Brian Kelly Targeted CB Mansoor Delane After Clemson Game … Just Like Last December

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Brian Kelly was looking for No. 4 in the locker room last Saturday after the Tigers won at No. 4 Clemson, 17-10, with a 14-0 shutout in the second half.

“We’re going to give out a game ball,” Kelly said to the team in a moment tweeted out by LSU. “And the game ball goes to Mansoor Delane.”

First Game as a Tiger ✔️
First Game Ball ✔️

What a performance by Mansoor Delane pic.twitter.com/lIiUdfC1aV

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) August 31, 2025

Delane, a senior cornerback transfer from Virginia Tech, intercepted a pass midway in the third quarter to keep LSU’s momentum after the Tigers tied it 10-10 and broke up two others with two tackles while providing blanket coverage throughout the night. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik targeted Delane eight times and completed one pass on a pick play.

MANSOOR DELANE AND GARRETT NUSSMEIER WIN NATIONAL PLAYER OF WEEK HONORS

“Hey, the first day I came to visit,” Delane obliged after “speech” chants from his teammates in the victorious locker room, “coach Kelly asked, ‘What’s the goal?’ This ain’t the goal. The goal is the national championship.”

And his teammates went wild.

“On to the next one,” he said.

That would be Louisiana Tech (1-0) for the No. 3 Tigers (1-0) on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ESPN+, SEC Network+) at Tiger Stadium.

LSU coach Brian Kelly’s win at No. 4 Clemson just got bigger. @KimMulkey gives a thumbs up:https://t.co/yxt6D1VMDK

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 3, 2025

This was not the first time Kelly targeted Delane, who started 29 games in three seasons at Virginia Tech with seven interceptions, seven tackles for loss and four forced fumbles from 2022-24.

“We needed a strong cover corner, and Mansoor was one of the players we identified first in the portal,” Kelly said last spring.

Kelly and staff saw something because Delane was only the No. 15 cornerback in the portal by 247sports.com when he became one of the first transfers to sign with LSU after last season on Dec. 16 – just a week after the first portal window opened. By the spring, LSU had 18 portal signees and 247sports.com’s No. 1 transfer class in the country.

Now, Delane looks like the steal of the portal class.

“This is why Coach Kelly brought all of us in here,” Delane said after the game when asked about ending LSU’s five-game losing streak in season openers. “To go handle business and that’s what we’re here for. We’re just doing our job.”

LSU did not have to work too hard on its recruiting job of Delane last winter.

“They didn’t really have to pitch too much,” Delane said Wednesday night at player interviews after a Tigers’ practice.

LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker sat down with Delane on that first visit.

“He showed me some of the scheme and the plans he had for me,” Delane said. “I saw LSU. I saw the schedule. I saw the platform. It didn’t take too much convincing. I was like, ‘This is all I need. I just need the opportunity to show the world what I can do.’ And I just took it from there.”

Delane considered entering the 2025 NFL Draft as a junior, but LSU was one of the programs he saw as the next best thing.

“I wanted to go to the NFL, or something close to the NFL,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to go to just any other school. It was like select – three or four schools that had high level skill guys to go against every day in practice or in competition. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”

There was never any real competition in Delane’s way as far as nailing down one cornerback starting job. He also immediately gained the respect and admiration of his teammates, such as returning sophomore cornerback P.J. Woodland, who started at the other corner spot Saturday, and transfer senior safety A.J. Haulcy from Houston.

LSU FOOTBALL MANTRA – KEEP GOING 1-0

“I just think we play together, for each other,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. Even when I got the interception. It was cool for me to get the interception, but P.J. and A.J., they were saying, ‘That felt like we won the Super Bowl when you got the interception.’ They were just real happy for me, running to the sideline. That’s chemistry right there. We don’t want to let nobody down.”

Delane and Haulcy are new teammates, but they’ve known one another since they were being recruited out of high school – Delane from the Silver Spring, Maryland, area and Haulcy from Houston. Haulcy went to New Mexico before two seasons at Houston.

“We were in the same class. We were on the same lists,” Delane said. “He was at New Mexico as a freshman. I was at Virginia Tech. Now, we’re both at LSU. It’s just crazy how it works. Because we’re both like, ‘Why are we still in college? We’re supposed to be in the NFL. What’s going on?’ We have the same goal. We have to do it. This is the year. We’ve got nothing to lose. We approach every day like that.”

“We controlled the second half with our offensive line.”
-LSU coach Brian Kelly, who didn’t have to continually rely on Garrett Nussmeier to do it all at Clemson:https://t.co/RdTajqyaro

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 1, 2025

They are both at the next best thing to the NFL – LSU, which has been called DBU because of the former Tigers who are defensive backs in the NFL. There are no less than nine at the moment – safety Jamal Adams with Las Vegas, cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse with Cleveland, safety Grant Delpit with Cleveland, cornerback Cordale Flott with the New York Giants, cornerback Kristian Fulton with Kansas City, cornerback Donte Jackson with the Los Angeles Chargers, cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. with Houston, cornerback Jay Ward with Minnesota and cornerback Tre’Davious White with Buffalo.

“That standard has been set here for years,” Delane said. “So we get on the phone with Tre’Davious White, and he’s just reminding us of the standard that was here, the work ethic, how you practice, just so many things.”

Last Saturday at Clemson, LSU’s secondary and defense set its own standard.

“There’s no going back,” Delane said. “Especially with the game we just had. Once you set a certain standard, you can’t go back.”

There has been a standard at the Delane home as well. Mansoor’s younger brother was one of the top high school safeties in the country last season out of Maryland and signed with Ohio State, which is No. 1 in the nation after its win over Texas last week.

“Two great wins for the family,” Mansoor said of Ohio State’s and LSU’s wins. “Two wins. When the A.P. poll came out with Ohio State first and LSU third, I was like, ‘Hey, we coming for y’all.’ We hope to see these boys at the end.”