THE Death Valley: Dabo Swinney responds to Brian Kelly claim

SEC Media Days usually produces headlines. Brian Kelly surely made one when talking about LSU‘s season opener against Clemson. As most fans in Baton Rouge would, Kelly claimed they have the real Death Valley and that Clemson is just “borrowing it.”

Dabo Swinney was recently given a chance to respond to Kelly’s comments. Not much came from the Clemson head coach, saying he did not have much context. Swinney was also highly complimentary of the work Kelly has done and what Aug. 30 might bring.

“I don’t know the context,” Swinney said. “I have no idea. It’s not like I’m sitting around, watching press conferences and all that stuff. I have no idea. But I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Kelly, LSU, I can tell you that… It will be a great game and a great environment with two really, really talented football teams.”

Kelly has been quite honest about how much this season opener means for LSU. Since he arrived, the Tigers have started all the years with a 0-1 record. Two losses to Florida State and another to USC have LSU playing catch-up compared to the rest of the country. Not a trend Kelly is looking to continue moving forward.

Motivational tactics are all around the facility. Kelly knows LSU needs to get a win against Clemson for multiple different reasons. In reality, one of them is not to declare who the real Death Valley is.

“We’ve got an incredible challenge, one we’re excited about,” Kelly said in Atlanta. “One that we’re looking forward to. We still think we are the Death Valley. They can use the name too. We’re letting them borrow it.”

Either way, Swinney is correct about two talented football teams taking the field. Plenty of preseason picks for Clemson and LSU to win their respective conferences will be out there. Maybe even some for the national championship. The AP poll will be released in August and very well could have both teams inside the top 10 to begin the season.

Kickoff from Death Valley is scheduled for Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Swinney and the entire Clemson team will run down The Hill, surely to a sold-out Memorial Stadium. Energy will be high for what has turned into one of the more anticipated matchups of the entire college football calendar. But for now, some more back-and-forth talking will have to do.