LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 6, 2022

Brian Kelly

Weekday Press Conference

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BRIAN KELLY: It's my first home game, too, so I'm super excited about that as well. Certainly we want to bounce back from a very heartbreaking and disappointing loss.

But, again, I'll get into that a little bit. The game itself against Southern, you know, first LSU game versus a SWAC school, and, you know, HBCU opponent. The significance of that is great. Playing an HBCU school is I think a great thing for this University and certainly for Baton Rouge. Historic in nature to have two schools from the same city uniting and celebrating this community, the accomplishments, the programs.

Certainly the Human Jukebox is on display at halftime, one of the most iconic bands in all of college football. We will get a chance to obviously see them, and excited about that.

But, again, I think it's just exciting to bring in Southern and Coach Dooley obviously in his first year. They played last week against an overmatched opponent in Florida Memorial and they did what they should have. They dominated their opponent and certainly looked good in doing it.

McCray, the quarterback is very elusive. They have some talented wide receivers defensively. They took the ball away, and, again, dominated their opponent in the way they should in that kind of ballgame.

So really excited about playing this game, this home game. Our guys are excited obviously to get an opportunity to bounce back after a disappointing loss.

It's a short week. Yesterday was a busy day for us coming off a difficult loss. As you can imagine, there is a lot of emotion, but we had to get right back to work. We were in film study as well as scouting report, weight training, medical, all of those things had to be accomplished all at once.

So we got all that accomplished and now we're excited about the weekend.

So with that, we'll open up to this late-arriving media crowd that must have enjoyed the weekend. It's usually $10 that we put in the kitty. We'll have a big bash at the end of the year at my place.

Q. (Regarding winning.)

BRIAN KELLY: I don't think it has anything to do with winning. I think it has to do with being on time.

Q. After looking at the tape, what's the easiest, quickest thing that you can correct when given a number of issues, whether it be protection, defensive alignment, assignment, those things?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I think most of them are easily gleaned just by watching the game. We didn't get off the field on third down, so a lot of that is just eye discipline, you know, tackling, you know, things that I talked about after the game. Better communication from a large degree.

I think from an offensive standpoint, earlier recognition in what we had and defining that.

So, look, this isn't coachspeak. We have to do a better job coaching our players, and they have to do a better job of execution. So what's execution? Execution is really playing with great confidence and trusting your teaching.

And sometimes in the moment, you lose that trust and you go back to some things that you had done before. That sometimes is not the best way to do it.

So I'll have to get better execution, we've got to coach our guys better, and then they have to trust that and play with a great deal of confidence.

If we do that, we're going to clean up a lot of those things, and we will.

Q. Did you and your staff take a look at last year's defensive numbers in terms of interceptions and the fumble recoveries and say, Hey, we got to improve this? You got the huge turnover the other night, but do you think the interceptions, sack fumbles, those kind of things are coming for this defense?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, it's week one. You know, certainly we want to be able to take the football away. We want to be able to tackle better. There are so many things I can stand here in front of you that in week one we want to do better.

I could touch on every aspect of the game, but I think we have to be careful not to say that this defines anything about this football team, other than what they displayed, and they displayed grit and character.

They love playing for LSU, and they're going to battle their tails off. Was it pretty football all the time? No, it was not. But they're accountable, our coaches are accountable, I'm accountable for that, and we'll go to work this week in making sure we coach them better and they work on execution.

But they're gritty. They're going to play hard for LSU because they love LSU.

Q. Can you confirm Maason's injury and how that affects the rotation on the D-line?

BRIAN KELLY: Yes, I can confirm, our doctors confirmed an ACL tear yesterday after an MRI. Obviously we're crushed for him because he was celebrating for a teammate on the play. Trying to show his support for a teammate.

So any time you suffer an injury under those circumstances it's extremely disappointing. He's a great player. You're going to miss great players, but it's next-man-in now for us from that standpoint.

So you got to count on other guys to step up, and they did in the game. I think our defensive line rallied, played as hard as they could.

You certainly wouldn't, after film study, single that out as a reason for not having success. So we'll call on some other players to step up in that role, and we'll have to be in some instances creative, and putting guys if position where we can succeed defensively.

Q. You mentioned earlier recognition on offense. Using that tempo earlier in the game that ended up having the success later, or is there something else offensively that you recognized as you were going over the game that you need to do differently?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, they were in a lot of pressure fronts. They went to a lot of bear. They covered us up up front, so they had individual singular matchups on each one of or five guys up front, which put them in a lot of man coverage.

We needed to be in some different protections. Took us a while to recognize some of those things. So we got to do a better job coaching that. Jayden is very sharp. He understands the offense, so that's something we'll have to do a better job coaching and making sure that he recognizes that, is able to get us in the right protection, get the ball out quicker, which he did when he saw that later in the game, which prompted them on the long drive to drop eight and be in a three-man rush.

When he had time in a three-man rush and nothing was open, it creates opportunities for him to run. So he can be very difficult to defend once he does a really good job, and we continue to coach him along in those recognitions of those particular fronts.

Q. Have you, I guess, had to talk to Kayshon the past day or two about getting -- I guess seemed a little depressed or body language wasn't great. Have you had to pick him up?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I think there were a number of those guys that were disappointed in their play. They're so hard on themselves. They want to succeed at such a high level.

So, yeah, I had a conversation with Kayshon, and his standard is so high. You know, obviously it was a difficult day for him. It wasn't his best. But he's going to have great games. It's going to be in the totality of his work that he's going to be evaluated.

You know, hadn't played in a while. Been out with an injury. Maybe there was a little rust there. He's the least guy that I'm concerned about on our offense. But he's not. He carries a that with him every day.

So he's learning to deal with that. He's young man who hasn't been in this situation before and he needs some guidance, so we spend some time and work some things out that will help him handle the scrutiny.

And quite frankly, the scrutiny was strong. His reaction was probably similar to what my reaction would be as a 60 year old. I mean, he has handled it in a manner that he'll learn from and continue to grow from.

Q. Coach, with Maason Smith injured for the remainder of the season, Mehki Wingo is expected to take on a larger role filling his shoes. Those are large shoes to fill. How effectively do you believe he'll do that, and what's his attitude been like since the game?

BRIAN KELLY: Oh, Mehki has been amazing. Been a great leader. He won this week's squad team points again. He's a terrific leader.

He played very well in the game. He's active. Yeah, I mean, Maason Smith is -- you know, it's hard to compare anybody to him. His size, athleticism. But Mehki Wingo is going to be Mehki Wingo.

What he does is extremely effective as a football player, and he gets now obviously a bigger share of that work. It'll be incumbent upon others to step up as well.

Q. I know you talked Saturday about how Florida State deserves a lot of credit. When you look back at it, was it maybe personnel issues, protection stuff? What stood out?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, it's kind of what I talked about. They had singular matchups, so their edge guys were really good. One went against a true freshman. Will held his own. I mean, he won some and lost one. That puts Cam Wire on a one-on-one situation.

There were some tough days there for him, but he battled. But, you know, you got to look at your personnel going against who we played against. Are there better ways that we could have helped our offensive line? Should we have sprinted more? Should we have gapped it more? We started to chip late until the game and give some help on one side or the other.

So those are things that you look at after you see your personnel against a team like Florida State and start to make some deeper evaluations as to how you're going to move forward when you start to play SEC competition.

Q. Coach, I know the NCAA has cracked down the number of full padded contact practices over like spring and fall practices since 2014. Do you think that plays a role in some of the maybe messy tackling we've seen this weekend or like mistakes, like the targeting call, like Ali Gaye, like maybe the lack of practice?

BRIAN KELLY: I'm not giving Ali Gaye a pass on that targeting. If you look that up in the dictionary, that's what targeting is. That was a young man who is regretful of the decision and how that went about. He'll sit the first half. He's got to be better. He knows that.

But, no, I don't think targeting has anything. Tackling is an art, right? It's something that you have to develop that skill. We tackled as much as we could.

Let's give Florida State's quarterback a lot of the credit, too. He's extremely elusive. We had 16 missed tackles on him, and that's too many.

We had him wrapped up for tackles for loss on a number of occasions which would've got us off the field. We got to be better, no question.

Q. Covering Coach Sean Payton for years, one of his go-to phrases was every week is crisis or carnival in his organization. After a loss, only the first of the season, how do you handle the kids to get them to focus on what's in front of them and not pay attention to everything that's outside of the program?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, look, it's a high profile program. They come to LSU with the understanding that with success comes a responsibility. They have to be able to balance that.

So I'm not up here to make excuses for our guys, but there is a line, too, right, you know? You don't want it to get so crazy that we're attacking people. We can be critical. We are critical. We're critical of our coaching and of our play. Critical analysis going to get us better.

But I think the theme, what was most important within our room and our team meeting, was there are things that we did well, and I kind of mentioned them already. We showed resolve. What we have to do better is consistent execution.

What we learned is that we got to play four quarters of football. We got to start fast. We did not start fast. The second quarter and third quarter was hit and miss; we finished strong.

We got to play four quarters of LSU football and execute better. That was really the emphasis in that meeting, and to stay focused on what's important now.

Q. Were you alarmed by the problems on special teams, and what changes do you have to make, do you think, if any, to remedy what you saw?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, we made in-game changes on a PAT field goal and we thought we had them remedied; didn't prove to be that way.

And the punt, you know, we had the first muffed punt and it was my decision to stick with Malik. You know, we always are benefited by hindsight, right? But I felt like he's an elite athlete, he's confident. I wanted to show that confidence in him.

That's my call in that situation. So, you know, one of them is on him; other was Coach Kelly sticking with him I guess you could say.

As it relates to the field goal extra point situation, we made a change, flipped personnel over from the left side and moved somebody over there that we felt would shore that side up. We kicked the extra point with success and had the look we wanted.

And then on the final PAT, we didn't execute the way we needed to.

Q. Coach, how do you feel about Jayden's debut as the starting quarterback for LSU?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I talked a little bit about it. I think early recognition needs to be better, but I thought he competed well. Thought later in the game he definitely settled into some really good rhythm. I think when we did go some tempo, that really benefited him.

I thought late his pocket presence was excellent. Knew when to run, stay in the pocket, and find the open receiver. So I think first game, you know, kind of a mixed bag early on. He settled into it nicely as the game went on.

That's not good enough against good teams. You got to be ready to go right out, and I think this will be probably a really good game, this past game, for him to really learn from and up his game.

Q. Sticking with the quarterbacks, at any point in the game did you consider going to Garrett, and might you expect to play both this weekend?

BRIAN KELLY: It was never a conversation. There was never a time during the game where Mike and I, Mike Denbrock that is, or Joe Sloan had a conversation about, Hey, let's make a change here. Let's see if that's the best option for us.

That was never a conversation. And right now, Jayden is or No. 1 quarterback.

Q. Obviously during the off-season the secondary is one of the biggest points being talked about. What was your thoughts on how they played on Sunday?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I thought the corners played solid. Would've liked a little bit more physicality in the tackling, but by and large, we felt like they held up pretty good.

We had a lot of man coverage call situations. I thought they were on-body. Did a pretty good job. Lost our eyes obviously on the reverse touchdown pass; that's unacceptable. Got to be more disciplined in that situation.

But by and large, pretty good. We've got to communicate better at the safety position. Our guys know that. We have got to coach it better, too. We've got to be there consistently talking about how we can have it better -- you know, consistent operation with our safeties and knowing what they're doing and how to do it.

Q. Coach, what are some keys to getting the run game going moving forward beyond Jayden's legs?

BRIAN KELLY: You know, run game is such is difficult topic to kind of say, you know, when is it -- you know, when is the run game effective. To me, the run game is effective as it relates to success ratio in short yardage, in terms of yards per carry. You want to be over four yards per carry obviously, so keeping the chains in your favor.

So you want to be able to get those short yardage conversions, so anything third and one to three we were pretty good. Go line, and punched it in.

Yeah, obviously the run game has to continue to grow. But in a first-game situation you're talking about the timing and the reads of running backs with the offensive linemen and tight end blocking and receivers. There is so many pieces, so it's hard to really give you "where are you" with the run game.

We have got to get all those pieces working together, and then I'll be able to give a better assessment of where we are and where we're going.

Q. Two if I can. Running backs and tight ends looked like they struggled in protection. How much better can you be there, or is it just a course of playing games? Secondly, how do you like to approach recruiting on Game Day? Do you stack up as many visits as you can or do you focus on the games?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, so the first question is running back and tight ends. Yeah, I think that's an area of need, area to improve in. Mason Taylor is playing a lot for us, young player. His matchups were not favorable in most instances. He battled the best he could.

You know, we know where our limitations are. We're going to have to be better there and going to have to be better at the running back position.

We got to be creative. It is what it is.

As it relates to recruiting, we want to be very careful in this first year that we are not missing in action practice as we are developing this football team.

I do like to get out, but in year one we want to make sure there is continuity and that our players are going to need us as we recruit. So we're going to be very deliberate and balanced in terms of how we do that.

Q. Speaking of Southern, when you were growing up or watching football, do you have any memories of HBCUs and all the talent they would send to the NFL, and do you feel like they are getting back to that in recent years?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, for me it's Eddie Robinson in Grambling, and those games being played on NBC and remembering them. The biggest honors that I had was getting an opportunity to speak at the Eddie Robinson Museum when it was opened up.

It was a great honor, and just being immersed in the history of HBCUs.

So for me, as a head football coach and somebody that's been in the business as long as I have, I'm really excited about this game. It really brings in the historical perspective and how important it is.

Q. Brian, when it comes to the safety situation, Joe Foucha, what can you say about his situation and this is mentioned that he's...

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, he'll be back this year. I know it. (Smiling.) He'll be back.

Q. In regards to the game on Saturday, it's the first time two Baton Rouge universities have faced off against each other in history. How important do you think the game is for the players and how important do you think the game is for the city of Baton Rouge itself?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, as I mentioned, I think it's exciting for the city to have two teams playing together. Celebrates its accomplishments of both universities, the city itself, a flagship university like LSU and certainly a great institution, great HSBC university like Southern, bringing them both together I think is an incredible thing for the city.

This doesn't happen. How many teams get together from the same city? Maybe UCLA and USC. I can't think of many more that are in the same city that play each other.

It's a big deal. It's pretty cool. I'm excited and I know our players are, too.

Q. How would you sort of evaluate the performance of the linebackers? Seemed vulnerable in the middle of the field during the game.

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, look, when you got get off the field on third down it's not just the safeties, not just the corners, not just your pass rushers. Everybody is responsible for that. We've got to play better at that position. In particular we have to tackle better. We've got to blitz better. We got to be on-body and coverage better.

So is there room for major improvement there? Yes, there is. There is room for improvement in my coaching and our playing, and we've got to get better there as well.

Q. Couple of times you gave up a sack when you were five blocking three and six blocking four. Is there anything you can do there, do you think, as far as communication maybe to help, especially your tackles? Anything you can do there?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, so a lot of that is O-line awareness and making sure that we're helping where help is needed. When you get five guys that are battling and trying to do it the best they can, they have to know where their help is coming from.

That's consistency. That's where you get a group of guys that are playing together for a while, that they know where to help. We call that O-line awareness. You know, certainly we lack a little bit of that now. We'll get there. We'll build that as the season goes on.