Brian Kelly does not think LSU overlooked Texas A&M

Despite his Tigers’ loss to the Aggies on Saturday, first-year LSU head coach Brian Kelly stood behind his team and their attitude toward preparation this week.

Although Texas A&M was on a major slump with just one SEC win on their resume, Kelly insists that the Tigers didn’t overlook Jimbo Fisher’s struggling squad.

“I don’t think so, I really can’t put my finger on it,” Kelly said. “They’ve worked so hard all year. I thought A&M played really well today. I thought their energy was great, I thought their best players played at a really high level. They made a lot of plays.

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“I’ve singled out this one play where we turned it over into a touchdown. It was a big momentum change. The fact of the matter is, we had a great week of practice… Probably, you know, if I look at our preparation, it’s that, you know, 24 hours out, leading into the game, we needed more juice, more fire. We just seemed to lack that a little bit today.”

Kelly and the Tigers have to shake off the Week 13 loss and quickly turn their focus to the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC title game. Georgia is undefeated with a perfect 8-0 record in SEC play. They’ll face off at 4 p.m. ET on Dec. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Kelly updates Jayden Daniels’ status following injury

The LSU Tigers’ hopes of a College Football Playoff spot ended on Saturday night after a shocking 15-point loss to Texas A&M on the road. In the game, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels was battling an injury, which Kelly commented on after the loss.

“He’s got an ankle,” Kelly said of Daniels. “The ankle was the last one. The first hit, I think he bounced back from that. The second one was more of an ankle.”

Daniels has been a key reason why LSU was even in the mix for the College Football Playoff this season. However, on Saturday, he struggled to have that similar success he has had this year. Daniels went 21-of-35 in the air for 189 yards and no touchdowns. Daniels also added 84 yards on the ground but did not score there either. He also lost a critical fumble, which impacted the game’s outcome.

“I thought he did a great job protecting himself,” Kelly added. “Sliding protections, I thought he was as good as he’s been all year, in terms of protecting himself and doing a great job in protections. They ran a lot of two-man, so, you know, they got two or three holding calls, could’ve been a lot more. It is what it is, I’m not here to talk about officiating. I thought he did a pretty good job. You get behind in those situations, it’s a little more difficult dropping eight into coverage.”

On3’s Riley Gates contributed to this report.