Brian Kelly on his future and what's next for LSU's program

LSU head coach Brian Kelly took his time getting to the postgame press conference. It was an unsettling result as his team lost to Texas A&M 49-25 on Saturday night.

The fan base has been on edge the entire season and this was the tipping point for a lot of them. The questions and the frustrations have grown louder by the hour and after the game, Kelly was asked about whether he believes he can come back from this loss and this year.

“This is an extremely disappointing night,” Kelly said. “Any fan base would be upset. The responsibility falls on me. LSU has a proud tradition and a proud team. They prepared their tails off and expected to win. It showed in the first half and not in the second. My focus has to be inside-out, not outside-in. The noise is deserved, but I have to fix what’s inside our program so this doesn’t happen again.”

Kelly has been at the heart of a lot of conversations nationally and this loss will further add pressure to LSU to make moves. Kelly will have to change up things within his program, but will he be at the forefront of the changes? The evaluation process starts now and with the bye week next week before Alabama the following week, changes are necessary and he could be in the process of looking into them.

“I have to evaluate everything from the top down, and make the decisions that let this team play at a higher level,” Kelly said. “I’ve got to come up with those solutions.

“I’ve been doing this 35 years. It’s my responsibility to get it turned around. If things aren’t going well, the head coach has to be agile, make changes, and figure out how to get the team playing better.”

Kelly takes accountability and says his players are playing hard, but that only goes so far in year four. Now, the Tigers’ head coach will need to find tangible solutions or his run as the head coach at LSU will be marred by underachieving teams.

“Those are things I have to figure out,” Kelly said. “If they’re playing hard, and I know they are, and it’s still not happening, that’s on football, and the football buck stops with me. I have to take a hard look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, both personnel-wise and coaching-wise.

“The performance in the second half was the most disappointing part of this game. Nobody is more disappointed than our players in the locker room. They’re searching for answers, and I’ve got to be able to provide them.”

Stay tuned to the Bengal Tiger for the latest intel on LSU football throughout the bye week.