LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2022

Brian Kelly

Weekday Press Conference

BRIAN KELLY: Good afternoon. I'll give a quick recap on the weekend at Auburn.

Any road win, obviously, is a great win. Especially in the fashion that we came back from a 17-0 deficit. I think the things that stand out after doing a deeper dive, defensively in the second half the turnovers, taking the football away.

Then, you know, running the football. We looked at our last three SEC games, we're averaging six yards per rush in the second half. I think we've said from the very beginning the ability to run the football in the SEC was going to be a very important part of winning football games.

We would like to win them in a different fashion, but winning is winning. I think those things stand out.

Special teams was much improved. We're getting the kind of play and effort necessary. If there are penalties on those teams, we're getting great effort from that group. I think those are probably the highlights in terms of things to take from.

Look, I'm going to say this and I'll talk to our team about it a little bit later. It's pretty clear this team plays with great heart, and they'll fight, but heart and fight will not win games against the opponents that we're going to have over the next month or so.

We're going to have to have better execution. We're going to have to coach better, and those things we're going to have to have on display starting this weekend against an outstanding Tennessee football team.

Josh Heupel has done a great job in a very short period of time of putting his stamp on this team. It is a fast-paced team. They're the fastest team in college football. They snap the ball with an average of about 20 seconds on the clock.

It's led by Hendon Hooker, who I got a chance to go against when he was at Virginia Tech. He is talented. He is big. He is physical. He can throw the football. He runs it, and he has got playmakers.

They're electric at the slot with Hyatt. You've got a big body guy in McCoy, Bru McCoy. Tillman, obviously, didn't play last week, but he is obviously an alpha out there for them. Whether he plays or not, they are talented at the wide receiver position.

Big, physical up front. They want to run the football. And then defensively of you've got athletes all over the place. On the front they've played 12 players on their defense in their defensive line, so they're rolling guys in and out.

I think a team that is deserving of their ranking. They've earned it. They're talented on both sides of the ball.

Special teams, aggressive. I think they've got something like 15 kickoffs and half go to the right and half go to the left. They're very talented kicking team.

A great challenge for our group. One that we're looking forward to. 11:00 a.m. start, so get there early.

Look, I mean, I would like to be the cheerleader here and say, hey, come out early and get going, but look, it's Tiger Stadium, it's LSU football. If you are not excited for that, I don't know what gets you going in October.

There's time to do other things, but LSU playing Tennessee in Tiger Stadium, tell me what else is better to do? This is an awesome opportunity.

Please come out and support your LSU Tigers. PSA announcement was pretty good, wasn't it? It was pretty good. Thank you very much.

Q. I don't think many people before the season would have believed through five games Kayshon would have no touchdowns and fewer than 100 yards receiving. Why has he struggled to get going?

BRIAN KELLY: Look, I mean, part of this is building trust with a new quarterback. Obviously, we're trying to get him the football. He is getting a lot of double coverage.

We're still winning. He is happy that we're winning. Look, all those guys that make decisions about who the best receivers are in the country are still going to look at Kayshon and go, that's a really, really good wide receiver.

Numbers are numbers. At the end of the day he is going to continue to play this game at the next level, and the numbers won't dictate where he gets drafted. It's his ability to continue to play the game at the highest of levels, and when you turn on the film and he is running full speed and he is beating guys and the ball didn't come to him for whatever reason, that's out of his control.

So what Kayshon continues to do better each and every week is he controls what he can control. He does that in practice now, and he does that in games. He was happy we won the football game. Would he like the ball more? Absolutely. Would I like to get it to him more? Absolutely. But, he has handled himself in the right way, and he continues to work for the team.

Q. Sort of building off the passing game, I guess, discussion, there hasn't been much of a down field vertical threat, I guess, this year. Is there a solution that you have in mind for that, or are you going to kind of have to live with the quick passing game and just try to make that more effective than it was against Auburn?

BRIAN KELLY: I could give you a video clip of all the throws down field. We've had a number of deep ball throws. They weren't this week.

Last week against New Mexico that was a cover 8. That was short passing game, catch it, run after the catch. Threw for over 300 yards.

This past weekend was not good enough. That's not going to get you a sustainable offense that can win games at the highest level in the SEC, but that's coaching and that's playing.

What I mean by coaching and playing is we have to prepare better. Our fundamentals have to be better. We have to look at the passing game. Are we doing too much? Are we doing the things that highlight our players?

Then, in turn, our players have to look at themselves. Are they preparing the right way? Is there attention to the details necessary?

This is an all of us together that we need to get better, and the recognition and the awareness that 85 yards is not going to get it done, but it's a new week. The one thing that doesn't carry over very well in college football is the last week. So we expect to be much better.

Q. When you take a look at the video from the Auburn game, you take a look at not only wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, passes that hit them on the hands, whether it's a little bit off of the mark or not and catchable balls that aren't caught. How would you reflect on that? And not only Kayshon, but before the year everybody thought your wide receivers were the strength of the team. What can you do to get those guys more involved?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, I think I would continue to answer the question, and I'm going to be honest with you. Everybody should be asking the same questions, but I will tell you that it starts with putting together a comprehensive plan that can be repeated in the game.

The guy that has his hands on the ball is the quarterback, and he is going to get most of the notoriety when we do well, and he is going to get a lot of the blame when it doesn't go well. So, the quarterback is part of this.

The wide receivers have got to be better at attention to detail. Their routes have to be better. We've got to throw it better and catch it better.

There were probably five or six -- and you probably can all remember them -- where there needed to be a little bit better of a throw and a little bit better of a catch. So, that also goes to play-calling. We've got to be able to look at, are these the plays that we can repeat and are we doing too much?

I think we're looking at it in all of those areas because this is not going to work. We can't throw for 85 yards with the talent that we have and expect to beat the top 10 teams in the country.

Q. You said that Tennessee has the fastest offense in the country. With a defense like yours that likes to disguise looks, how does that impact your game plan, and what makes that difficult?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, you've got to get your cleats in the ground, and you've got to go play. In one instance they can't do a lot of things either, right? So if they're going to snap the ball with 20 seconds on the clock, there's not a lot of motion, there's not a lot of changing of formations. They've got to line up right and left too.

So, to play fast allows you, obviously, a pretty clean look at what you are getting, but on the other side, you're right, you can't do a lot defensively. But what you can do is get your cleats in the ground, line up, play fast, play free, and play physical. That's what we'll have to do against a really good Tennessee offense.

Q. Now that you've had time to sort of review the tape with the coverage busts especially in the first half, what were you sort of seeing in that department?

BRIAN KELLY: There were coverage busts. Do you want me to call out some guys here publicly in front of you?

Q. No.

BRIAN KELLY: Thank you. Because I'm am going to.

Q. What were maybe some of the adjustments that sort of need to be made heading into this week, so maybe some of that stuff...

BRIAN KELLY: Talk slower. Look, we've addressed the issues. There are communication issues. Then really, quite frankly, making sure that our guys know the rules associated with coverages, and do your job. Don't try to do somebody else's job.

We've been in flux a little bit back there, so making sure that there's great communication, guys doing their job, not trying to do something that's not part of our system and rules and just over-communicate it now. Just make sure that it's been communicated effectively. And do a good job teaching it and redoubling our efforts to make sure that point is getting across to those guys that are in that situation.

Q. The Florida State game you mentioned you maybe were a little slow to notice the front Florida State was running. Last week you said it was a little of the double zone. Do you think that's week-to-week what it's going to be a little bit of, you know, working on noticing what's going on with the defense and Jayden Daniels just kind of recognizing that?

BRIAN KELLY: No, I don't think that can be the case. I think we have to improve. We've got to be better at recognition.

Look, there's a difference between being on the edge aggressively and being reckless. We're way too conservative right now, and so I don't want to throw interceptions. That's not what I want to do.

I don't want to turn the ball over. We haven't thrown any. That's not necessarily a bad thing in one respect, but if you are looking to be aggressive, you're going to throw an interception or two because somebody made a great play, because you trust that you're going to throw it in there.

We've got to get Jayden to be a little bit more on that edge and be a little bit more aggressive, and we will. We'll get there with him because that's the nature of this position. This position has to be with the skill players that we have, we've got to get that ball down the field, and we've got to get it into some tight windows sometimes. They're not always going to be wide open, but those guys can make plays, and we have to get them the ball.

Q. Can you talk about John Emery's game, and was the fumble necessarily his fault? It seemed like the back side of the defender came in untouched.

BRIAN KELLY: Well, we had one side of the line going left and the other side of the line going right. That's not a good thing.

So, what actually ended up happening on the play was the back side lineman was pulling. He was not supposed to be pulling. John didn't expect it and got run into and the ball came loose. Inexcusable.

You still have to have great ball security in that situation, but it was a miscommunication understanding of what the play was. Somebody thought it was right, and it was going left, and we had just a circus going on up front, and it created that collision in the back field, which was unexpected and jarred the ball loose.

Q. (Off microphone)

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, the physical run was amazing, right? I think we still have to settle him down a little bit in the passing game. He had the nice catch, obviously, up the sideline, soft hands.

He needs to play with that kind of calmness in the passing game. He got a little antsy the other time where he dropped it, but he is coming along. We can see it coming, and I just think it's just more reps for him, and he will continue to settle in nicely.

Q. Just curious about your offensive line play. Obviously, it's been looking different each week. Where is it health-wise, and how did you think they did given the circumstances they were facing?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, we put a lot of pressure on them in the second half, obviously, right? We got down big. We had a great drive.

I thought the protection was really good against some really good pass rushers. Remember now, we put 55 and 29, and 55 got hurt, but they had 98 come in. They had two legitimate pass rushers. You have two true freshmen out there battling, but I thought, by and large, the offensive line has been a bright spot for us.

Then, like we've talked about many, many times, the ability to run the football when everybody in the stadium knows that LSU is going to run the football and exerting our will to close out football games in the SEC says a lot about the growth of that offensive line.

Q. (Off microphone)

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, he will be back. He will practice this week.

Q. How was Daniels physically; and, two, after five games, are you where you thought you would kind of be as a team?

BRIAN KELLY: Daniels is fine. He had a bursa sac, which I don't know the exact medical deal with that. I wish I could be a little bit more precise and articulate, but it's not structural at all, but it's painful. So, he was in pain.

He just felt like he was hurting the team being out there, but he felt good yesterday. The exam was clean. We did an MRI just to make sure, and that came back clean. He is now in a pretty good position where he feels like he is 100%.

I never really looked at it relative to the wins and losses piece. What I've looked at is will we continue to get better each and every week as we go through the season, and can we develop an identity as a football team?

I think that early on we've been able to identify that this football team will fight. It's got grit. Those are traits that sometimes don't ever show themselves during the season.

So, yeah, I think we're ahead of it because to go on the road and be down 17-0 and come back and win, that means that your program is establishing character within the ranks, and that to me puts you on the right path.

Q. With Armoni out the next few weeks, how much of a workload can we expect from Josh Williams, Noah Cain, the whole running back room pretty much, and how would you like to see them utilized in their own role?

BRIAN KELLY: I think what you see is what you get. Josh has been kind of the guy for us. He is extremely reliable in all areas of the game. He can pass-protect for us.

Made a mistake out on a handoff sweep where he blocked below the waist. Had a little bit of a mistake there, but he is usually really clean in all those areas and making good choices. He runs hard. He catches the ball out of the back field, so he has been really reliable.

Then as we talked about, Emery is coming on. We feel like we can give him a little bit more and more each week. And then Cain comes in with fresh legs, and he is a big guy. So he kind of gives us a nice change-up when he does get in the back. We need all three. There's no doubt.

Q. How is Sevyn Banks doing?

BRIAN KELLY: Thanks for asking. The diagnosis is a spinal cord bruise, which puts him similar to Major Burns' situation where there was a bruise. Nothing else. No structural issues. That's probably going to take, you know, five, six weeks before we can get him back.

Now, Major Burns starts -- so talking about similar patterns here, Major Burns starts running today. He will be outside running with us.

Next week he'll begin noncontact drills, football noncontact drills with us. There will be a similar protocol and procedure, provided there's no setbacks along the way.

So, really fortunate and really appreciate all the help that we got from our own medical team and certainly Auburn's as well in what was a very scary situation.

Q. First just cracking the AP Top 25, curious about your impression of how perception is matching reality on your team. And, if you would, in the three major conference opponent games there's been kind of a trend where you've been done multiple scores in all three games, nearly overcame it in the first and did overcome it in the next two. What are some of the good and bad you pull from that trend? Does it inform you in any particular way about where the team is now?

BRIAN KELLY: We'll start with the top 25. Perception versus reality, you know, I think that when you look at the body of work and who this football team is, there's probably 35 teams that could be in the top 25, right, from 25 to 35. That really is a judgment call.

We feel like at this point the development of our football team will continue to take place through this month. I think the more germane question is, how do you get off to a better start against power 5 teams so you don't have to rally in the second half?

What I will make clear when I get a chance to talk to the team is, having heart and fighting the way we do, that's not going to get it done against Tennessee. That's not going to get it done against Florida at Florida or Mississippi or Alabama.

We're going to have to execute better. Our details are going to have to be better technically, tactically. We have to coach better.

So, hopefully what's come out of this is that we've learned that our preparation is going to have to be so much better and then bring the heart, then bring that fight because you're going to need that too, but you can't just rely on that and play sloppy football and expect to win these games.

Q. You've seen a lot of football, great football over the years. The play BJ Ojulari made to come from the back side and run the quarterback down and force the fumble, how good a play is that? How gifted is he as a player?

BRIAN KELLY: I told him that was a captain's play. What I meant by that was that that was an effort play, and that was a timely play that gave us the life that we needed at that particular time. We were down 17-0, and we needed something good to happen.

A leader like BJ made a play when a play needed to be made. Those things need to happen. You know, players need to make plays, and BJ made a big play in that moment.

Q. The run defense has been pretty consistent for you guys over the last several weeks. Mekhi Wingo has been a big part of that, but how would you evaluate the interior D-line's play, especially since losing Maason Smith earlier in the year. Just how impressed have you been with that group and how they've held up?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, it was good this past weekend, and I think it got to that level. Wingo has been our most consistent. What made it better was Ja Roy. His play this weekend is what we need to see from him each and every week.

Now, he has been banged up. He has had a back issue. He has been banged up. He was injury-free this week. He practiced all week, and you could see it in the way he played.

If we can get that kind of play from Ja Roy each and every week, we're going to be pretty good up front. Even with the loss of a great player like Maason Smith.

Q. If I can go back to Garrett for a second. Just a clarification, which hand did he break, and is he still your backup center if he can't snap if it was his right hand?

BRIAN KELLY: It was his left.

Q. So he is still your backup center?

BRIAN KELLY: Yes, he is.

Q. Who else is repping there?

BRIAN KELLY: Fitzgerald West. He was not available because he was in our concussion protocol, so we were up to you as the center. That's not good.

Thank you.