Brian Kelly May Start Calling Plays After Another Offensive Failure … If He Hasn’t Already

Brian Kelly and Billy Napier
LSU football coach Brian Kelly (right) talks to Florida coach Billy Napier before their game Saturday in Gainesville, Florida. (LSU photo).

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU has scored three touchdowns in its last 10 quarters during its three-game losing streak – one Saturday night in a 27-16 loss at Florida, one in the 42-13 laugher to Alabama last week, and one in the second half of a 38-23 defeat at Texas A&M on Oct. 26.

WAIT, LSU LOSES TO BILLY NAPIER?

Repeatedly, the Tigers have had to settle for field goals, or field goal attempts, or snap attempts for field goals, in the red zone, or close to it. If you noticed on ABC TV Saturday afternoon, LSU head coach Brian Kelly often had a play sheet covering his mouth as he spoke on the headphones. That was new. That is usually what head coaches who call plays do. Kelly has not called plays at LSU. Or was he Saturday night? Or will he now?

While answering a question last Thursday about struggling, 37-year-old, rookie LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan calling plays for the first time in big time college football this season, Kelly, 63, explained that he was a play caller for “over 20 years at Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Central Michigan.” Kelly was head coach at all those stops.

“I can help him with the knowledge I have,” Kelly said. “He (Sloan) has got to be who he is, and I’ve got to come at it as a head coach. And as a head coach, I want more balance. And that balance has to be struck by how you sequence can call plays. You’re not going to throw it 10 times, and then try to run play action. It doesn’t work so good. Nobody’s fooled, and he understands that.”

Interesting that Kelly would go that in depth on the art of calling plays as his offense and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier had been free falling since the second half at Texas A&M. And he wasn’t done either.

“There’s a difference between making suggestions and making decisions,” Kelly said. “He (Sloan) has been making suggestions most of his career, all of his career. Now, he’s got to make decisions.”

LSU had to settle for field goal attempts from Damian Ramos too often in its 27 16 loss at Florida Saturday night LSU photo

On Saturday, it looked like Kelly was either calling the plays, or making strong suggestions. If he hasn’t already, look for Kelly to take over the play calling duties full go when the cratering Tigers (6-4, 3-3 Southeastern Conference) host Vanderbilt (6-4, 3-3 SEC) Saturday night. He may not announce it, but he is either going to do it, or do most of it.

That may or may not be good news for LSU fans. Because Kelly may have started calling the plays Saturday night, and it didn’t look so great.

-LSU faced a 4th-and-1 from its 49 on the first drive of the game, and it didn’t convert as tight end Trey’Dez Green missed a block on the edge. That was a good call, though. If Green contains the end, wide receiver Zavion Thomas would have had a long gain instead of a 3-yard loss.

-LSU reached the Florida 32-yard line on a 41-yard drive in 13 plays at the end of the first quarter, but settled for a 51-yard field goal that Damian Ramos missed.

-The Tigers got to the Florida 25 late in the first half, but after an 8-yard sack of quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (one of a season-high seven), Ramos kicked a 50-yard field goal for a 10-10 tie.

-LSU drove 62 yards in 15 plays over 7:44 in the third quarter and reached the Florida 14-yard line. Nussmeier completed a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver CJ Daniels, but senior wide receiver Kyren Lacy was holding away from the play. LSU settled once more for field goal (45 yards) and a 13-10 lead.

“We had a silly mistake on that touchdown,” Kelly said. “We’re better than that. Drives have to be converted.”

-The Tigers moved 54 yards in 15 plays over 8:40 in the fourth quarter. They reached the Florida 21-yard line, but a false start by junior right tackle Emery Jones Jr. stalled that drive. Ramos booted a 38-yard field goal to get LSU within 20-16 with 5:18 to play, but Florida put the game away with something called a touchdown on its next possession on a 55-yard run from tailback Jadan Baugh.

“The inability to finish off drives,” Kelly said after the game. “That in itself is what’s apparently part of our problem. I thought we found a way to run the ball much more effectively today, but you have to finish off drives.”

Kelly, who also coached defense early in his career, may take a hard look at the side of the ball as well. He made promising Missouri defensive coordinator Blake Baker the highest paid assistant in college football when he hired him away after last season for $2.5 million a year. But the return on that investment has been questionable so far.

“Half of us thought we were running one play,” LSU linebacker Whit Weeks said of Baugh’s 55-yard dagger through a Swamp drained of defenders. “And half of us thought we were running a different play. Miscommunication.”

First rule of coaching – get the play in and make sure everyone knows what it is.

LSU DOMINATED IN OFTEN CRITICAL STATISTICS

LSU outgained Florida in rushing 130 to 113 and in total yards 392 to 339. It nearly doubled the Gators in first downs 25-13, ran more than twice as many plays at 92 to 43, and had the ball for nearly 42 minutes to just over 18.

And lost.

Seven sacks of Nussmeier didn’t help. He came in with six, and Florida had two sacks in its previous two games. That stat was a microcosm of LSU’s disjointed season. It puts puts one fire out – lack of a running game – and another one erupts – allowing a rash of sacks for the first time all season.

“No,” Kelly said when asked if he ever lost a game after winning often key statistical categories. “This was unique. I don’t know what the time of possession was, but it was ridiculous. But we know the reasons. We can’t keep taking points off the board. Drives have to be converted. They don’t give you a pat on the back because you had the ball longer or had more first downs. Our inability to score touchdowns continues to crop up.”

The best play callers make great calls in tight quarters in the red zone. LSU has not had that.

“You have to have players who make plays at that end of the field,” Kelly said. “And that means everybody from the quarterback to the left tackle to the wide receiver. The prolific offensive players make plays in short fields. We haven’t made enough plays down there.”

The prolific play callers call TDs at that end of the field.

LSU has the players to get to the red zone. It needs a better play caller to get them in the end zone. And suddenly, Kelly is getting more involved in that – how much we may never know. But Kelly is editing his CEO Coach tag to just Coach for the time being.

“Anybody that has a business organization, and you’re not getting a profit, you put yourself on the street, right? Everybody is working and putting in the time, and the head coach has got to be a part of that as well,” he said when asked a follow-up question to him saying he had to get more involved.

“You can’t sit and say, ‘Well, it’s the coordinators.’ The head coach is ultimately responsible. So you’ve got to get involved,” he said. “Obviously, I wasn’t good enough tonight.”

Kelly has been a very successful coach throughout his career, particularly at Notre Dame, and he has done that as a CEO Coach. His problem at LSU, though, is that his top hires have failed him – special teams coordinator Brian Polian (fired), defensive coordinator Matt House (fired) and maybe Sloan now. That makes the CEO look bad.

So, Kelly needs to recruit coaches better.

And perhaps, a head coach making nearly $10 million a year should be considering getting more involved and less detached before there are only two or three games left in a season.

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