last few years hopes to materialize into wins.
“We’re in year three, this is the most accountable that group has been,” Kelly said. “There is trust within the group. This will be the deepest team that we’ve had. I don’t know what that’s going to be relative to the expectations. All I can do is continue to work towards what our process is and then whatever the outcomes are going to be evaluated externally.
I don’t control those. I control what our process is and how we go to work every day. I can tell you in year three, I’ve had really good success with getting our football team to be the most accountable, trusting team that I’ve had here at LSU. That’s usually been pretty good at my other stops.”
Preseason AP Top 25
| Rank | School (2023 Record) | Points | First-place votes |
| 1 | Georgia (13-1) | 1532 | 46 |
| 2 | Ohio State (11-2) | 1490 | 15 |
| 3 | Oregon (12-2) | 1403 | 1 |
| 4 | Texas (12-2) | 1386 | 1 |
| 5 | Alabama (12-2) | 1260 | |
| 6 | Ole Miss (11-2) | 1189 | |
| 7 | Notre Dame (10-3) | 1122 | |
| 8 | Penn State (10-3) | 1060 | |
| 9 | Michigan (15-0) | 995 | |
| 10 | Florida State (13-1) | 971 | |
| 11 | Missouri (11-2) | 927 | |
| 12 | Utah (8-5) | 887 | |
| 13 | LSU (10-3) | 804 | |
| 14 | Clemson (9-4) | 689 | |
| 15 | Tennessee (9-4) | 629 | |
| 16 | Oklahoma (10-3) | 566 | |
| 17 | Oklahoma State (10-4) | 538 | |
| 18 | Kansas State (9-4) | 526 | |
| 19 | Miami (Fla.) (7-6) | 492 | |
| 20 | Texas A&M (7-6) | 292 | |
| 21 | Arizona (10-3) | 237 | |
| 22 | Kansas (9-4) | 231 | |
| 23 | Southern California (8-5) | 172 | |
| 24 | NC State (9-4) | 171 | |
| 25 | Iowa (10-4) | 140 |
Others receiving votes:
Louisville 111, Virginia Tech 77, Boise St. 47, SMU 33, Iowa St. 33, Liberty 32, Washington 23, West Virginia 17, Memphis 16, Nebraska 16, Wisconsin 15, UTSA 6, Tulane 5, Appalachian St. 4, Kentucky 3, Auburn 2, Colorado 1.
