GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU football players have worn “Beat Clemson” shirts all summer in preparation for the No. 9 Tigers’ season opener at No. 4 Clemson in two weeks on Aug. 30 (6:30 p.m., ABC).
There are “1-0” signs and markings throughout the football facility. There are Clemson paw prints in the weight room. A large sign in the team room has for years listed every opponent in a given season. Only Clemson is listed so far.
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It’s all part of a new strategy by coach Brian Kelly, who is 0-for-3 in openers as the Tigers’ coach. LSU also lost two straight under former coach Ed Orgeron in 2020 and ’21 after going 15-0 and winning the national championship in the 2019 season with a win in the title game over Clemson.
The Tigers started Clemson-specific preparation last Tuesday on Aug. 12. That was 19 days before kickoff. Early Tiger gets the win?
“We started to look at going up against their fronts and certainly their offensive structure,” Kelly said Friday. “We began that on Tuesday. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We’ll do a little bit more tomorrow (Saturday).”
The Tigers scrimmage tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium in a practice closed to the media.
“We’ll get in five days this week, full week next week, and then our third week,” Kelly said. “It’ll be a week more than any bye week that you have. So we’ll have no excuses about recognition of scheme.”
Also, probably no excuses at all will likely be accepted by a fan base growing more and more irritated with 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1 and 0-1.
BRIAN KELLY GOES 0-FOR-3 IN OPENERS AT LSU
Kelly only started on No. 17 USC last season on Saturday, Aug. 24, before the Sept. 1 game in Las Vegas, which he lost 27-20 after leading 17-13 until late in the fourth quarter.
“There have been some years that have been later,” Kelly said. “We didn’t start until this Saturday for USC last year, so that’s five days ahead this year in terms of preparation. I think it’s year to year, team to team.”
As Notre Dame’s coach from 2010 through ’21, Kelly was 10-2 in openers, including a 24-17 victory over No. 14 Michigan in 2018. Most of the foes were lighter fare, though, as Kelly went 1-0 against the likes of unranked teams such as Purdue, Navy, Temple twice, Rice, Louisville, Duke and Florida State. His losses were a 23-20 shocker to South Florida in 2011 and 50-47 at Texas in two overtimes in 2016.
“I’ve had teams that I haven’t started on an opponent until the last week, because we had so many question marks about so many different parts of our offense, defense, and special teams,” Kelly said.
And often the opponent was not worth preparing for over extra weeks. South Florida blew that out of the water, though.
“This one has been driven by the fact that we have some veteran players on both sides of the ball that allowed us to transition into our opponent a little bit sooner,” he said.
Kelly’s LSU opening losses have been to Florida State, 24-23, in the Superdome in New Orleans in 2022, No. 8 Florida State, 45-24, in Orlando, Florida, in 2023, and No. 17 USC, 27-20, last year.
As Kelly has said numerous times, this year’s team has his best roster with the No. 1-ranked Transfer Portal class of 18 players. In previous seasons, Kelly did not take the portal very seriously as far as numbers.
His starting lineup, though, is not set, particularly at offensive guard and the defensive line.
“I want to continue the competition,” he said. “I think it brings out the best in everybody. Some of our areas of concern last year were that we didn’t have any depth, and we didn’t have that competition. And we couldn’t keep a sharpness, if you will. So we’re going to continue to keep the reps in a manner that allows competition for all players.”
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Speaking of depth, LSU is still looking strong there at running back behind sophomore starter Caden Durham despite the loss of JT Lindsey to an indefinite suspension as he was recently arrested on felony charges of harboring two friends from his Alexandria hometown wanted for murder. Those two were later arrested after staying at Lindsey’s dormitory apartment, according to the authorities.
Behind Durham is a slimmer and improving junior Kaleb Jackson and true freshman Harlem Berry. And add sophomore Ju’Juan Johnson to the mix. After playing defensive back and running back as a deep reserve last season, Johnson moved to quarterback during spring drills with No. 3 quarterback Colin Hurley out with injuries from a car accident. With Hurley back and Lindsey out, Johnson has moved permanently to running back for now with some work in the red zone and short yardage at quarterback.
“We’re going to have a little party,” Kelly cracked when asked if Johnson is “officially back” at running back. “There’s going to be a party later. We’ll have balloons, and then he’ll jump out of the cake and say, ‘I’m a running back.’ You set that up pretty good for him.”
But, seriously, Kelly said Johnson “is focusing his time at running back at this point. And that will be his focus. He’ll be very involved. I think he’s going to be an important part of what we do.”
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