BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU coach Brian Kelly doesn’t sound worried about managing expectations as he enters what could be a pivotal fourth season with the Tigers.
Not even after a 2024 campaign in which LSU fell short of 10 victories for the first time since Kelly arrived on the bayou from Notre Dame.
“I love what I’ve seen about this football team and feel that’s why I’ve been bullish on our team," Kelly said. "You got to go win the games and execute when you need to execute. But I like where we’re
at.”
When Kelly was signed to a 10-year contract worth about $100 million after the 2021 season, he was expected to have LSU back in contention for national titles sooner than later. Instead, the Tigers failed to clinch a spot in college football's first 12-team playoff last season.
After that, Kelly went about ramping up his program's already considerable ability to provide financial inducements to transfer players and high school recruits — starting with his own $1 million donation to the Bayou Traditions football fund.
Next came a slew of signings out of the transfer portal to complement a handful of high-profile returning players — a couple of whom could have left for the NFL, but decided they were better off staying in Baton Rouge for another year.
LSU has a likely Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback in senior Garrett Nussmeier, who passed for 4,052 yards and 29 touchdown last season. On defense, they welcomed back play-making linebacker Harold Perkins, who was once widely projected to enter the draft, but decided instead to remain with the Tigers after a knee injury derailed his 2024 campaign.
Kelly's compliments flow about each position group, even an offensive line that has lost four veteran starters — all of them taken in last spring's draft.
“I’ve coached for a long time, a lot of guys in the NFL, a lot of first-round draft picks," Kelly said. "I’ve got a pretty good eye for what an offensive line looks like. This group is going to be really good.”
LSU is ranked ninth in the the preseason AP Top 25 Poll and will have a chance right out of the gate to move up. They visit No. 4 Clemson in Week 1, when LSU's Tigers will try to snap a streak of five straight season-opening losses.
Kelly asserted that his staff has built much of the offseason around the goal of looking sharper for a Week 1 match-up that would appear to be more formidable than any of the previous five LSU lost.
“If you’re just reacting to not having a win in the opener to feeding them chicken wings instead of, you know, steak, then you’re reacting in a manner that doesn’t give you an opportunity to be successful," Kelly said. "We’ve addressed this in January. We addressed it with the guys that we brought in, and we addressed it in the way we trained our football team. We addressed it in spring ball and then into our offseason.”
Nussmeier should have no shortage of speed and talent at receiver.
Chris Hilton, Zavion Thomas and Aaron Anderson are the likely starters, with Nic Anderson, Barion Brown and Kyle Parker all pushing for playing time.
"I would be less than honest if I didn’t say it’s as deep (a receiver group) as I’ve ever had,” Kelly said, adding that Hilton and Brown Speaker “can run past anybody.”
“The real deal here is that we’re going to get over the top of a lot of defenses with those two guys," he said.
Kelly went to the transfer portal to help revamp his offensive line.
He lured Braelin Moore from Virginia Tech to play center, while Northwestern transfer Josh Thompson is expected to play right guard.
LSU's lone returning starter is left guard DJ Chester. Sophomore Tyree Adams is expected to take over at left tackle. Second-year player Weston Davis has taken most first-team snaps at right tackle, but has seen some competition from freshman Carius Curne, a top 2025 recruit who is 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds,.
Adams calls Curne “the strongest freshman I have ever seen.”
Perkins' return gives LSU two veteran leaders and established play makers at linebacker — the other being preseason AP All-American Whit Weeks.
“Presence is impactful right there,” Kelly said. "People talk about missing somebody. You know, it’s hard to replace great players, but it’s even harder to replace great leaders. And those guys lead by example and make a huge difference."
In addition to the opener at Clemson, LSU's marquee match-ups include a home date with No. 15 Florida on Sept. 13; at No. 21 Mississippi on Sept. 27; No. 13 South Carolina at home on Oct. 11; No. 19 Texas A&M at home on Oct. 25; at No. 8 Alabama on Nov. 8; and No. 18 Oklahoma at home on Nov. 29.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
