Everyone's schedule is a gauntlet in the SEC, but LSU football arguably has the toughest of the bunch. Not only do the Tigers have their usual conference slate to contend with, but Brian Kelly and company opened the season with a trip to the other Death Valley to knock off Clemson.
After winning the Death Valley bowl and the beating Louisiana Tech in Week 2, LSU took down Florida in Baton Rouge in its conference opener. It was a sloppy victory over the Gators, but the defense picked off DJ Lagway five times to secure a 20-10 victory.
The LSU defense had such a stellar showing in this game despite star linebacker Whit Weeks getting ejected for targeting early in the game. While it was a defensible call, there was clearly no ill intent and it was a bit unfortunate that Weeks was tossed from the game.
On Monday, Kelly hinted at a potential change to tiered targeting calls, similar to how the NBA awards flagrant fouls, via Thomas Goldkamp of On3 Sports.
“Stop making sense,” Kelly said to a reporter who brought the idea up. “I just, I feel the same way. Here’s what happens. When that argument is made, unfortunately on the other end, they immediately say, ‘Well targeting is down. Concussions are down.'
“But a guy sat out a game and I don’t know how to coach him differently. Like I don’t know what to tell him to do differently. And you’re going to throw him out of the game. That makes no sense to me. So I think common sense at some time has got to get involved in targeting. And if common sense gets involved, maybe we’ll get an answer.”
In this proposed system that Kelly is referencing, all targeting would still be a personal foul and a 15-yard penalty, but only egregious or intentional offenses would result in an ejection. This feels like it would be much more fair to the players and would eliminate situations like Weeks' on Saturday night.
Kelly and company will be thrilled that Weeks' foul occurred during the first half of the Florida game, so he is good to go for Saturday's Week 4 tilt against SE Louisiana. After that, SEC play continues and the Tigers will need their leader on the defensive side of the ball on the field in order to chase a College Football Playoff berth.
