I’m leavin’ this game one step ahead of you
And you will not hear me cry
Cause I do not sing the blues
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s legacy is a complicated one to unpack for many reasons, fair to the original band’s lineup or not. It’s hard to speak objectively about something as inherently subjective as music and it’s perceived quality, but it is a near unanimously shared belief that the band’s first two albums, Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd and Second Helping are about as immaculate and incredible of a first two albums you
can find from any band.
Among the two albums are only 20 tracks, but they read like a Greatest Hits album: “Free Bird”, “Tuesday’s Gone”, “Simple Man”, and “Gimme Three Steps” were from their debut and they followed it up with “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Don’t Ask Me No Questions”, “Call Me The Breeze”, and “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”. To say nothing of fan favorite deep (“deep”) cuts like “I Ain’t The One”, “I Need You”, and “Mississippi Kid”.
But means exist for everything, and for every success comes those wishing for a regression to one. And fair or not, their next album Nuthin’ Fancy failed to live up to the hype generated by the first two albums, bringing nothing that would live in the forefront of the band’s legacy beyond the lead single “Saturday Night Special”. This led to dismissals of the band by music critics as losing their edge and becoming something of a one-trick pony.
In response, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant penned the eponymous track to their next album. It is not an apology, or a hat in hand request for a re-evaluation of their past work. It is an assertion, a demand, a promise of what is to come.
Life is so strange when it’s changing
I’ve seen the hard times and the pressure’s been on me
But I keep on workin’ like the workin’ man do
And I’ve got my act together, gonna walk all over you
In some respects, this has been the most refreshing off-season of LSU football since before the 2019 season when LSU fans were mainlining rumors of a revamped offense. Only the circumstances are wildly different in that instead of a promising season, we had to go through hell to get here.
LSU only lost three games in a row, but with the news of the Bryce Underwood decommittment and only beating Vanderbilt by a single score, it felt closer to four or five. The vibes around the program were not bad, they were downright rancid. The vocal segment of the LSU fanbase who would prefer for a change in leadership reached a crescendo. And I was harmonizing on that number.
The calls are justified, it is naive to pretend anything otherwise. In a world of a 12-team playoff, an LSU team should not be on the outside looking in because of a three-game losing streak following yet another baffling season-opening loss, especially in the third year of a head coach’s tenure. Worse than failing to live up to expecations, it had appeared as if one of the most resource-rich programs in college football had begun to plateau at 9-4 with NFL talents across the board.
But then, something interesting happened.
Instead of bitching and moaning as he is want to do, Brian Kelly and the LSU staff dug their heels in. After defeating Oklahoma to close out the regular season, Kelly stated “We’re taking receipts, and we’ll see you at the national championship.”
While he hasn’t yet put those words into action, the effort has shown. LSU managed to not let the Underwood decommitment turn into a program-defining loss by managing to return Garrett Nussmeier, amidst news that Kelly was donating millions of his own salary into LSU’s NIL efforts to bolster roster construction and retention. The Tigers brought in 18 players from the portal and neatly estimate their roster costs around $18 million. Ohio State’s 2024 roster was said to clock in at just under $20 million.
And it hasn’t just been portal shopping, LSU has developed some serious steam on the recruiting trail, entering the season with a Top 10 class ranking for C/O 2026 recruits.
Videos from the team’s summer camp suggest that the players are having fun, more fun than thought possible during the grueling summer camp. When the players speak to the media, they speak with the assured but quiet confidence you want to see from a team. Few headlines are being made for the wrong reasons.
And for all the quarterback success that the post-Miles era has seen, for the first time since the 18 tradition was began, it was awarded to a quarterback in a move that literally nobody can disagree or take umbrage with. The unmatched and uncontested leader of the team is wearing 18, and the best player from Louisiana is wearing 7. No duplicates, no split decisions. Those decisions are departures from the first few Kelly years and a microcosm of the mindset that seems to have taken root within the football ops building.
But most notable, Kelly and company have called their demons by name, placing what would normally be an outsized focus on the Clemson game and the importance behind winning it. That proverbial monkey of season opening losses – even though it predates the Kelly tenure – defines the Kelly era thus far: high expectations that are summarily and promptly crushed before they even have the chance to be met by repeated mistakes.
I do like not Brian Kelly. I don’t know if I will ever like Brian Kelly or ever rush to his defense when he’s made the butt of a joke. I don’t have to do that and feel no need to.
But I have to call them as they lay and give credit when due, and he is pushing his chips in and doubling down on his hand, and that’s a confidence and attitude I want to see from a head coach. It’s not my job to like him and it’s not his job to be likable (except by recruits, which he seems to be). Let’s not pretend that Alabama fans have an affinity for Nick Saban’s personality or Clemson fans for Dabo’s. Winning fixes everything.
So I’m going to give Kelly this: instead of cutting bait, cashing a buyout check and letting the program stagnate, he’s showing that he’s willing to go to the hilt to get this program back into championship contender status, and by his admission it begins this weekend in Clemson. So I’m going to give him that opportunity and the chance to accomplish that.
Brian Kelly is an asshole and has always been an asshole. But sometimes those are the people most qualified to say “fuck you, watch this.”
Well I’ve been on top, and then it seems I lost my dream
But I got it back, I’m feeling better everyday
Tell all those pencil pushers
They better get out of my way
Gimme Me Back My Bullets may have received a mixed reception overall from the critics, but it was a key moment in the legacy of Lynryd Skynyrd. The band doubled down on their double guitar and unapologetically loud, distinctly southern sound, while extending a firm middle finger to those who had written them off – the bullets in question are not ammunition, but rather the spots denoting placement on charts. It was not the band’s best album, but in it was a defining moment for the ethos of the band.
The next year, Street Survivors was released to a much warmer critical reception and the band went on tour.
So gimme back my bullets
Put ’em back where they belong
