Urban Meyer reacts to Brian Kelly's postgame blowup on reporter: 'I think it's great'

Following Saturday night’s 20-10 victory over Florida, LSU head coach Brian Kelly unleashed an explosive tirade after a local reporter opened the postgame press conference with a question about the Tigers’ offensive struggles this season. It has

“Stop, really? Is that the first question?” Kelly responded Saturday night. “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.”

Kelly has since publicly and privately apologized for blowing up at LSU reporter Michael Cauble of WBRZ, but the rant has continued to make the rounds across the college football landscape. That includes on The Triple Option podcast with Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram and Rob Stone. The Big Noon Saturday trio had a good laugh about the exchange, with the former Ohio State and Florida head coach reveling in the moment.

“I loved it, I loved it,” Meyer said during Wednesday’s episode. “I mean, I kind of snapped a few times, but he’s saying what every coach probably wants to say. And then everybody’s got to listen to context. He’ll be much different today in his press conference. That was 15 minutes after walking out of the locker room where he’s got a group of players that he spends more time with than his own family and they just found a way to win a big-time ball game. And then you get peppered right away. So, yeah, I love it.

“Was that a bad question? I don’t know that. But sometimes you look and you’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But you’ve just got to take it. And I think it’s great.”

Mark Ingram on Brian Kelly rant: ‘When you respond like that, clearly something is getting to you’

Ingram reminded Meyer that coaches need to be more in control of the moment and not allow specific questions to spark such a negative reaction. Ingram famously played college football under former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who regularly chastised reporters for questions he didn’t appreciate.

“When you respond like that, clearly something is getting to you,” Ingram said. “You’re hearing something and it’s getting to you, and he just couldn’t take it no more. He just spazzed on buddy.”

Meyer then doubled-down on the heightened emotions of the moment for Kelly, who was fresh off a significant home victory over a key SEC rival.

“You know what, give him a little grace and have at ’em, Coach Kelly,” Meyer added. “I thought it was great to stick up (for his team), and move on. It’ll be a much different tone after you decompress after a couple of days.”

Of course, that’s exactly what happened during Monday’s press conference when Kelly opened things up by addressing the postgame incident.

“I think it’s important to understand that you know, my standards relative to how we work with the media on a day to day basis, need to be higher, and I take responsibility for that, and I’ll be better in the future,” Kelly said Monday. “And understanding also that the way I’m thinking after a game, and we’ve mentioned this a couple of times in here, the emotions of the game right after it. I haven’t watched any film. It’s difficult to make those assessments of specifics. And I’m going to defend my team. I’m going to defend my players, first and foremost.”