Is Saturday the biggest game of Brian Kelly’s LSU tenure?

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – SEPTEMBER 21: Head coach Brian Kelly of the LSU Tigers looks on during the fourth quarter of an NCAA football game against the UCLA Bruins at Tiger Stadium on September 21, 2024 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Brian Kelly came to LSU to coach in big games. He understood the challenge when he took the job. He understood the expectations.

LSU will host Alabama on Saturday night under the lights in Death Valley. The situation isn’t that different than the one Kelly encountered in year one. A two-loss LSU team was a home underdog to Alabama.

Kelly answered the call. LSU went out and won in overtime. For Kelly, it was a signature year one win. A sign Kelly can build a program capable of competing at the top of the SEC.

The Alabama game means a little more to LSU, because for the last 15 years or so, Alabama was the standard.

For most of Nick Saban’s tenure with the Crimson Tide, LSU was chasing Alabama. When LSU suddenly wasn’t competing with Bama, it signaled LSU was no longer in the sport’s top tier. Saban and Alabama separated from the pack.

A few years into Alabama’s eight-game win streak over LSU, Tigers’ head coach Les Miles was fired. Ed Orgeron was promoted to head coach with a simple objective — return LSU to the top of the sport.

Orgeron wasn’t shy about it. He knew the measuring stick was Alabama and in 2019, Joe Burrow and company went into Tuscaloosa and beat the Tide, putting an end to the eight-game skid.

Orgeron wasn’t able to recreate that magic again, which led to Kelly’s arrival. Kelly was tasked with the same objective. And again, he knew the standard was Alabama.

That’s what made Kelly’s year one win so big. Nobody thought LSU would arrive so soon.

Kelly and LSU entered the game in 2023 with a chance to make it two in a row. The Tigers came up short as…

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Author : LSU Tigers Wire

Publish date : 2024-11-08 16:57:08

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