LSU football: Why Brian Kelly calls secrecy with injuries 'overrated'
BATON ROUGE – LSU football coach Brian Kelly doesn't see the benefit of keeping an injury a secret.
On the heels of Tuesday's announcement that LSU would hand out injury reports for the media throughout this season, Kelly admitted that he doesn't see the benefit of hiding injury absences or illnesses from his opponents.
"I can't tell you how many times we didn't know a particular quarterback was playing," Kelly said following LSU's first preseason practice on Thursday. "You've got to adjust on the fly. So I think it's much ado about nothing. And I think we angst over the littlest things that don't really affect the game and we make too much of it.
"I don't want it to be a situation where (hiding an injury or illness) causes something to the point where somebody loses their job or loses their eligibility. To me that's a bigger issue than, 'Well, we got a tactical advantage today because we found out he was playing.' "
This season, Kelly will report any and all injuries to the media on Monday and Thursday during his availabilities with a probable, questionable, doutbful or out designation for each injured or sick player. The players who were reported as injured or sick throughout the week will then be given an available or unavailable designation before kickoff on Saturdays.
"Let's have (an injury) protocol. Here's the procedure. Here's what I'm going to follow. Here's what we're going to do," Kelly said. "It probably took me too long to come to this realization."
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Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football: Brian Kelly talks injury report, pregame secrets
