LSU’s special teams unit had a night to forget in Sunday’s 24–23 season-opening loss to Florida State. A botched protection on what would have been the game-trying extra point nixed any chance at Brian Kelly stealing away a victory in his debut coaching appearance for the Tigers.
However, two other costly mistakes in the punt return game also greatly impacted LSU’s shot to win.
Sophomore wide receiver Malik Nabers muffed two punts in Saturday’s loss, including one within the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. The Tigers were able to push through the errors by mounting a 99-yard drive to score as time expired, but the Seminoles blocked the extra point to prevent overtime.
After the loss, Kelly addressed LSU’s lackluster performance on special teams, specifically touching on the mistakes Nabers made. He explained that he and the coaching staff evaluated the sophomore throughout summer practice and believed he was ready, but that Sunday’s showing would lead the program to re-assess the return game.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. You put a guy back there, a guy like Malik Nabers, you watch him, you evaluate him through four weeks of practice, and you feel comfortable with his elite skill set and his mindset that he’s going to be able to do a great job, and that wasn’t the case,” Kelly said, per SI’s Ross Dellenger. “That was a mistake that we made.
“He wants to do it, and we’ll have to reevaluate that situation. He’s a great kid. We didn’t lose the game because he dropped those two punts. We miraculously were able to overcome those. You usually wouldn’t. But that’s ‑‑ you know, that’s on us. We made that evaluation. We watched him catch punts, and we felt like he was in a position that he could do that for us.”
Kelly’s comments turned quite a few heads on social media, as many believed he was taking an unnecessary swipe at a young player who made a few mistakes in his first game handling the return duties. However, a few others pointed out that the LSU coach showed faith in Nabers with his actions as the sophomore caught two passes on the team’s final drive of the game.
Nabers ended the contest with five catches for 34 yards.
LSU will have a chance to bounce back on special teams next Saturday against Southern.
