Brian Kelly details LSU's buy-in process, how Tigers 'stayed above water'

National championship coaches usually don’t get fired less than two years after they hoist the trophy, but if that were always the case Brian Kelly would probably still be at Notre Dame. Instead, he’s in Baton Rouge, where he’s gotten LSU to buy in to his process pretty completely.

And so here the Tigers are, with three games left in the regular season, in pole position in the SEC West after knocking off both Alabama and Ole Miss.

LSU looks like a different team than the one that lost to Florida State in the season opener and messed around for almost 60 minutes before finally beating Auburn in the first half of the season.

“I’ve said this, the biggest thing this year is that they have jumped in the deep end and really didn’t know how to swim,” Kelly said. “But they were not going to drown, they were going to find a way to stay above water and kicking and doing whatever is necessary.”

The only thing the Tigers have been swimming in lately are hordes of purple-and-gold-clad fans storming the field at Death Valley.

Just one year after title-winning coach Ed Orgeron was dumped unceremoniously as LSU stumbled through a 6-7 campaign in 2021, complete with a last-place finish in the SEC West, the Tigers are once again chasing titles.

“That’s kind of built this fight in them, this toughness in them,” Kelly said. “They haven’t been perfect, and certainly we’re not there yet. But they have such a pride in LSU.”

LSU’s buy in with Brian Kelly remarkable

If getting LSU to buy in wasn’t easy for Kelly the former Notre Dame coach has certainly done a nice job making it look like it.

He had a singular message when he first gathered the Tigers after taking the job.

“When we first met we said, ‘Look, we finished last and that’s not the standard,'” Kelly explained. “‘And you have a choice to do something about it. You can continue to be bad. You can be average. You can be good, which everybody in this room is good. Or you can be elite.’ And they’ve made great choices along the way, so I’m really proud of them.”

LSU can clinch a berth in the SEC Championship Game by winning its remaining two SEC games (at Arkansas and at Texas A&M) or by winning one and having Ole Miss lose another SEC game.

The Tigers will be back in action this weekend at Arkansas in a game that kicks off at noon ET on ESPN.