Everything LSU head coach Brian Kelly said about facing South Carolina

LSU head coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media on Monday to preview the Tigers’ upcoming night game against South Carolina at Tiger Stadium. Kickoff on Saturday is at 7:45 p.m. on SEC Network.

Here’s everything Kelly had to say about facing the Gamecocks.

Opening statement

“All right, back to work. Our players returned yesterday after a few days off. As a staff, certainly, we got a chance to do some recruiting and then get ourselves ready for a gauntlet, six SEC games in seven weeks. And I think we’ve all realized that each and every week, if you do not play your best against an SEC opponent, you leave yourself vulnerable. So we know that. We know what’s in front of us. We’re excited about what lies in front of us in the sense that we’ve got outstanding teams that we’re playing, and they’re nationally ranked. This is the part of the season now where teams begin to show what they’re made of. And for us, certainly, what we’re looking for is a complete game. We have not played a complete game. And when I use the word complete game, I’m referring to offense, defense, and special teams complementing themselves and each other. What we’ve had is bits of really good performances, and in particular the second half by our offense, but not a very good start or a good first half by our offense, but our defense playing well. In particular, you just look at the Ole Miss game, where we did not play efficiently enough offensively to start the game in the first half, got ourselves behind, and then played well in the second half and had an opportunity to win the game, that can’t happen. You leave yourself open to the last play of the game, the last series of the game, key stop. We just need to play a complete game where our offense complements our defense and special teams. That hasn’t shown itself yet. It will. We’ve worked hard on that. Our players have committed to that.

Get GamecockCentral for $1 your first week. As a bonus, your membership includes a complimentary year of The Athletic.

“Now we’ll get an opportunity to show ourselves against a really good South Carolina team, a team that I think many know is led by LaNorris Sellers, who’s an outstanding athlete, incredible arm, has the ability to change a game. We saw what he did against us last year. Certainly, somebody that we have to make sure does not wreck the game for us. Again, Coach (Shane) Beamer does a really good job in all phases. But, you know, their special teams this year in particular really show themselves. I think that’s going to be a great challenge for us. They’ve got an outstanding returner. They’ve changed the game in a couple of instances on special teams. Vicari Smith (Vicari Swain), as you guys know, he’s got three punts for touchdowns already. So that gets your attention immediately in understanding how important special teams will be in this game. Last year, they blocked a punt. Generally, as you know, if you block a punt in the game, you stand a great chance of winning the game. We were still fortunate enough to win that game. So we’ve got to be really clean in special teams. We’ve got to be able to accent the things that we do well as well in terms of our returners, but we’ve got to play really well in special teams.

“Defensively, they’ve got an elite pass rusher (Dylan Stewart), probably one of the best that we’ll see all year. I think when you look at guys in this league, everybody’s got the ability to rush the passer. But again, I think in our situation, we’re going to have to do some things to take care of Dylan Stewart. We’re going to have to be very cognizant of where he is. He can obviously disrupt your passing game. And we’ll have to be very, very aware where he is. It’s an accomplished defense; they’ve got good pieces back from last year. It’s going to be a pretty great football game in Tiger Stadium. We’re excited to be back at Tiger Stadium and look to continue to have our success there.”

With a guy like LaNorris Sellers this week, how do you feel your team has improved, particularly when it comes to stopping running, athletic quarterbacks?

“That’s the first question that you would expect to hear. Last year, Sellers, when he was in, hurt us running the football. So first and foremost, we have to have a plan in place to stop the quarterback run, and then you’ve got to keep him in the pocket. He operates best when he’s outside the pocket. So, you know, discipline in our pass rush lanes. Having a solid scheme up front to take away the quarterback run. And then, you know, let him be who he is, right? I mean, he’s a quarterback with great talent. He makes plays outside the pocket, down the field. We’ve got to avoid the big chunk plays that are not scripted. He’s a major focus of what we’re doing this week.”

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!