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No. 13 LSU can't buy a Week 1 win. The Tigers have lost every opening-week game since 2019, which ties the program record for the most consecutive 0-1 starts.
LSU lost a 27-20 heartbreaker to No. 23 USC on Saturday after the Trojans scored a go-ahead touchdown with eight seconds left. While it's not the end of the world for Brian Kelly's team, it hurts its College Football Playoff chances.
Who's most to blame for the narrow loss?
HC Brian Kelly
Kelly has an expansive coaching resume that dates back to 1983 and includes two AP College Football Coach of the Year trophies (2012, 2018). The former Notre Dame boss won an ACC title with the Fighting Irish in 2020, and an SEC West title with LSU in 2022.
However, this is his third straight opening-week loss with the Tigers. With today's level of year-to-year roster turnover in college sports due to NIL, long-term patterns like that reflect badly on the coach.
LSU committed 10 penalties for 99 yards against the Trojans, and Kelly admitted the lack of discipline is his responsibility, via 247 Sports' Brad Crawford.
“From a big picture, we didn't play complimentary football. We did some good things on the offensive side of the ball, we didn't compliment that defensively and vice versa,” Kelly said. “But the thing that's most concerning for me is the personal fouls. The penalties that are selfish. Both of them led to scores. They're undisciplined penalties and effectively they fall back on me. We take pride in running a disciplined program, but we have clearly not done a good enough job there because it impacted the game.”
USC outplayed the Tigers in nearly every facet. The Trojans didn't turn the ball over, whereas LSU threw one interception. Meanwhile, USC only committed six penalties for 50 yards and beat LSU 378-304 on passing yards. The one category where the Tigers had the advantage was rushing yards, as they out-gained the Trojans 117-72.
“The other thing is, unfortunately, it's clear when we get up in a game, we do not know how to handle ourselves,” Kelly said. “You've got to have a killer instinct in game. We had an opportunity to put this team away and we get complacent when we're ahead. We make mistakes. That's disappointing and so, I'm angry at those things that I have to do a better job in shaping that in this group. We had guys that played hard and wanted to win and were prepared to win, but those two things just eat at me. And they've got to get fixed.”
LSU took a 17-13 lead into the fourth quarter, but never got the lead back after USC quarterback Miller Moss threw a 28-yard score with 5:44 left in the game. While it falls on the players to execute, blowing a lead to an underdog late in the game is not ideal for a coach who has a history of losing Week 1 contests.
“We had some guys play their butts off tonight and we're sitting here again, we're sitting here again talking about the same things,” Kelly continued. “About not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away. But what we're doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over. I'm so angry about it that I've got to do something about it. I'm not doing a good enough job as a coach. I've got to coach them better because it's unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game. It's ridiculous. It's crazy.”
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If Kelly doesn't figure out how to maximize his roster's talent he'll feel even more “ridiculous” and “crazy” when he gets fired. For a program that fielded one of the best teams of all time in 2019, appearing in games like the Citrus Bowl doesn't cut it long-term. Instead of lamenting over his team's lack of “killer instinct,” it would behoove him to empower his players for the effort they put towards winning. College athletes are young amateurs, and they need more positive reinforcement than seasoned professionals.
QB Garrett Nussmeier
Nussmeier didn't have a bad night by any means, but he got out-dueled by Moss with the nation watching. The junior completed 29-of-38 passes for 304 yards (eight yards per attempt), with two touchdowns and one pick. His Trojan counterpart, on the other hand, completed 27-of-36 passes for 378 yards (10.5 yards per attempt), with one touchdown and no interceptions. On top of that, LSU's run game was working better than USC's, so lack of support wasn't a valid excuse.
While Nussmeier moved the ball well between the 20s, the red zone gave him some trouble in key moments. The 22-year-old threw an incompletion to receiver CJ Daniels on 4th and goal at the 3-yard-line on the game's opening drive, which set the tone. A mixture of punts, field goals, and touchdowns followed for the Tigers before their second-to-last drive of the game. Down 20-17 on 3rd-and-8 from USC's 14, Nussmeir tossed an incompletion to wideout Kyren Lacy, setting up the game-tying field goal.
However, if he had converted the “money down,” LSU could have run the clock down and scored a touchdown with little to no time left. Instead, Moss marched USC down the field on the next drive to set up Trojan tailback Woody Marks' game-winning 13-yard touchdown scamper.
Nussmeier then threw his pick on a desperation heave with four seconds left, ending the contest. The Texas native sounded off after the game, via Tiger Bait.
“It's a long season…24-hour rule…watch the tape and get better,” he said.
This is a classic case of a promising player who needs to improve on finishing drives to get to the next level. The bright side for Nussmeier, though, is that the college football world saw his talent and heart on full display Saturday night.
