Brian Kelly lays out plans for LSU's 2024 spring game
Brian Kelly and LSU enter the final two days of spring ball this week with 14 practices in the books over the past month. Now, all that’s left is Saturday’s spring game at 1 p.m. in Tiger Stadium where the entire fanbase will be able to look on and see what the Tigers have been working on for the past several weeks.
There are different ways to do spring games. Some teams split their roster evenly and play it like a real game. Some teams just do situational work. For LSU, Brian Kelly is sticking with the offense vs. defense approach that he’s done the past few years.
“We’ll split it like we did last year where it’s offense vs. defense with the crazy scoring thing,” Kelly said. “It’s really not about the scoring as much as it’s about giving certain players that are in key positions the opportunity to compete. We want to see some of our front line guys go out and compete, but they’re not the most important players out there.”
To Kelly’s point, the spring game is not for players like Will Campbell, Saivion Jones, Greg Penn, or Mason Taylor. Instead, it’s a chance for the Tigers’ staff to get to see the question marks on the roster continue to prove themselves and position battles continue to play out.
“There are key players that need to get a lot of work in this game that we’re focused on,” Kelly said. “We want to see [Kamorreun Pimpton]. We need to see the two running backs. We need to see the offensive linemen that are going to play key roles. On both sides of the ball, as the game unfolds you’ll know who is auditioning and there will be other guys that get a quick hook and we have a good sense of where he is.”
Overall, with the spring season coming to an end, it’s the best Brian Kelly has felt about his team’s depth and overall talent pool from top to bottom since arriving at LSU. After back-to-back 10 win seasons, there’s an expectation that the Tigers take the next step this offseason and the spring game will further help Kelly and his staff evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this team.
“This was practice 14 out of 15, so from a perspective of achieving the things you want to achieve and make the progress you want, we certainly have a better sense of the areas we need to get better in and certainly players we’re counting on to play more prominent roles,” Kelly said. “I think we walk away with clearly a better feel for our football team and the areas we have to strengthen going into the offseason. What does that mean particularly? I think we all understand the team itself is better balanced offensively and defensively. Last year, we were trying to fit in a lot of transfers on defense and now there’s a lot more continuity. Offensively we lost some players, but it’s pretty clear we’re going to have success this year. We’ll do a deeper dive after the spring game and it will give us a better sense of what we need. We’ve stayed healthy and we walk away from the spring with a better understanding of our football team.”
