GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Yes, I really miss Nick Saban.
He is great on ESPN’s College GameDay, but I miss him on the sidelines.
But I have found the next best thing going in college football.
Like it or not, it’s LSU coach Brian Kelly, who was certainly Saban-esque on the sidelines Saturday night during his No. 3 Tigers’ disappointing, 23-7 “win” over 37-point underdog Louisiana Tech at Tiger Stadium.
Well, it’s an LSU win, which is more than what Florida can say.https://t.co/8iQrraHkOm
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 7, 2025
NOTE TO NATIONAL MEDIA: It’s been nearly four years since Kelly’s half-hearted attempt at a Louisiana accent at the LSU baskeball game when he first got hired. Or whatever it was he was trying to do. And LSU is no longer filming fancy videos of him dancing or posing with a signee.
So, as Saban would say, “It’s time to move on.”
Kelly, 63, is basically Saban’s underachieving little brother by 10 years and seven national championships, still looking for his first. And with Saban no longer coaching, and no one else out there to be overly concerned with, this is Kelly’s best chance to win it all. And he knows it.
And, like Saban, Kelly knows that the best time to get on his team’s butt is after it plays poorly and wins. Major teaching moment. LSU had been receiving the national perfume all week since the win at No. 4 Clemson. Now, it’s time for Kelly to give his team latrine duty with Florida (1-1) due in Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC) for the SEC opener.
Kelly is an Old School f-bombing football cussin’ coach who still yells at players on the sidelines … just like Saban. And I love it. And that edge may just get him the edge in the playoffs. He tore into offensive tackle Tyree Adams Saturday for some reason. It doesn’t matter. He tore into quarterback Garrett Nussmeier last week, and he had a really good game at Clemson. Kelly detailed just how good on his radio show Thursday night.
Kelly could’ve chewed out Nussmeier more on this night. He was missing receivers and throwing to the wrong ones throughout the night. And for God’s sake, Garrett, run when there is a huge open space in front of you. Kelly got on him for that, too.
“I think there’s some things that he wished that he had done better,” Kelly said in his press conference voice. I would’ve preferred the sideline accent, if you will.
“I’ve got to coach better, and he’s got to play better,” he said.
“This ain’t the goal. The goal is the national championship.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 4, 2025
-LSU CB Mansoor Delane to LSU team in locker room after win at No. 4 Clemson:https://t.co/2UnniVQQ4X
But Kelly’s best criticism after the Tech game was of his coaching staff and of himself in a most refreshingly honest and self-effacing manner that you just don’t hear a lot of from coaches.
“Look, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that this game is not just about players,” he said of this player over-glorifying NIL, Transfer Portal era. “Coaches have to get THEIR GUYS IN the right mindset to get them to play at the highest level.”
WHY BRIAN KELLY’S WIN AT CLEMSON WAS HIS BIGGEST AT LSU, BEATING THAT ONE OVER SABAN
Kelly is pointing the finger at himself and his assistants. And remember, last week he fully praised his assistants in his opening comments after the win at Clemson. “They made the plays,” he said.
“Did we do the things necessary?,” Kelly asked about himself and his staff after letting Tech stay in the game for too long. “My sense is standing here in front of you that we didn’t.”
Kelly was pissed about this game because he knows how much talent that is on this team, which is why Saban would usually get so mad.
Then he let go of a gem that you never hear a coach say.
“If I didn’t think we had the players, I’d be in here giving you the Brian Kelly spin,” he said. “I’d give you everything that I could come up with about how great we are.”
Not this year. So, I guess most everything from 2022 when he inherited the worst LSU roster since Saban got to LSU in 1999 up until now was BK Spin?
“We’ve got better players on this roster,” Kelly said. “And we’ve got to coach them better. And they’ve got to execute, too. This is all in on everybody. This isn’t just our coaches stink or our players stink. This is everybody collectively did not live up to the standard that we have set here.”
That standard was only truly set last week at Clemson, and with Kelly’s win over Saban and Alabama in 2022. But that win over the Tide was soon erased with a loss to a bad Texas A&M before LSU got blown out by Georgia in the SEC title game. And that team was not talented as this one overall.
“And you can only do that when you believe that you have more,” Kelly said. “And we have more this year. And that didn’t show up tonight. And that’s disappointing. Now, I need to get over it, and we need to get ready for Florida.”
Florida, which was upset by 17-point underdog South Florida, 18-16, on Saturday, will be at Tiger Stadium Saturday night in survival mode.
“They’re going to play their absolute best football,” Kelly said. “I told our guys that, and they know that.”
Kelly knows his team has to play its best game Saturday or run the risk of erasing everything that happened at Clemson.
Then we may have to hear that “Brian Kelly spin” again.
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