Everything Brian Kelly said at Monday's LSU press conference

LSU head coach Brian Kelly met with the media on Monday following the program’s 55-49 loss to Ole Miss in Oxford on Saturday night.

The Tigers are now 3-2 on the season with a road game at Missouri (5-0) on tap for 11 a.m. CT this weekend.

Monday’s press conference was dominated by questions about LSU’s lackluster effort on defense after the Rebels put up a program-record 706 yards on the Tigers on a night when the LSU offense exploded for 637 yards and 49 points.

Here’s everything Kelly said at Monday’s press conference in Baton Rouge.

Opening statement…

“Obviously, difficult loss, you know; and obviously some great individual performances.

“Jayden Daniels, Brian Thomas, Malik, Logan, offensively, just a great performance.

“We wish we could have matched it defensively. We did not. And, certainly very disappointed that we weren’t able to come out with a win on the road. But, again, we’ll have to look at how we get better. Our guys will bounce back. I’m confident in that. And we’ll have to go back on the road against a really good Missouri football team. It’s an 11 a .m. kickoff. A team that’s nationally ranked, so we’ll get challenged again on the road against a nationally ranked team.”

On Missouri…

“They’re well coached. (Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz) does a great job coaching both on the offensive side of the ball. I think defensively they are as well coached that I’ve seen. Fundamentally sound. Do a great job in terms of all the fundamentals, and then they’ve got some big-time playmakers. The quarterback is playing extremely well, highly efficien. Luther Burden, you put him up there with with Malik Nabers. He’s that kind of player. He’s explosive, he leads the SEC in receptions obviously, so he is a game -breaker. They’re tough and physical on the offensive line do a great job running the outside zone play action. And a high percentage passing game. No. 1 in the SEC and pass efficiency. So, playing at home. Really good offense. Excellent system. As I said, well coached.

“Defensively, No. 1 in the SEC and ninth nationally in rushing yards allowed per game. Just a really good, solid football team. Fundamentally sound in all areas. Deserving of their nationally ranking, and will be a great challenge for our football team. But I’m confident our guys will play their best when their best is needed and we’ll go on the road again and, obviously from our perspective, look to play a complete football game in all three phases.

Question: Would you say LSU defensive coordinator Matt House and the defense are a big reason why you won 10 games last year?

“Absolutely. If you look at the games that we won last year, you start with Auburn. The Auburn game and the way we played defensively, taking the football away. If you look at the Arkansas game last year and the kind of defensive performances, clearly you know defense won games for us.

“We had a lot of veteran players. You’re talking about Joe Fouche, Greg Brooks, you know, we lost Mekhi Garner and Jarrick Bernard-Converse, that’s a veteran group in the back end of the defense that made a lot of plays for us.

“So, look, we know were are not that. We’re playing a combination of 15 freshmen and transfers, and they’re young and inexperienced and they got to grow, and there’s going to be some growing pains. And I said that at the start of the season. When you take that many guys is a red flag, and we’re going to have to go through these growing pains, but we’re going to keep fighting and we’re going to keep teaching. We’re going to keep coaching.

“But, the blame does not lie at the feet of one person. This is a collective situation where we’ve got to coach better, and we’ve got to play better.

Question: That was my follow-up. When the defense struggles, the fans go after the coordinator. How are you two working together and and how much confidence do you have in him that he’s going to get this fixed?

“Well, we have a process. Look, when we win, you know, we rely on our process for consistency, right? And when we lose, we do the same thing, but sometimes you have to tweak your process, right? There are things that you tweak. And so in our total preparation, it’s always about the physical, the technical, the tactical, and the mental. So will there be some tweaks? Technically, sure. Tactically, absolutely. Will there be some tweaks physically? Certainly.

“Maybe we have to do some things (different), but we have a process, so we don’t get caught up in the emotions of what might or might not happen. We always rely on our process so we can stay consistent on a day-to-day basis. And, we’ll rely on our process whether things are going well or sometimes when there’s some adversity like there is right now.”

Question: Can you confirm if you’ve hired Pete Jenkins as an analyst?

“As you know (LSU defensive line coach) Jimmy Lindsay has not been with us as our defensive line coach, and one of the things that we want to be able to do is in hiring Pete, and his role has not been defined yet other than he will be consulting and and assisting our defensive line room, (but) John Jancek has the defensive line and his expertise is not necessarily in that area. He’s a good football coach, but we want to provide our student-athletes with the most resources, and Pete gives us the expertise and the ability to help us with technique and some technical things that we want to be able to do on a day-to-day basis. So, he’s going to come in now. He’ll be here and assist us and help Coach Jancek in that room.”

Question: What are the advantages, or are there in this situation any disadvantages, to having a corner coach and a safety coach? Why is the staff moved towards that model?

“Well, there’s so many complexities. I mean, this would take a while. Your safeties are linked into run fits that are not the same run fits that the corners are. So, your safeties need to be part of some drill work that the corners are not even involved in. Whereas, the corners need to be in some technical work during that time. That would be purely a waste of time for him. So you really need to separate those two. They really can’t be working together all the time. It’s something that for me, I think it’s probably been 20 years since I’ve had that group together. It’s always been safeties and corners for me.

Question: Defensively, how do you balance personnel with schema? You guys have played a lot of the same players over the last couple weeks. But, what does it look like going forward in terms of how you get those guys in the best position to impact the game and the scheme?

“You know, we got home at around 2 a.m. I got about four or five hours sleep, and since that time we’ve been having those discussions up until I walked into this door right here. So that point is exactly what we’re spending time on. I think we’ve come up with some valid solutions to where we want to go moving forward.

“Look, we missed a lot of tackles that gave up a lot of yards after the misses. We’ve got to be better in the fundamentals and our guys know that we’ve got to get the ball on the ground. We’ve got to create a new line of scrimmage, and that will be job one and job two as as we move forward on Tuesday.”

Question: There’s kind of the old axiom when you have a game like that you burn the tape. Do you and your staff you find any benefit of watching a game like that and showing things like that to your team?

“You know, I think there’s probably moments where you kind of say let’s just flush this because it’s not gonna happen again. But I think it’s important, with a young team especially, to look, and let’s really look at this as it is, right? We have 11 players that have started at their position on offense back. 11. All 11 players at their particular position had started at their position at one time or another. On the offensive side of the ball, they have played like that right?

“We really have four on the defensive side of the ball. So it’s important that every moment is a teaching experience for them. In one sense, you kind of want to move forward. But in another, it’s so important that every moment becomes a teaching moment for our football team.

Question: In 2022, your defensive line, out of necessity, had to carry so many snaps. Looking at the Ole Miss game, those starters carried about 85% of the snaps. Is that the number you want to be at?

“It’s really about getting the right players on the field playing their very best football. So, what is that configuration? We’ve got to be able to maximize the potential of our defensive line.

“And we’re in conversation about. Are we doing that, you know? We’re big up front. We have to play physical, we have to play with low pads, we have to create a new line of scrimmage. So, I’m not trying to avoid your question as much as I’m trying to tell you that we have to create the right scheme so our guys can be the best versions of themselves.”

Question: Was Da’Shawn Womack available vs. Ole Miss, and is he available now?

“Yes, absolutely.”

Question: You spoke of the collective effort in coaching. With Matt House still making all the decisions, you have a former defensive coordinator who works for you on the staff. Do you want to get more of his input? I’m not saying you have to have co-defensive coordinators, but has anything changed?

“No, the decision-making process is nothing that is a concern of mine. You know, this is really about the teaching and the execution. And so that requires two parties, the coaches coaching and the players executing. And that’s not about leadership. That’s not about the message not resonating. I feel great about all those things and the leadership that we’re getting from my defensive coordinator.

“Input, we’re always welcoming input. Matter of fact, we had a meeting today with the entire defense. I was with them and we got great input. I’ll always ask for input. There’s never a silence when it comes to weighing in because you can’t fully buy in unless you’re allowed to weigh in. So, we take information. We want to listen to everybody that has experience. But there is one voice, there is one leader of our defense. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to run our defense and he will run it effectively. We need to continue to coach and teach and develop our players and we will do that.”

Question: With teaching and coaching, is there anything that you want to have done differently in terms of the coaching of some fundamentals like tackling to improve in those basic areas for LSU?

“So, what is tackling, right? What is tackling? Tackling can be taught and something that we teach every single day. When we talk about it, how much time do we spend on it? We have to examine and look at our practice schedule. Are we spending enough time? Well, traditionally it would say that’s what we normally spend, but this group maybe we have to spend more time. Those are the kind of discussions that we’re having in that we recognize the importance of tackling, how important it is and how it impacted this game. I think it was over 285 yards after misses that that led to their offense and tackling was at the center of it. We have to be able to look at it. Are we spending enough time given the circumstances? And those would be the adjustments we would make.”

Question: It looked like you were forced into a lot of different combinations in the two outside corner spots. So I’m wondering how far along are you into finding a consistent grouping back there?

“You’re seeing what I’m seeing. We’re working our tails off. We had some injuries there. We lost Zy for a little bit with an ankle (injury). Ashton Stamps was coming off of a groin injury. They were in the game. They gave us everything they had and did the best they could given the circumstances. I’m proud of those guys. They went out and they competed and did the best that they could given the circumstances.

“But, that’s our rotation. Those are the four guys. (Laterrance Welch and Denver Harris), those are the four guys that we’re rolling with right now.

Question: Could you provide an update on LSU DB Greg Brooks. How is he doing? And, I know things are bigger than football, obviously, but not having him out there, just from a football standpoint, how much of a void is that to not have a leader back there to help communication and lining guys up in the secondary?

“We saw Greg yesterday. We had a couple of players over there like Greg Penn and Mekhi Wingo. He’s able to respond to commands. It’s been a long road for him. His family has been amazing. They’re there every day. The support that he’s been receiving from the community has been overwhelming. I know the family can’t thank everybody enough for the great support. But this is a long battle, and he continues to fight every day. He was able to give us thumbs up yesterday when we were there. So we’re getting, you know, those little acknowledgments that makes us feel better as we get a chance to see him.

“And, I mean as I mentioned, you know Greg and Joe Foucha and Jay Ward and Jarrick Bernard-Converse and Mekhi Garner … Those were veteran dudes for us last year and they tackled. They got the ball on the ground. We have got to keep working with our young guys and we have got to get the ball on the ground, but there’s a significant loss in tackles there. We knew it was going to be a process and we’re going to stick with our process and we’re going to keep working at it and we got to get better each and every day. We know we’re accountable for it. We’re not going to shy away from it, but we got to work on the guys that we have and we’re gonna work to get better every day.”

Question: A couple of things. You talked about the communication. I was just wondering, what is it coming from the players, obviously with young guys like you have in certain spots, there’s some things that they’re just not going to be able to do. What are they telling you? And then secondly, in a situation like this with the secondary you have, is it better to back the safety out of the box and have them play a little bit more help?

“Communication, there shouldn’t be issues with communication. There should be, if you’re in man coverage, you should know you’re in man coverage. We had a situation where obviously we thought we were in man and everybody else thought they were in man and one guy didn’t think he was in man. So, those things can happen, certainly. Trying to decide whether you’re dropping somebody, you know in a hit position, versus keeping him back. I mean, it’s so technical for me to get into it today. And I’m not trying to dumb down the answer as much as I’m trying to say everything that we try to do is to take not only what we’re trying to defend into consideration, but who we have out there, too. So, all of those things are taken into consideration is what I’m saying.

Question: Defensive back Duce Chestnut was not traveling with the team. Was that a coach’s decision?

“Yes.”

Question: Is there any update to the injury report?

“We have Chris Hilton, Omar Speights and Aaron Anderson we would list, as of yesterday, as questionable. Kyren Lacy and Javen Nicholas as probable. Those are the guys. Lower body (injuries) for the first three guys, and the same for the next two that are probable.”

Question: You mentioned a lot of the new players defensively. Last season was very similar. You had a lot of new players defensively that had transferred in and the defense last year performed well. Why isn’t the message or why doesn’t the message appear to be taking this year the way it did a year ago for LSU?

“I think I made it clear that the different players that we’re talking about are younger players that are playing very prominent roles. You had a Micah Baskerville, for example, instead of a Whit Weeks who’s a young player versus a veteran player. You’re playing a freshman corner versus a fifth-year corner, so there’s a lot of freshmen that are that are in. And because of that, there’s a lot less in experience. What we need to do is we need to play better. You’re absolutely right. I mean, your question is on point relative to the overall defense. We have to play better regardless of who the players are.

“We have a lot of new players and we have to get the younger players that are in prominent roles, as well as the transfer players that we picked through the portal. Those were the guys that we picked. We have to get all those guys playing at a higher level.”

Question: A lot of people watching the game felt like Whit Weeks made an immediate impact when he got into the game. Do you think he may start or get into the game earlier, or how do you evaluate the way he’s played?

“We love his energy, we love what he’s doing. You know, we want him to continue to grow, continue to do what he’s doing. There’s nothing that we don’t like about him, but he’s learning the position.”

Question: “You talked about going to the portal and ended up getting young guys in order to avoid having to go into the portal year after year in the secondary. In retrospect, do you maybe wish that y’all had approached that any differently?

“We didn’t have much choice based upon where we were. The year before we had to put a team together. So we were going to be in this situation regardless. Listen, I don’t want to sit up here and talk about what we don’t have. What we have is good football team that needs to play better, and we need to coach better and, regardless of all the other things that are out there, we’re in the position that we’re at, so we know the situation that we have. We’ve got to get the guys that are on our roster playing at a higher level.

“We had 34 missed tackles for 284 yards. We have to tackle the football, and we have to create a new line of scrimmage. If we do those two things, we’re going to be better on defense, we’re going to keep the points down, and we’re going to continue to win football games at LSU. That’s the standard. We didn’t live up to that standard, and we need to. So, we need to get back to work. We’re going to get back to work here today with a team meeting, and we’ll get back on the field on Tuesday with that being our resolve.”

Question: Is there anything that you can draw from or pull from (your experience) to kind of turn this around within the season? Is this something that just takes time or is it more of just getting to these guys?

“I don’t have time. Do I look like I’ve got time? I didn’t come down here because I got time. I came down here to be successful with the LSU football program. No, we don’t have time. That’s why we we did what we did in the transfer portal, or I would have took all freshmen last year. So, there is some management of this, but we will get them better. We will get these guys playing better. They want to play better. They’ve got pride. These guys will respond they’ll bounce back.

“We lost, I think, 40-something to 14 to Tennessee. I think they were ready to burn the city down. And we came back the next week and beat Florida on the road. So, we don’t need to all jump off the buildings yet. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to keep working hard. These guys got a lot of pride in LSU football. Our coaches are going to work hard. And we’re going to keep getting better.”

Question: Usually when you see a program or a team having a struggle in a game or season, it’s often both sides of the ball. But your offense has been exceptional the entire season. Can you speak to from a coaching standpoint?

“It’s No. 1 in total offense. It’s No. 1 in pass offense. It’s No. 1 in third down conversion. It’s No. 2 in scoring. It’s No. 3 in rush offense. Jayden Daniels leads the SEC and ranked No. 2 in the nation in total offense, leads the SEC in total touchdowns and passing, pass efficiency and passing touchdowns, and it’s the fourth-straight game accounting for at least four touchdowns. Brian Thomas leads the nation in receiving.

“You know, it is interesting because the 2019 team – prolific – won the national championship. These numbers are starting to look like those kind of numbers.

“That’s the kind of offense that we’re talking about and that’s why it’s so darn important to play better defense.

“That’s why it’s so important, because when you have an offense like this you want to be able to showcase and it doesn’t get the showcase because all the questions here are about the defense, and I understand that totally. I understand that. So, that’s why it’s so important that that we do the things necessary to to get the points down so we play better defense.”

Question: I’m sure there’s always something you can do better, so what were your thoughts on the last couple of drives (on offense for LSU)?

“You know, with five minutes to go in the game, we don’t want it (to play out) like we did against Arkansas. We don’t want to give the ball up. That was probably the one thing that we wish were better. To me, the last team that had the ball was going to win, and we had the last chance and we didn’t make a play at the end. We had a chance to close that game out I thought, and and we didn’t convert when we needed to. That’s probably the only thing that I could take a shot at with our offense, and there’s not much to say about that.”