GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Brian Kelly and his players enjoyed the opening weekend so much at Clemson that they will try to do the same thing again this Saturday against Lousiana Tech at Tiger Stadium.
“We certainly feel great about what we accomplished,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said at his weekly press conference Tuesday of the No. 9 Tigers’ 17-10 win at No. 4 Clemson. “But our mantra is 1-0. And we’re focused on Louisiana Tech, and we want to go 1-0. We want to replicate all the things that we did to go 1-0.”
LSU moved from No. 9 to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll on Tuesday afternoon with No. 3 Ohio State moving to No. 1 after beating No. 1 Texas, 14-7, on Saturday.
The Tigers (1-0) and Louisiana Tech (1-0) kick off at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Tiger Stadium on SEC Network+ and ESPN+.
“Our players made the decision that they want to do the hard things the right way,” Kelly said.
LSU beat a four-point favorite at Clemson, which much of the local and national media picked to beat LSU and send it to its school-record sixth straight season opening loss with Kelly losing his first three as LSU’s coach from 2022-24.
“The narrative was, ‘The fan base is eroding. The head coach is on the hot seat,'” Kelly mused. “And ‘We can’t run. We can’t stop the run.’ People were taking shots at our process. And 24 hours later, the same people were saying we’re the best team in the country. So you can see how silly that is. We played with great confidence. And our guys believed, so that’s what we’re about.”
INJURY REPORT
LSU wide receiver Destyn Hill had surgery on Sunday on his fractured left hand.
“They put a plate in to stabilize it,” Kelly said. “He’ll be out this week, but maybe next week (Florida at Tiger Stadium on Sept. 13), he can be at a limited capacity.”
LSU kicker Damian Ramos suffered a cramp in his plant foot (not his kicking foot) when he missed a 46-yard field goal in the third quarter. He is expected to be fine for Saturday’s game. Ramos kicked a career-high 52-yard field goal in the second quarter to tie the game, 3-3.
BRIAN KELLY ADMITS MISTAKE
Kelly took the blame for going for it on 4th-and-2 at the Clemson 12-yard line with 15 seconds to play in the second quarter. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier completed a 1-yard pass to wide receiver Chris Hilton Jr., who was immediately tackled and fumbled it over to Clemson.
“The analytics call for a go,” Kelly said. “However, the mistake that I made is that we didn’t have enough time on the clock to get in four plays. Analytics also looks at how many plays you can get in to make that 4th-and-2 worthwhile. Even if we got it with one timeout and the time left, it would not have given us the maximum opportunity for that go. So, that was a mistake on my part. We should’ve kicked the field goal.”
FORMER STARTING CB ASHTON STAMPS DOES NOT PLAY ON DEFENSE
Kelly was asked about cornerback Ashton Stamps not playing on defense at Clemson after starting the previous two seasons. Stamps played only on special teams.
“We’re going to play the guys that give us the best chance to win,” Kelly said. “He’s a really good player. The rotation was what we played. But Ashton’s going to stay ready. He knows that. We have great confidence in him to go out there and play at a high level.”
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