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"I'm bullish on this team as well," Brian Kelly understands LSU's heightened expectations

On3 imageby: Matthew Brune05/29/25MatthewBrune_
Brian Kelly
Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

Brian Kelly has spent the past five months building a new-look LSU roster and now with the SEC meetings underway, he’s happy to rave about his roster. With quarterback Garrett Nussmeier returning and a host of new talent ready to take on the challenge in purple and gold, it’s hard to not believe in this team in 2025.

Still, with a tough schedule ahead, there’s work to do, but make no mistake, Kelly hears the new expectations and believes they are more than fair for his LSU team.

“I’m bullish on this team as well,” Kelly told Paul Finebaum on Thursday. “Every coach that’s here believes they’ve got the best team they’ve ever had, but we know our roster. This is the best roster that we’ve put together. It’s part of a process that has taken a little more time than we wanted, but we’re doing it the right way, and we’re pretty excited about what our football team looks like.”

LSU’s roster will be tested immediately against Clemson on the road. It’s another potential top-10 matchup to begin the season as Kelly will hope to make a statement early and put his team in a great spot for the playoffs. Still, it’s not an ideal situation for the Tigers with all of these new pieces to face another title contender in its opening game.

“As I remind Scott [Woodward], ‘This wasn’t on your tenure. You didn’t make these decisions. But let’s not make them moving forward.'” Kelly said of LSU’s season opener. “Look, it is a challenge, no doubt. But everybody’s got challenges. Now we have to rise up to the challenge of playing a great team. Dabo has done an incredible job there. This could be one of the most talented teams he’s had. But we believe we’ve put a football team together that can go on the road and win. And when you go on the road in this league, you’ve got to be better defensively. That’s the key. We are going to be better defensively. Blake has got some weapons now on the defensive side of the ball. And when you go into a place like Clemson, you better play really good defense.”

Both sides of the ball have questions, but the defense has to make significant strides forward for the Tigers to be a championship contender in 2025.

Coming off of a 9-4 season, the clock is officially ticking for Kelly to win the trust of the fanbase. The first three years have been fine, but with an expanded playoff field and an influx of NIL support, just being a top 20 team every year is not good enough. LSU needs to be in the playoffs and competing with the top of the SEC year in and year out. He knows it as well and that’s what makes this year fascinating to talk about in late May.

“Expectations at LSU are real and they should be,” Kelly said. “We struggled, no doubt. But we got out of that, and that’s what you want to see: a team coming together. What I see every day is not what everybody else sees. I see the culture, the work, the development. Then putting the roster together, adding NIL, going out and getting the top portal class in the country, I see those things happening. There were some rough spots, but we knew where we were going. We had a vision. And we feel like we’re on the cusp of having a great football team.”

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