Everything Brian Kelly said after LSU’s Week 8 rout against Army

What a great night at Tiger Stadium, certainly the victory, we’re excited about it. I told our guys earlier in the week, this game, there’s no shortcuts, you get what you deserve. The work you put in you know, regardless of who your opponent is, is necessary to achieve the things that you want. And for us it was about, how do we get better? And defensively we’ve been on this upward trajectory of working to get better each and every week. I thought we reached that again this week. And then offensively again, I think this is the seventh week in a row where we’ve reached a plateau of 500 yards or more so you know, consistency of performance on the offensive side of the ball and then, you know, continue to make that improvement necessary to have a team that can compete for an SEC championship. That was the goal coming in this year. We ran into a couple of rough spots as we were moving through the schedule, but I’m really proud of the way our guys have responded to some adversity and have put themselves in a really good position to, again, with four games remaining, be in the thick of the SEC race. So great night again at Tiger Stadium relative to our opponent and having West Point here. I thought that, you know, our game management, our administration, I think, is to be commended for the way that we you know, welcomed the service academy in here. The field looked fabulous, I thought, you know, having you know, just the entire atmosphere you know, really resonated in honoring, you know, our service academy and those that serve our country so great night here at Tiger Stadium

Yeah, a lower-body injury that will get evaluated here. Over the next 24-48 hours. We’ll get a better picture of that.

You know, the offensive efficiency is one where you look towards one guy and then somebody else steps up. You know, last week Brian Thomas didn’t have but one or two catches I think and then you know, obviously has an explosive night tonight. So we just have so many different options and so many different weapons and the running game, obviously was not something that we went to right away. We felt like throwing the football was the best way to move the football tonight. But then then we come up with you know, in terms of running the game, you know, we rushed over 200 yards again. So, again, I don’t know if there’s enough superlatives to talk about but it’s balanced, it’s physical. There’s playmakers and it’s led by you know, a quarterback that’s as hot does anybody in the country.

Yeah, I was pleased with Hughes’ performance out there. We played him at corner, I thought he did a really good job. They they ran a double move on him. His eyes were good. Jeremiah Hughes, that is, true freshman. You saw Javen Toviano playing some corner. So those are the guys we’ve got. We’re down to playing two corners that are true freshman, you guys got anybody else? That’s all we got. Any other questions about the freshman corners? Okay. No, I like them. I like them. They’re just you know, they’re freshmen corners. And those are the two that were available to us because Stamps is still out with an injury. And he’ll be back hopefully on the bye week.

At first glance, you know, I thought our our individual techniques upfront were much better. I thought we played with better pads, our gap integrity and gap control was pretty good on the defensive line. From an offensive line standpoint, we handle a defense that that does a lot of movement, and there’s a lot of stunting. So I’ll have to watch the film to get a better sense, I was really locked in more with the defensive line play. But again, I think Daniels was pretty clean upfront. There was one time that there was some pressure but I think all in all, I think we’re really getting the kind of offensive line and defensive line play that that allows you to be a very good football team.

As it relates to the bye week, we’ll look at some things that we think that are important for us to address in practice before we start to look at Alabama. I think there’s some things individually that we want to get some players to look at it and then some some scheme things and we’ll do that on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Well, again, it’s a combination of finding your one-on-one matchups when it’s man coverage and then you know, we’re getting a combination of some cover 2 where you know, the roll in the corner to the weak side and you know, you get split safeties. And those kids are pretty good. They’re going to run off safeties, anytime. So, I just think it’s, you know, again, we’re going to take advantage of our athletes in space against, you know, what you give us in terms of coverage, and if you could play a lot of cover 2 we’re gonna run the football and we’re gonna push the ball down the field vertically.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, I’m pretty pleased with you know, playing a team that runs you know, very difficult to offense, you know, because you have to leverage the football you have to tackle well, you have to have gap integrity. All the principles of playing good defense are on display tonight. You have to have those in place. And so, you know, we passed the test. Now, again, I’m not ready to nominate this defense for any award, but they are making the progress necessary to continue to build and have the building blocks to be a defense that can be a championship football team. So good steps forward tonight. This was a big step for us.

Yeah, it’s fun to watch. You know, his patience is really what’s starting to show. I thought he took himself out of some plays early in the year being maybe just a little too aggressive or out of control. If you remember early on maybe some missed tackles. He’s really settled in and is playing confident and patrolling the middle of the field. You know, we had a couple maybe you know, he’d like to have back or he’d have four interceptions, but playing at a high level. We need him to continue to do that. If he does, he presents a solid piece for us back there.

Not really. You know, we talked about it, you know, after the Missouri game a little bit, you know, hey, we’re at 4-2, you know, this is where we were last year, but we haven’t since that time really talked about because that was kind of like you know, getting over the disappointment of playing poorly. But it’s really just been about you know, now playing with the right mindset each and every week, and I think they’re beginning to obviously, grab hold of that.

Yeah, I mean, look, you know, everybody can have their own, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but he sure looks good to me. And so when your quarterback is playing at that kind of level, he gives you a chance to win every game. He’s got a great supporting cast, there’s no doubt about it. But you know, the quarterback drives, you know, college football, the NFL, high school, wherever it is, the quarterbacks the driver, and right now he’s playing at an elite level.

We just shut out an opponent, are you just going to throw water on this thing? We just shut somebody out. Now we’re in a track me, that track meet was a long time ago. I don’t even remember it. All I remember is playing really good defense this game. Last week we gave up 18 against Auburn. And they just, I didn’t know they lost but they were in a heck of a tussle with with a team that we lost to the week before. I think Missouri is a pretty good team and our last two quarters were pretty good. So I get what you’re saying. I hear you. But I think we’re making progress. And so no, we can’t win a championship. You know, giving up 30, 40, 50 points a game. I don’t believe that. But we can if we continue to improve.

You know, 32 years in this business, if I was staggered by anything and 18 to 21-year-old did, I wouldn’t be in this very long, so staggering. does not hit my radar very often. I’m pleased with the discipline that we’re showing. And look, we got to work on it every day. I mean, it is a constant day-to-day process that we’re in about building good habits and building discipline and doing those things. So you know, we’re two years into this and we have to work on it every single day.