It's round one of Media Day for college football's most dominant conference, and among the teams at the center of the frenzy on Monday afternoon were the LSU Tigers. LSU, coming off of a 10-3 season in Brian Kelly's second year with the program, is in a position where they need to make up for the losses of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jayden Daniels, and his top two weapons from last season, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., a trio of 1st Round picks in the 2024 NFL Draft.
However, the best programs in college football have a way of reloading rather than rebuilding, and since he got his first opportunity as the head coach at Central Michigan back in 2004, Brian Kelly has found a way to consistently elevate his teams to the top of the college football world. Consider, in a combined sixteen seasons at Cincinnati and Notre Dame, Kelly's teams won 76 percent of their games and seven bowl games. At LSU, his record thus far is 20-7, with a pair of ten-win seasons to his name, extending a streak to seven seasons in which his teams have won at least ten games. That means if LSU can get to ten wins again this year, Brian Kelly will be half way to the longest streak that Nick Saban had while coaching at Alabama.
But sustained, high-level success is not the only similarity between Brian Kelly and Nick Saban. Yes, Saban also coached in Baton Rouge, but in his own words, the approach to handling preseason expectations is where Saban sees himself most in Kelly.
“Brian is a lot like I was,” Nick Saban said during an appearance on the SEC Network's coverage of media day (h/t Zack Nagy of SI.com). “He doesn’t worry about expectations. He’s not really worried about what people say and think because he’s done it for a long time. He believes in the process that he has to try to get his team better each and every week. So, he’s not going to pay attention to that. And if you are someone who does pay attention to that, that’s the rat poison that I talk about all the time.”
Over the last few weeks, we've seen numerous analysts — and Brian Kelly himself — heap loads of praise and high expectations on the Bayou Bengals, so his ability to “avoid the rat poison” could prove to be vital to LSU's success in 2024 and beyond.
Could LSU be in the mix for an SEC Championship?
Nick Saban isn't the only Tuscaloosa legend to give Brian Kelly and his fellas down in Baton Rouge their flowers. Former Alabama BCS Championship winning quarterback Greg McElroy spoke at length about LSU on a recent episode of the ESPN College Football podcast.
“LSU’s ceiling is very, very high,” McElroy said. “I think they’re going to be awesome on the offensive side.” McElroy conceded that on the other side of the ball there could be issues, but noted that the addition of former Missouri defensive coordinator Blake Baker gives LSU fans reason for hope this season.
“He’s excellent. Very aggressive and allows his guys to fly around and allows guys to play with great passion and energy, I think they’re going to be in a really good spot.”
For as good as LSU may be, the rest of the SEC has at least seven other teams — Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, and Oklahoma — who will enter the season with hopes of an SEC Championship, and with that, a berth into the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. LSU is probably in that second tier of contenders with Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma, but given Brian Kelly's track record, it wouldn't be wise to bet against the Tigers this year.
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