Brian Kelly caused quite a stir last week. Before his LSU Tigers took a 45-24 beat down at the hands of Florida State, the coach went on his weekly radio show to profess that LSU was going to “beat the heck out of Florida State.”
Now, after a massive backfire, he’s trying to walk those comments back by saying they literally never happened. According to Koki Riley of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Kelly claimed his overconfident comments were “not something that I would ever say.” He would clarify that his reputation precedes itself and that he’s never disrespected an opponent like that in 33 years of coaching college football.
Ultimately, Kelly chalked up anyone thinking he said something he actually said to social media, “inflating it into something that it is not.”
Except, again, those were his exact words about Florida State, and there was nothing to “inflate.”
LSU HC Brian Kelly had some bullish remarks about his team in his weekly radio show on Thursday.
'We're going to go beat the heck out of Florida State'https://t.co/VifioDsAwF pic.twitter.com/rJVmDEdBH0
— Zach Blostein (@ZBlostein247) September 1, 2023
Let’s take the full viral clip in context to see if there were any of Kelly’s comments — which he 100 percent said — that could’ve been misconstrued. Somehow.
“I will say that were still some areas that need to be improved. We’re gonna take 15 freshmen on this trip and 14 transfers, so nearly 40 percent of this travel roster is going to go overnight for the first time with LSU. And that’s not a disclaimer of any kind. We’re going to go beat the heck out of Florida State.”
Hmm, I’m not sure how any of that could be “inflated.” But maybe I just don’t understand the English language like an out-of-his-wits doofus trying to rebrand his coaching image. It’s so perfect because, through the entire sequence, you could almost get the sense he wanted to express humility at first but then threw out the red meat for the LSU fanbase anyway. He knew what he was doing, had a chance to stop himself, and still pushed forward!
I get why Kelly is trying to falsely claim he never said something he definitely said (that wasn’t taken out of context). LSU entered the 2023 season with extremely high expectations and fell flat on its face at the starting gun. If Kelly can be linked back to saying his squad would dominate a top-five team before a humiliating whooping, everyone can hold it over his head. And he knows it.
Tucking your tail and running away like a coward is not how to properly deal with the fallout, though. But that’s the Brian Kelly Way.
