Brian Kelly talks LSU on On3's The Hard Count

LSU head coach Brian Kelly wrapped up his second season in Baton Rouge with another 10-win season, and a year after landing in the SEC Championship, the Tigers won another Heisman Trophy thanks to quarterback Jayden Daniels.

With spring practices set to begin next week, Kelly sat down with On3’s J.D. PicKell on The Hard Count to break down a number of hot topics around the program this offseason.

Kelly opened up on the heir apparent at quarterback in Garrett Nussmeier, a new offensive coordinator in Joe Sloan, the changes the offense will need in 2024 and more.

Kelly also talked about wiping the slate clean on defense with a new-look staff, the addition of Blake Baker at defensive coordinator, how the staff plans to use star linebacker Harold Perkins, the changes needed from the 2023 season and more.

Other topics included his mindset entering Year 3 at LSU, the recruiting philosophy of the program and his take on how to build a sustainable roster in the modern era of college football.

Here’s everything Kelly said in the interview with On3 and J.D. PicKell.

You can watch the entire interview on On3’s YouTube Page

On quarterback Garrett Nussmeier: 

“I think more than anything else is his development. This is still a young man that is going to get better over time. He’s going to get all the reps that he hasn’t gotten. And we’ve saw glimpses of Garrett Nussmeier with very few reps.

“I think all of us, collectively, really like what we saw. So, what I think what’s exciting for me is — a guy that’s really going to get a lot of the reps and is going to get better and better.

“We got a glimpse of it against Wisconsin. As the game unfolded, he got more comfortable, and he leads us on a 90+ yard drive at the end of the game. I think there is more to come and that’s the exciting part.”

The 2023 vs. 2024 offensive philosophies:

“This is still player-driven. Joe Sloan is going to do a great job, but he doesn’t have Jayden Daniels. That is the big difference, right? The zone-read, Garrett is not Jayden Daniels, so you’ll see an adjustment there. We will have to rely much more on a running game generated from the tailback position. I think you are going to see the tight ends much more involved in what we do. I think what we were really smart in doing was bringing in about 1,600 receiving yards in Zavion Thomas and CJ Daniels. Both those guys will help us in the (receiver room), but we lost a lot of yards in terms of receptions. We will have to make it up in other areas like the run game. Not having Jayden Daniels means you will have to find it in other areas, and I think it starts with a much more effective tailback-oriented run game.”

The LSU defense:

“I think all eyes are on the defense. That’s where we didn’t play up to the level necessary to be a playoff team. Our offense was and our defense was not. Clearly, all eyes are going to be on our defense. We are young in some areas, but very talented. We have a great staff that will utilize our players in the manner necessary for us to compete at the highest level. I think all eyes are on what we are doing defensively, what is the improvement from the defensive line, we’ve lost some really good players up front, to what is the maturation level of the back end of the defense where we have played a lot of young players. 

“I think it’s easy to always move towards the offense, but I think they are going to be ok on offense. We have enough weapons on offense and I think we have an outstanding offensive line. When you are trying to put together an offense, if you start with the offensive line – and we return a veteran group – I think we will be ok there. The focus, this spring, has to be on playing the kind of defense necessary to get into the SEC Championship Game.”

On Year 3 at LSU: 

“Well the standards and the culture feels so much more like what I’m used to. But that’s usually what happens in Year 3, for me. Everywhere I’ve been, the third year has been really successful, so I think the third year here is feeling very comfortable in terms of the standards and the expectations and how everybody has really adapted to the style and the expectations.

“Again, you’ve gotta go do it on the field and you do it with being successful on Saturdays. But the day to day really starts to feel like we’re in a really good position.”

The hire of new defensive coordinator Blake Baker:

“I think when you look at college football, not only do you need to recruit, you need to engage. And I think his ability to recruit and engage his players. And then obviously, at the end of the day, have success with the guys that he’s engaging on a day-to-day basis. In my limited exposure to him when I first came on, I was able to spend some time with him and I really liked his ability to relate to the players.

“Matt House is a smart football coach. He was dealt a very difficult situation here, and I needed somebody to come in and really build the confidence back in our football team. And I felt Blake carried himself that way. Extremely confident in what he does and how he does it, and he engaged his players that way. That made him the right fit for me.”

The approach with linebacker Harold Perkins:

“Well certainly we didn’t maximize Harold last year, and that’s not, again, a knock on Harold or the coaches. But the reality of it is he’s an elite athlete that we have to get on track this year. Both Harold has got to play better and our coaches have to get him involved more.

“That’s an important piece of what we do in the spring. Certainly where he fits within our defensive structure is going to be job one for us. So again, I think that everybody that watched last year would say that’s a guy that needs to play at a higher level, and that starts with coaching and that starts with Harold really working hard in this offseason.”

Kelly’s philosophy on building a roster in the Transfer Portal era:

“We are responsible for a number of different things. It just depends on how you want to get to the end result. The end result is still about being successful as a football program, but along the way you have to recruit, you have to develop your players, you have to engage them, and you have to retain them. If you want to be consistent as a program, you have to bring all those together and be successful. If you recruit, you develop, you engage, you retain and you are successful, you can do all the things out there. I choose to bring in freshmen as the base of our program to do those things, then top it off with the transfer portal.

“Others look towards immediately bringing in as many transfer as possible and doing those same things. I think some of those buckets are harder when we talk about retaining and engaging. It’s just a philosophy. And my philosophy is to do it with more freshmen than anything else.”

The LSU recruiting philosophy:

“I think having a clear vision for what has been good for you historically, and what has been good for LSU is the South, and in particular the state of Louisiana. Pull your base. At the end of the day, kids grow up wanting to be Tigers. They want to play here. I think there are only a couple states in the country that have that kind of passion. I think of Ohio and the Buckeyes and Louisiana and the Tigers. It just makes sense that your focus is on the state. And we can go 3.5 hours to Houston and we can hit all the states down here like Florida and Georgia, and there will always be fliers outside that footprint, but if you stay focused on that, you can have success. And so far, so good.”