Brunch with Brian: Tennessee

Oct 4, 2022 - 1:00 PM

Brian Kelly hears all your gripes about #25 LSU’s big Saturday morning matchup with #8 Tennessee on Saturday (11 A.M., ESPN) but he wants you to power through all that.

“Look, I’d like to be the cheerleader here and say, ‘Hey, come out and get going,’ but look, it’s Tiger Stadium, it’s LSU football,” he said. “If you’re 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.”

LSU will need support from its fans because Tennessee’s got a high flying offense. The Vols lead the country in yardage, averaging 559 yards a game.

“Yeah, you’ve got to get your cleats in the ground and you’ve got to go play,” Kelly said on Monday. “So, 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, not a lot of changing of formations. They’ve got to line up right and left, too. So to play fast allows you to, you know, obviously a pretty clean look at what you’re 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. And that’s what we’ll have to do against a really good Tennessee offense.”

While Tennessee is wracking up yards left and right, LSU is...not. The Tigers passing game, or lack thereof, didn’t make the trip to Auburn this past weekend as LSU only managed 85 yards through the air. Kelly is fully aware that won’t cut, especially against a team like Tennessee.

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

“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?”