Joel Klatt blasts 'narcissistic' media members after viral Brian Kelly moment

Joel Klatt is on Brian Kelly‘s side after the LSU coach got into it with a reporter this weekend. Following a 20-10 win against Florida, Kelly snapped when the first question in his postgame presser was about the struggles from his offense.

The coach berated the reporter, Michael Caube of WBRZ, and claimed it was not an appropriate time for the question. Although Kelly saw plenty of backlash and even issues an apology, Klatt doesn’t think he was in the wrong.

“Remember who they represent,” the FOX Sports analyst said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “If an NFL coach did that, I would feel very differently about it than a college coach doing it. Because — and I told you this last week with (Steve Sarkisian) — Sark wasn’t talking to the media when he defended Arch. He was talking to Arch. Brian is talking to his locker room. He’s defending his group of guys. He’s building culture through the media and the media don’t even realize it.

“They’re too narcissistic and they pump their own tires and think they’re so important that they have to get the right answer from Brian Kelly. But Brian Kelly doesn’t care what they want to hear. I know people disagree with me on this: I also think it’s a stupid question. Like, really? After that game? You get five interceptions. Your defense is fixed. Their defense was a problem last year and their defense has been excellent so far this year and the first question is ‘What’s wrong with your offense?'”

Klatt suggested that this is not the only instance of the media behaving like this and that Kelly was simply trying to protect his players. He also noted that the coach has a tendency to “run a little hot.”

“Those are the same type of questions Ryan Day gets at Ohio State,” Klatt said. “It’s a media that is so self-entitled and — I’ll borrow a term from him — spoiled. The answers aren’t intended to make the media feel better, feel smarter. The answers are intended to build the locker room and protect the locker room. That’s what I appreciate about college coaches because they’ve gotta be more aware than that.

“They don’t have grown men in their locker room. They have young men in their locker room. So they’re more aware of culture and more often than not, they’ll be talking to their teams through the media. I think that’s what he did and he runs a little hot.”

What Brian Kelly initially said to reporter who asked about offense

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.”