Brian Kelly opens up about what his check list was for LSU spring practice

LSU head coach Brian Kelly revealed his points of emphasis during his first spring at the helm of the Tigers’ program in a recent appearance on Sirius XM’s ‘Off The Bench’ radio show. Surprisingly, none of it had to do with execution on the football field.

“I think like anything else, the first thing you do is you take a look at where are the things that need to be supported immediately,” Kelly said. “You know, clearly the past two years were not to the standards of LSU. They were a .500 football team coming off a national championship. Now, there’s always mitigating factors and everything, but clearly my charge was to come in here evaluate what needed to be looked at, and in a lot of instances, it’s just raising standards.

“It’s just expectations needed to be re-communicated. Organizational health in terms of expectations, roles, responsibilities, needed to be redefined, and just get back to the basics really. Attention to detail, thinking the right way about how we prepare, getting in there and developing, you know, that kind of standard, that kind of culture on a day-to-day basis.”

While Kelly can preach preparation and expectations away from the field, he’s tasked with the decision of picking a starting quarterback ahead of the 2022 season. Myles Brennan, Garrett Nussmeier, Walker Howard and Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels are all on the docket to potentially take over the majority snaps in Kelly’s inaugural season with LSU.

Brennan was in the Tigers’ quarterback battle before last season, but an injury allowed Max Johnson to take over the starting role to begin last season. Johnson since transferred from the program and is now with Texas A&M, and Brennan is now healthy and looking to reclaim the spot that was his during the latter stages of the 2020 season.

Daniels brings the most experience to LSU’s quarterback room as a three-year starter with the Sun Devils. He has thrown for over 6,000 yards, rushed for over 1,200, and has produced 45 total touchdowns during his collegiate. Nussmeier used last season for his redshirt year, but still completed 29 of his 57 passes in four games for 329 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, while Howard comes into the program as one of the top quarterback prospects of the 2022 class, according to the On3 Consensus.

Whichever way Kelly decides regarding his QB room, performance on the field certainly matters, but now all four gunslingers know what he’s looking for off the field as well, and it may become the deciding factor on who takes the opening snap come the first weekend of September.