Brian Kelly addresses controversial call on Barion Brown catch in endzone

No. 3 LSU opened its 2025 season with a win for the first time since 2019 on Saturday, as it knocked off then-ranked No. 4 Clemson 17-10 at Memorial Stadium. The score would have been 24-10 had its potential third-quarter receiving touchdown by Barion Brown stood, but the play was overruled after a lengthy review.

Garrett Nussmeier found Brown in the corner of the end zone for what looked like a stellar touchdown grab, but that was not the case. LSU had to then settle for a field goal, which kicker Damian Ramos missed to keep the score at 10-10 with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter.

An incredible throw from Nuss and effort from Barion Brown but it's ruled incomplete

LSU misses the ensuing field goal. wow pic.twitter.com/2FOqr1Aybz

— Matthew Brune (@MatthewBrune_) August 31, 2025

LSU head coach Brian Kelly discussed the play during a media opportunity on Tuesday, revealing that he actually does not believe it was a catch under the current rules. However, he did recommend a bit of a tweak so that it could have been upheld as a touchdown.

“We have talked to the SEC about it,” Kelly said. “The supervisor of officials and I had a conversation about it. I think it was extremely productive in all areas. You know, this thing has kinda gotten away from us a little bit with so many replays in the NFL. It’s kind of trickled down to college football. Are you a runner or catcher of the football? It’s putting a burden on the wide receiver. The wide receiver has to catch the football. He then is a runner and then he’s gotta survive the ground.”

“Earlier, (running back) Caden Durham came over the goal-line and hit the ground and the ball popped out. Well, the runner doesn’t have the same burden as a wide receiver. There is conversation about how we can make this cleaner for sure because clearly from a common sense standpoint that doesn’t make much sense.”

“The rule was applied correctly by the letter of it, but rules are made to be changed. Hopefully down the road I think there will be some changes in the way things are looked at. The crew administered the protocols and procedures the right way on that play.”

Dabo Swinney completely shuts down possibility Brown made catch

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney also touched on the play Tuesday, shutting down any possibility that Brown actually made the catch.

“You’ve got to make a football move with the ball in the field of play, which is what happened on the fumble,” Swinney said. “He possessed the ball and it got knocked loose and then it was just a matter of did it happen before his knee (hit the ground). And the other one (referring to the Brown overturned touchdown) was an easy call.”

“You’ve got to control the ball to the ground and he didn’t. That wasn’t a tough call. I don’t know other than that. Catch the ball and tuck it and hand it to the ref. Was there another controversial call? Did I miss one?”

ABC’s on-air rules expert Bill Lemonnier however disagreed with the overturn of the touchdown. He voiced his opinion on the broadcast.

“My thought is we had a touchdown,” Lemonnier said. “I thought he had firm control, took a step, got to the end zone. Even hit the pylon where he’d get the ball extended to. He’s got firm control and he’s got a foot down in bounds. He’s making a football move. And he’s even hit the pylon, which gives him even if it wasn’t goal-line extended. They’re saying when he hit the ground with that ball movement that that created the incomplete pass. In my view, I would have had a touchdown.”

Luckily for LSU, Clemson would go three-and-out on its next drive and punt it right back to the purple Tigers. It was on that drive where Nussmeier found receiver Trey’Dez Green for an eight-yard touchdown, which propelled them to the penultimate 17-10 lead.