What the LSU head coach said after the 36-33 loss to South Carolina

LSU head coach Brian Kelly spoke to the media following his team’s 36-33 win over South Carolina on Saturday. Here’s what he had to say.

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Opening speech

“Yeah, (it was) a great college football game. (I’m) so proud of the grit and perseverance of a football team that’s down 17-0 on the road in the SEC against a veteran football team, especially on defense. The guys work so hard. They’re not going to give up – it’s in their DNA. They’re not going to let up – they’re just going to keep playing now.

“It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s early in the season. We played two really good opponents – Power Four opponents – in USC and UCLA, and we had the lead twice in the fourth quarter. We let it slip once, and we finished that one.

“Football teams take on identities and personalities. This group is going to fight. It may not be the cleanest. We’re going to continue to coach them because they want to do so much for LSU. They want to do it right and they’re going to work at it.

“And I’m really proud of how they blocked out the noise because I don’t think anyone had us winning that game. Everyone had South Carolina winning that game. So they blocked out that noise this week and just focused on getting ready to play on the road against an SEC opponent.

“We had a freshman in Cayden Durham today who got some really important yards for us. Look, this is the SEC. You have to let people run into empty space. You have to break through tackles – that’s the nature of the game. And he did a great job today. Of course, (Garrett Nussmeier) continues to do a great job at quarterback. But I think the 17-0 deficit speaks to the determination and perseverance of this team.”

On the development Kelly has observed in LSU’s defense since the start of the season

“Well, we played some supplemental plays. I think some of the biggest successes were the defensive stops we had when we lost the ball. Usually you could see that led to a touchdown. We saved the field goals. So we showed that determination on defense. Then we started playing some supplemental plays where we get a stop on defense and then score on offense, which we didn’t do the first couple of weeks. So there’s an improvement there.

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“But the great thing is they show a great fighting spirit. They fight like the LSU Tigers, and that’s what we want for our fans. That’s what they want for their whole family. That’s what they want for their teammates, and that’s what they showed today – if they keep doing that, and I’m sure they will because they’re going to continue to prepare properly. We just have to do better. And if we can do that, it’s going to be a really good team.”

What was the reason for Josh Williams’ touchdown in the fourth quarter?

“I can tell you the plays we struggled with. We came into full house tea and we had some new players – Gabe Reliford and Kaleb (Jackson). And we wanted that to be our kind of short yardage in the blue zone, but we just didn’t execute. We were a little late with some of our blocks. We got some penetration. (Nussmeier) got picked off on that fourth down. If we were just a little more aggressive with our blocks, he would have Josh in the corner of the end zone. So it’s a matter of timing. We just need to make those plays a little better and then we would have been really good in the blue zone.

“The play was we had two throws from the two. We were going to try the spread-out roll-out pass. And then we were going to run him twice. That was the first of two sequences where we were going to run the football. So if we probably made it on fourth-and-one or less, it probably would have been a quarterback sneak or something like that. But we were going to run him twice.”

About Nussmeier’s mental strength

“He’s part of that (keeping a cool head and holding out on long drives). I mean, he’s a great leader. He conveys that to the group. He stays positive. You know, he throws an interception in the red zone and comes back on the next series – and you’d never know he made a mistake. He can forget those plays and move on to the next one. And that’s what you have to be to be a quarterback in the SEC. Elite quarterbacks have to be able to do that. He just has the ability to go back and forget that plan and move on to the next one. And I think that’s what makes him special.”

How LSU’s running backs have improved since John Emery Jr.’s season-ending injury

“Well, it sets a benchmark for what we’re looking for, right? I mean, I think all of those backs needed to see what we’re asking them to do. Caden broke three or four tackles. That’s the nature of the SEC. You’re going to have that extra guy coming down — that’s what you’re on scholarship for, OK? Honestly, you’ve got to outsmart some of those guys and you’ve got to run through some tackles. We can’t block them all the time, and he just did a really good job today of showing up and setting a benchmark for what we need with that running back position problem.”

About Aaron Anderson’s Clutch Conversions

“Yes, (he) did great things when we needed him.”

On the overall performance of LSU’s linebackers

Well, I mean — if they’re not on the field, we’re not going to win the game. Those are our best guys, right? But look — we want to adjust plays better. Long runs, there are things we need to improve on, right? But they’re great players. They did a lot of good things today. I told our staff, ‘I love the work ethic. I love the way they come to work and prepare. We just need to get cleaner. We need to improve a few things.'”

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On whether LSU’s “boom or bust” defense style is sustainable

“We want to be better defensively. A lot of it — everything you saw today on both sides of the ball — is correctable. All of that is coachable and can be implemented. So if we didn’t coach it properly and we couldn’t execute it, we have to take it out. For example, if it’s a scheme, we can’t call it anymore. If it’s a play we can’t execute, we have to take it out. Everything we did today, we have to coach better and execute better. And we’re capable of doing that. We have to get better, and we certainly will.”

On LSU’s mistakes on special teams

“We had a bad snap – that’s for sure. He’s been so good the last three years. This is the first bad snap in three years. It was inappropriate because it could have affected the game, but he was so good. It was unfortunate.

“The blocked punt — I’ll have to discuss that with our SEC office. We believe it was an illegal block. And we’ve expressed our concerns about it. We’ll discuss it with the SEC refereeing team and (SEC referee coordinator) John McDaid. We believe we have an argument there, and we’ll put it to them.”

About Bradyn Swinson’s performance

“You know, I don’t want to take your question away from you, but Swinson wasn’t the only one. There were a number of guys that played at that level. Sai’vion (Jones) played really well. Paris Shand played both inside and outside. So that’s a good question, but I don’t want to just single him out. He had a good game, but those four ends played really well. Swinson was the dropper. So you had a chance to see him in the open space, and he did some really good things for us. But all those ends played really well today.”

How LaNorris Sellers’ injury affected South Carolina’s offense

“You know, (Robby) Ashford looked pretty good there, too. Obviously he had the long touchdown run.

“It’s hard to say. I think what happened is we clearly got the third-down situations we wanted to get. We wanted to get them on third down, either Sellers or Ashford. And when we caught them on third down, we were the winners. That’s really the end of the game – we were able to get third-down situations and make them predictable. That’s kind of what I think we needed to do. They were able to stay on schedule with Sellers in the game earlier, but when Ashford came in, we were able to get him off schedule. And that was really the difference.”

On the behavior of the LSU players after the early deficit

“I mean, there was no panic on the sideline. We obviously needed to score a point, get a stop and get some things right. The group is positive. There’s no pointing fingers. They know what they need to do to get back in the game. We needed to score a point and we knew we were going to get the ball in the third quarter. So it was about getting some stops and we did that. I just never felt like the guys were panicking and didn’t feel like they could come back.”