54
LSU head coach Brian Kelly addressed a variety of topics during his press conference Monday, the first day of SEC Media Days in Nashville, Tennessee.
Here’s what he had to say about a few of them.
In his opening statement, Kelly discussed LSU’s success as a freshman last season and building on that. The Tigers went 10-4 and won the SEC West, losing to Georgia 50-30 in the SEC championship game. They beat Purdue 63-7 in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida.
“I have a great opportunity in my hands as well, to continue the success of what has been a very good first year,” he said after mentioning LSU’s 2023 national championships in basketball and baseball feminine. “We have a lot to do. Progress must continue to be made in the best conference in all of college football. It won’t be easy.
“We are excited about what we have accomplished in a very short time. The basis of success is consistency. Alabama and Georgia continue to have that consistency in terms of playing for championships, and that’s what we’ll look to be at LSU, playing for championships consistently, year in and year out.
Kelly said he spent his freshman year learning the league.
“I was learning how to ride on the road and play in those kinds of environments. I was learning our roster, our strengths and our weaknesses,” he said.
“At the start of the second year, we have a lot of knowledge and we understand a lot of things necessary to be competitive and win games. Now here’s how to do it week by week. For us, that’s what our team is focused on now.
Having to replace part of the secondary and doing it through the transfer portal…
“When you have to dip into the transfer portal — and this is just my perspective — but when you have to tap into the transfer portal and bring in so many guys on defense, that’s a concern, because you really don’t know what you have until you play Florida State (in the first game of the season).
“When you have to dip into the transfer portal — and this is just my perspective — but when you have to tap into the transfer portal and bring in so many guys on defense, that’s a concern, because you really don’t know what you have until you play Florida State.
“There are going to be a number of new players there. We have a few returning players that we’re excited about there, (Greg) Brooks and (Major) Burns in particular are two veteran players that are going to help us a lot there.
On the progress of quarterback Jayden Daniels…
“So what does development look like for him? I think it would be the natural progression from the last game he played in, where he was aggressive but under control. He ran the ball when he needed to, but still got into the pocket and made tight throws.
“I think it was progression.
“From what we saw in the first week, where a step forward in the pocket meant getting up and running or not making those tight throws. I think what we’ve seen over the year is his natural progression in understanding the offense and his confidence.
“We want to see that in year two. We want to see that confidence we saw at the end of the year continue to show through the first game against Florida State.
As for whether Daniels is the starter for fall camp…
“Jayden is our starter. He’s going to start. But he will have to continue to improve and progress, because Garrett (Nussmeier) is also improving every day.
“You want to talk about big competition? That’s about as good as a head coach could hope for at the quarterback position.
“Jayden is the starter, but he needs to have a great camp. He must continue to progress. “He must continue to work. He has to keep moving forward, because the guy over there wants to take his job too, the right way. They have a great relationship, but he also wants her job.
“I think it’s a really positive situation.”
On closing the gap with Georgia, the two-time reigning national champion…
“I know that based on how we’ve recruited and how we continue to recruit, we’ll have a football team that can compete with Georgia. Is it now? No it is not. “But if we continue to do what we’re doing, we’ll have a roster that can compete with Georgia, and then it’s just a matter of doing it on the playing field so that everyone can then evaluate that they have closed the hole.”
On running back Landon Diggs, a transfer from Notre Dame…
“We love its versatility. He played very well at Notre Dame when given the opportunity. He was a little limited, I think, with a hamstring last year. We saw how he played against South Carolina with the big run.
“But he’s a very talented player in all areas. Very smart, that will be a bit of what I talked about with Josh. He can play on all three downs. He is hard. He is physical. He’s a big back with speed and vision.
