Brian Kelly is 0-3 in season openers thus far in his LSU tenure. While other programs across college football largely began their campaigns with matchups against Group of Five opponents or FCS squads, the Tigers embarked on the last three seasons with daunting battles against Florida State (twice) and USC. It does not get easier in 2025 when LSU hits the road for a marquee showdown against Clemson.
The Aug. 30 prime time clash may be an early College Football Playoff preview. Both Tigers teams have postseason aspirations and rosters that are, on paper, strong enough to get them into the bracket. It is one of the biggest games on the entire non-conference slate, and Kelly is making it a bigger deal of this contest than any of the other previous season openers.
“We’ve circled the game,” Kelly said on the “College GameDay” podcast. “I’ve never done that before in openers. It’s all over our weight room. It’s all over our workouts. We’re wearing shirts. I mean, we’re doing the kumbaya of ‘We’re playing Clemson and we need to beat Clemson.’ So is that too much pressure? No, I think we’ve got enough mature, veteran guys on this team. We had a clear conversation about why we were doing it, and they’re all in on that.”
Kelly opened his LSU career in 2022 with a neutral-site duel against Florida State, one in which his Tigers fell behind by two touchdowns and never fully clawed back in a 24-23 defeat. The Seminoles won the rematch in 2023, again on a neutral field, in 45-24 blowout fashion. Last year, LSU headed out to Las Vegas and surrendered a late lead in a 27-20 loss to USC.
“The fact of the matter is they are exciting openers, and unfortunately we have not done well in those openers and haven’t had the outcomes that we wanted,” said Kelly….
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/lsu-circled-season-opener-against-clemson-with-brian-kelly-in-search-of-first-week-1-victory/
Author : Carter Bahns
Publish date : 2025-06-13 20:47:00
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