Brian Kelly addresses emotion from Garrett Nussmeier, LSU players after loss at Vanderbilt

LSU suffered a likely disastrous loss when it comes to their playoff hopes by taking a 31-24 defeat at Vanderbilt on Saturday. That caused a lot of emotions out of the Tigers, which Brian Kelly understands considering how much they’ve put into this season.

At his press conference on Monday, Kelly addressed some of the reactions to the Top-20 loss to the Commodores in Nashville, specifically QB Garrett Nussmeier seemingly being very emotional on the sidelines. He noted how much their entire teams loves this program, dislikes where they find themselves now, and wants to be better. They just now need to channel those emotions to use in order to get back into contention.

“Everybody that’s here wants to do well, and loves LSU,” Kelly prefaced.

“Well, look, they put so much time and effort in. And, look, I recognize everybody’s angst. I mean, my meal doesn’t taste good. I’m not in a great mood. I mean, I’m not happy. I think he’s part of the entire group that, nobody’s happy. We’ve put so much preparation time and, for it not come through in those situations? The guys are angry, and they’re frustrated,” said Kelly. “And so, we’ve got to be able to turn that into allowing them to go and play this game fast and free and physical, and do that when it matters most. And, I think we’ve already kind of touched upon a number of different times, whether the first question was, you know, red zone efficiency, if we’re a little bit better there? We had three situations where we were blitzing into a naked boot, and we didn’t come up with the sack? I mean, we’ve got to be better there. So, it’s these little things that we’ve got to be better at so everybody feels a little bit better at the end of the day.”

LSU is one loss away from being out of any real postseason races for the SEC or for the CFP. That leaves them little time to feel any way about their second loss, with the Tigers needing to turn it into motivation soon.

Nussmeier emotional following LSU’s 31-24 loss at Vanderbilt

Garrett Nussmeier was visibly emotional on the sidelines following the 31-24 loss at Vanderbilt on Saturday. With the defeat, the Tigers fell to 5-2 (2-2), which puts them on the brink of being out of contention for the College Football Playoff.

After QB Diego Pavia converted a first down run near the goal line to clinch the win, cameras panned to Nussmeier. The fifth-year quarterback had a towel that he had buried his face in, as he was clearly emotional about the loss for the Tigers.

Pavia > Nussmeier pic.twitter.com/SZlJnGGdzv

— NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) October 18, 2025