Brian Kelly reflects on winning first SEC game against 'veteran' Mississippi State team

NS_headshot_clearbackgroundby:Nick Schultz•09/17/22•

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It looked like a tough task, but Brian Kelly won LSU’s SEC opener Saturday against Mississippi State. Afterward, he discussed what it meant to get the victory.

LSU trailed Mississippi State at halftime, but scored 21 straight points in the fourth quarter to come away with the 31-16 victory. It was a milestone victory in Kelly’s first season at the helm, notching his first conference win.

But the quality of the opponent is what Kelly focused on in his postgame interview.

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“It’s really nice,” Kelly told ESPN’s Katie George. “Anytime you can win a game in the SEC, it’s an accomplishment especially against a really quality team. That’s a veteran team. We started two freshmen on the offensive line and they managed to hang in there. We’ll just keep building it, we’ll enjoy this one and get ready for next week.”

Kelly’s first season at LSU got off to a rocky start with a loss to Florida State in New Orleans in Week 1. But Kelly compared the Tigers’ performance against Mississippi State to that game because of the way his players fought to stay in the game.

In addition, LSU put it all together in the second half after Kelly criticized his team’s first-half performance. It also helps the run game came into form against a tough defense.

“We’re fighters,” Kelly said. “We showed that in Week 1, we just didn’t execute at the end. But that’s what we know about this team. They’ll fight. We executed so much better in the second half. Our defense played great. This is a really difficult team to defend. They played very well. I thought their defense was very difficult.

“But we got into a rhythm, and I think quite frankly, up front, our guys did a great job in the second half. We were able to run the football, we had the big runs and we could control the line of scrimmage late. In the SEC, you’ve got to run the football. We were able to run the football late and that was the difference.