GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
ATLANTA – LSU football coach Brian Kelly knows politics.
And unlike a lot of coaches from “The North” (of Bunkie) who have ventured into the Louisiana Swamp, it was not a strange new world of polite back slaps and impolite tush pushes. Kelly, 63, grew up the son of an alderman in Chelsea, Massachusetts, which is just across the Mystic River from Boston.
He graduated with a political science degree from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1985 and considered that field as a career briefly. Through contacts, he was 1984 presidential candidate Gary Hart’s driver. At the time, he worked for Massachusetts state senator Gerry D’Amico, handing out information to the media. He still does that in a way.
Brian Kelly talks with reporters Monday at SEC Media Days:https://t.co/Lp0xTkyj0X
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) July 14, 2025
“We want to use it as a place to entertain (recruits),” Kelly explained to me at a press conference in his first season to a question about his new home right on the LSU Lakes. “Less than one mile from campus, you can have unofficial visitors over, which we are going to be doing this weekend, actually. So, you’re welcome to come over.”
That was a classic Kelly deadpan, which he is really good at.
Then he said, “No, you can’t.”
Kelly has a dry wit that can often wriggle him out of touchy situations. Works for politicians and coaches alike. He’ll pound his fist every now and then for emphasis, such as after the season opening loss to USC last year. Staged or not, it was effective. He may need more similar theatrics after this year’s opener at Clemson. But the polls will rise after that.
Kelly is also pretty deft at the filibuster, another valuable political tool.
He unveiled that Monday to open four days of the SEC Media Days, which at times can resemble the Congressional hearings on NIL in 2023.
And former Louisiana governor Huey Long, who basically invented the filibuster, would’ve been proud.
— Senator Huey P. Long (@RealHueyPLong) February 2, 2021
Long’s speech, against a modification of the National Recovery Act, also included the Kingfish reading the Constitution and sharing recipes for fried oysters and potlikker https://t.co/p3X9Nue3N0 pic.twitter.com/exANOfvZgW
— Greg Giroux (@greggiroux) April 1, 2025
“We have an incredibly passionate fan base,” Kelly began with something that hasn’t been breaking news since the 1950s. “We’ve sold over 75,000 season tickets.”
They usually do.
Then he dipped into old news, venturing back to 2022 and the horrendous lack of a roster he inherited. Finally he got to his team’s expectations, which again are higher than his 10-4, 10-3 and 9-4 outputs in his first three seasons. He talked about the invited LSU players here – quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr. and linebacker Whit Weeks.
BRIAN KELLY IS ON A MULTI-LAYERED RECRUITING ROLL
He touched on his No. 1 Transfer Portal class.
“I could go on and on,” he said at paragraph 22. And he did.
Then the Zoom connection froze as he started paragraph 23. When it came back, he moved on to LSU’s national championship baseball team and the successful gymnastics and women’s basketball teams. He touched on he and his wife Paqui’s $1 million gift toward NIL funding last December.
“I’m not going to do a million every year, no,” he cracked. He does make just under $10 million a year. Then he returned to the fan base.
Where is that cane?
Finally, he got to some meat.
Watch @CoachBrianKelly deliver remarks at 2025 SEC Media Day live now on @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/WVrjXy91Hk
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) July 14, 2025
“We’ve been 0-3 in openers at LSU under my watch,” he said. “We needed to do some things differently this year. That is embrace this opener. Embracing it in a manner that this is a big game. It’s a tangible goal for our football team to want to be 1-0. That’s not let’s warm up into the season. We want to be ready for this football game.”
That would be a good start. His defense must also continue the improvement it made last year after the 2023 disaster. But it still has a long way to ago. Adjusting in game to that new invention called the quarterback keeper, which coordinator Blake Baker treated as if it was newfound electricity at Texas A&M last year, would be wise, too.
“Look, I’ve been the head football coach at LSU, and I know that we have not played the kind of defense necessary to win a national championship,” he said. “I think we put a roster together in this off-season, along with young players that have taken lumps along the way as they’ve developed. And we’ve given Blake now the tools to play championship level defense.”
Four new offensive line starters will debut against one of the nation’s best up-front pressure at Clemson.
“But I’m bullish on our offensive line,” he said. “I think we’re going to be able to produce the kind of things necessary to be a championship team.”
Finally, after 32 paragraphs got to just a few questions.
This was one game plan that worked. Now, if he and Baker and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan can do that about 10 times this season, Kelly can filibuster on LSU’s first playoff appearance since 2019 next July.
Be the first to comment