By the time the final seconds ticked off the clock in No. 20 LSU’s humiliating 49-25 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M, most of those still left in Tiger Stadium were supporting the Aggies. Those that weren’t were booing coach Brian Kelly, after “Fire Kelly!” chants had echoed through another second half collapse by LSU.
The noise around Kelly’s future in Baton Rouge has never been louder — and after Saturday night, it may no longer be a matter of if but when the conversation turns serious. LSU blew an 18-14 halftime lead as Texas A&M erupted for 35 unanswered points, leaving the Tigers at 5-3 overall and 2-3 in SEC play — effectively erasing any hopes of contending for a championship.
Why Texas A&M used tackling dummy with LSU coach Brian Kelly’s face on it before blowout win over Tigers
Cameron Salerno
Kelly didn’t flinch from the criticism, admitting there should be noise after a disappointing performance. With that admission, the question became less about the loss and more about confidence in Kelly himself — how concerned should he be, and how much faith should LSU still place in him?
“That’s out of my hands,” Kelly said postgame. “It’s impossible for the head coach that’s been here for four years — and 35 years of doing this — to think anything else but this is my responsibility, and we’ve got to get it turned around. That’s not my decision in terms of whether I’m here or not, but that’s what I will do as a head coach that’s been doing it over three decades.”
Now, the pressure is undeniable. With No. 4 Alabama looming and an increasingly restless fan base, Kelly faces the defining stretch of his LSU tenure — one that could determine whether he ever gets the chance to turn it around.
Below is everything Kelly said postgame after the loss to Texas A&M Saturday night.
Opening statement:
Certainly, extremely disappointed with what happened out there. Nobody’s more disappointed than our players in the locker room. Obviously, they’re searching for answers. I’ve got to be able to provide them for them. But like I said, nobody’s more disappointed than our football team.
And, the performance in the second half was certainly the most disappointing part of this game in itself. So, don’t have much to add other than what we saw.
On if the second-half collapse was mental, physical or something between:
Well, I think it’s pretty clear we couldn’t get off the field in the first drive defensively, and that was my biggest concern going into halftime, that we needed to come out and get a stop defensively. We weren’t able to do that.
Then, subsequently, we were three-and-out and then, of course, the punt return for a touchdown. We’ve got the ball pinned to the sideline and we just didn’t execute at the level necessary in that. I think that was a big — back-to-back touchdowns right out of the gates.
And then just the inability offensively to get into any kind of rhythm offensively, which has been off and on for us virtually the entire year. And then another no stop on defense.
So, I’ve talked a lot about not being able to play complementary football, but we complemented ourselves offensively and defensively by not playing to the level that we need to. And look, it wasn’t that those kids didn’t play hard. We did not play to the level and do the things necessary to be successful on the things that I just mentioned.
That entire drive, the ball got outside the defense. We weren’t aware of a screen. We didn’t show enough awareness in that situation. The quarterback got us in some situations where there were some pass rush issues.
And then offensively, you guys watched the second half too. We struggled a little bit with protection, and we were not effective enough offensively to sustain any kind of rhythm. So, all three phases early on put us in that situation.
On what is missing execution-wise:
Yeah, I mean, all of those things are the ones that I’m going to have to figure out for our football team because if guys are playing hard — and I know they were — and they prepared their tails off this week and that’s not happening, that’s a football issue.
And the football buck stops with me. I have to take a good hard look at what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, both from a personnel standpoint and from a coaching standpoint.
On message to LSU fans and if he can come back from this:
Oh, yeah. I mean, look, this is an extremely disappointing night, right? And the fan base — our fans — are disappointed like any fan base would be, whether I’m here at LSU or any other school.
The head coach — it stops with the head coach — and so that responsibility falls with me. But this is a proud tradition, LSU. They have a proud football team and the guys that represent us. Like I said, those guys, I was with them. They prepared their tails off this week. They expected to win.
They did that by their actions in the first half. It didn’t show itself in the second half, so I have to look at the reasons why. So, my focus really, will be much more on inside out than outside in.
And I get it. There should be noise. You should be disappointed. I’m disappointed. But I have to really focus my time inside out the program so we can make sure this never happens again.
On what LSU needs to hone in on to get moving in the right direction:
Oh, no. I think everything’s football related. I think everything — this is about how you get your football team to play better. So, I have to evaluate everything from top down, everything we do and how we do it.
Primarily, in the football end of things, this is much more about the football end of things. That involves making those decisions that will allow this football team to play at a higher level. So, I have to do some work on that and come up with the solutions.
(Inaudible)
Of course, I mean, you’re going to evaluate everything. I mean, I think you have to look at everything — everything that we do offensively, everything that is being done defensively. Special teams was atrocious. All of those things fall on me. So when it comes to the football, that’s what I have to fix, and we have to do that immediately.
On LSU’s inability to tackle:
I wish I had a simple answer for you. I really do. Setting edges is a fundamental principle of good defense, right? Tackling is a fundamental principle. Recognition and awareness of screen game is a fundamental principle. Those things were not present, and that’s where I have to really dig deep and figure out because I am not here for one second to blame this football team, these players. They played hard. I have to figure out how to get them in a position where they can succeed, and that’s my job.
On Harlem Berry only getting one touch in the second half:
Yeah, we got behind real quick, and it changed the complexion of the game from that standpoint. So, yeah, I think if we had come up with a stop or didn’t have the punt return, I think you would have seen more balance from that perspective. But once there were three consecutive scores there, it changed the whole rhythm and balance on offense.
On his level of concern and faith LSU should have in him:
That’s out of my hands. It’s impossible for the head coach that’s been here for four years — and 35 years of doing this — to think anything else but this is my responsibility, and we’ve got to get it turned around. That’s not my decision in terms of whether I’m here or not, but that’s what I will do as a head coach that’s been doing it over three decades.
When things are not going well from a football standpoint, the head football coach has to be agile enough and able to make those changes and find out what we need to do to get our football team to play better.
On taking QB Garrett Nussmeier out of the game in the fourth quarter:
Well, I would have been disappointed too. If you took me out of the game in that situation, I would have been disappointed. But it was a bigger picture. We were struggling in protection, and I thought it would have been unfair to have him in the game under those circumstances with where the game was — clearly out of reach. To have him get injured in that situation, I thought would have been malpractice from my standpoint.
On biggest issue with special teams:
Well, I thought we started off great, right? We got the punt block. Usually you get a punt block, great things happen, and it just went downhill from there.
The first thing was we pinned the ball to the sideline and weren’t able to get down what we knew to be a great return man. We couldn’t get him on the ground. Then we had some situational substitution issues that are unacceptable, and they fall on me. I’ve got to get that corrected.
(Damian) Ramos missed the extra point, man, I don’t know, he’s had a hundred and something in a row. That was bound to break sometime just by sheer volume of kicks. But by and large, we didn’t kick the ball the way we normally kick it. But that’s no excuse. We’ve got to go cover the darn kick, and we did not cover it very well today.
So kickoff coverage, punt coverage — those things really showed themselves tonight. A couple of situational errors, and certainly part of an incredibly disappointing second half.
On if LSU can improve pass protection in the final four games of the regular season:
Absolutely. I mean, look, and you guys know this — they have an opportunity to work on their craft every day. We’ll be back out practicing after they get a couple of days to regroup.
But yeah, no, absolutely. Every single one of them. As I said, I would just be giving you lip service right now if we weren’t going to be committed to getting this football team better and having them have better outcomes than tonight.
Our fan base should be upset. They have every right to be. That second half was unacceptable at any level, and I’ve got to figure out the ways that we can get our football team to play better football consistently, not just in spurts, but for four quarters.
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