Anonymous SEC coach predicts what LSU missing College Football Playoff does to Brian Kelly

There have been high expectations for Brian Kelly since he became the head coach of the LSU Tigers. Now, he’s looking to take a step forward and get the Tigers to the College Football Playoff for the first time during his tenure with the team.

Several anonymous SEC coaches spoke to Athlon ahead of the season. That included one who predicted that if the Tigers don’t make it to the Playoff, Kelly might start feeling the pressure in Baton Rouge.

“They have playoff expectations here,” the coach said. “And it’s a better depth chart than he’s had in Baton Rouge. If they aren’t in the CFP, I think there’s some serious pressure here.”

Brian Kelly got to LSU in 2022 and has since led the Tigers to a record of 29-11 over three seasons. That includes two 10-win seasons and three bowl wins but they haven’t made the Playoff. 2024 was also, seemingly, a step back, going 9-4 and not finishing ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll.

This offseason, LSU has worked to get ready to take a major step forward in Kelly’s fourth season with the program. That’s internal changes to scouting that other SEC coaches took notice of this offseason as well.

“The big talk here is the way they’ve restructured. This isn’t an autonomous coaching culture anymore. [GM] Austin Thomas has a huge role building the roster,” an SEC coach said. “And it showed this offseason. The internal evaluation of LSU football will look more professional; they’re going to build BK [Brian Kelly] the best roster possible to go out and win games.”

LSU returns quarterback Garrett Nussmeier for the 2025 season. He’s expected to become a high NFL Draft pick following the season. To go along with that potential, LSU put together the second-ranked transfer class in the 2025 cycle, according to the On3 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. Among the key players who LSU added are tight end Donovan Green and wide receivers Nic Anderson and Destyn Hill. That group should help make things easier on Nussmeier.

Brian Kelly and LSU will start their season on August 30th with a massive road game against the Clemson Tigers. They’ll then begin SEC play on September 13th, hosting the Florida Gators.

Brian Kelly advocates for more data-driven approach to College Football Playoff

There are rumblings about the future of the College Football Playoff. Brian Kelly has his own opinions, notably that he thinks there needs to be a more date-driven approach to the postseason.

“To me when I was at Notre Dame we played for the national championship and it was the old system, it was done by a computer. Today it’s very subjective,” Kelly said recently.

“What we’d like to see is maybe a combination of some of the analytics, some of the strength of schedule components. I know a lot of people use RPI. We probably couldn’t use an RPI because we just don’t have enough body of work in terms of games. But if we can blend those two together so the selection process is a lot cleaner relative to who should be in and who shouldn’t be in.”