Chris Hilton Jr., LSU rock '1-0' T-shirts in warmups ahead of Clemson game

LSU coach Brian Kelly has emphasized a simple message for his team this offseason, and the squad is taking it quite literally ahead of the season opener against Clemson. Start 1-0.

It’s really that easy. LSU has not made that a habit in the recent past, though.

The program has lost five straight season openers, dating back to the 2019 national championship season. Getting off to a strong start to the 2025 campaign would go a long way toward locking up a College Football Playoff berth later in the year.

You can see LSU players embracing the 1-0 mindset below. Every player in pregame warmups was rocking a warmup jersey with a 1-0 emblazoned on the back.

1-0 @LSUfootball @ClemsonFB #LSU pic.twitter.com/8AgZjVyEpH

— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) August 30, 2025

So where did the self-described “hyper-level” focus on Clemson come from? It started back at SEC Media Days, where Kelly told reporters that there was an intention to place an emphasis on this first game and give his team something truly to work for.

“We’ve made it a specific goal,” Kelly told reporters at SEC Media Days. “It’s tangible for our guys. If you go through our weight room, we’ve got a Clemson paw print on the bags that we hit every day; it’s on every monitor in our building to go 1-0. I thought it was important to have a tangible, specific goal for us to start the season.”

The desire to go 1-0 is an admirable one, and it’s a motivational tactic that makes a lot of sense. But is there a risk of building the Clemson game up a little too much?

That was a topic players attempted to tackle in the week leading up to the game. Linebacker Whit Weeks admitted there’s something to that, but he thinks focusing on Clemson the way the program has will pay dividends.

“Everybody who’s been on our team has been playing football for years and years, and this is just what we do. We’re football players. You play football. So it can’t get something too out of hand where it’s like this is the greatest game of all time,” Weeks told the media on Tuesday night. “It’s just our next game. We just have to focus on now and really not look too far ahead in the future. You still need to focus on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s practices. Like we’re not to the game yet. We’ve got a long way to go until we are at the game, and we’ve got to lock down on all of our keys before we even get into the game.”

Now the Tigers are at the game. And the message is clear: Go 1-0.

On3’s Bryce Koon also contributed to this report.