Brian Kelly issues apology to reporter for postgame outburst after win vs. Florida

Brian Kelly issued a public apology for his outburst at reporter Michael Cauble of WBRZ postgame after LSU beat Florida 20-10. Kelly was pressed on the first question about issues regarding his offense.

Well, he didn’t take to kindly to that question in the moment and immediately cutoff Cauble. He has since apologized.

“I want to go back to the press conference after the game,” Kelly said Monday. “I’ve texted with Mike and and offered my apology to him for the way I handled the questioning. I think it’s important to understand that you know, my standards relative to how we work with the media on a day to day basis, need to be higher, and I take responsibility for that, and I’ll be better in the future.

“And understanding also that the way I’m thinking after a game, and we’ve mentioned this a couple of times in here, the emotions of the game right after it. I haven’t watched any film. It’s difficult to make those assessments of specifics. And I’m going to defend my team. I’m going to defend my players, first and foremost. But having said that, I publicly apologize to Mike, and he’s an outstanding reporter he works hard. And we’ll do better moving forward. So I just wanted to address that.”

Brian Kelly apologizes to reporter for outburst following LSU win

For context, here are Kelly’s full comments directed at Cauble after he asked about the offense. Cauble actually followed up and asked about the third down efficiency as well and Kelly teed off.

“Stop, really? Is that the first question?” Kelly asked. “We won the game 20-10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game. We played the game to win the game.

“You’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. LSU won the football game, won the game. I don’t know what you want from me. What do you want? You want us to win 70-0 against a Florida to keep you happy? Those are ridiculous questions and I’m getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win and you want to know what’s wrong. You know what? You’re spoiled, you’re spoiled. This team is 17-1 at night, 17-1. Give them some respect, how about that? Give them some respect instead of microanalyzing every little thing. This is ridiculous for a group of seasoned reporters. That kind of question is so out of line.”

It was nearly an iconic rant for Kelly after getting LSU to a 3-0 start to the season. Although Herm Edwards had some advice after Kelly tried to, seemingly, duplicate an already iconic rant.