Brian Kelly refutes idea LSU took foot off gas late vs. Ole Miss

Brian Kelly watched from the sideline as his LSU Tigers took a shot to the end zone as time expired against Ole Miss. The pass fell incomplete and the Tigers left the field as the losers in a shootout game that could have major SEC West implications.

LSU lost that game despite having a two-score lead in the fourth quarter, leading many to wonder if LSU took its foot off the gas. However, Kelly denies that’s what happened.

“No. We weren’t pulling off the gas pedal at all,” Brian Kelly said. “There were a couple of instances there where maybe a read here or there — I mean, it was just the flow of the game, really. Look, we went for a gazillion yards, made a lot of good plays. It was the circumstances of the game.”

Brian Kelly credited Ole Miss for making plays down the stretch where LSU failed to, rather than the Tigers taking their foot off the gas.

“They made a couple of plays. We didn’t,” Kelly said. “It was that close of a game. I mean, it was a six-point game and we got our hands on the ball in the end zone at the end. It was that kind of game.”

In the end, LSU lost had the game-winning touchdown pass hit a receiver’s hands in the end zone as time expired. The Tigers didn’t win but they did have opportunities to do so and they nearly left Oxford with a win.

“They could easily be sitting here talking about what they could’ve, should’ve, would’ve done,” Brian Kelly said. “So, it was just that kind of game.”

Brian Kelly pointed to inexperience leading to missed tackles

One of LSU’s biggest issues in the loss to Ole Miss was poor tackling on defense. That’s an issue that Brian Kelly blamed on the defense’s relative inexperience on that side of the ball.

“One’s a true freshman. One’s playing for his first time, in Laterrance Welch, ever on the road. I could go on, I mean, we were playing with inexperienced young players. And that’s who we have, there’s nobody else walking through the door. I mean, we don’t have another corner. These are the guys that have to play for us,” Kelly said.

“We have to continue to develop them, they have to continue to work at getting better each and every week. And, and that’s where we’re at. And so we got to keep rolling them out there and they got to get thick skin, they got to keep working on tackling. And they got to keep working on leveraging the football, they got to keep getting off blocks.”