BATON ROUGE, La. — Sometimes you can catch Brian Kelly savoring a moment. And in the minutes before that chaotic fourth quarter — well before fans stormed the field — as the boozed-up home crowd belted out “Callin’ Baton Rouge” and Tiger Stadium felt ready to reach its apex, the 61-year-old coach walked alone along the sideline a few yards from his team. He looked up at the crowd and slowly turned around to take it all in.
Advertisement
This was why Kelly came to LSU. These were the moments he took this massive gamble to chase. He had Nick Saban’s Alabama on its heels, and this fan base that seemed muted and wounded the past three years reached a form it hadn’t since the 2019 national title. Kelly had been pleading all week with fans to fill this place, and here was their opus.
So in the moments after LSU took down Alabama, 32-31, on that audacious overtime two-point conversion pass from Jayden Daniels to freshman Mason Taylor, Kelly had to hold back tears. That’s not Brian Kelly. He’s not the emotional type. But he told ESPN’s Holly Rowe this scene brought those emotions on. LSU welcomed him, and he got a chance to “restore the pride and tradition of this program.”
Later on, he was asked again about those emotions. A large smile broke out.
“Because that was such a great game,” he said, “and I had never beaten Alabama.”
There is no place like HOME pic.twitter.com/3EqlgALsYJ
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) November 6, 2022
A brown-haired woman sitting in the back of the news conference then let out a “Whoo!” Kelly laughed more.
“That’s my friend Pam,” he joked. “She hasn’t beaten Alabama either. She’s been with me.”
He said it with the kind of earnest, joyful tone that made you believe he meant it. That he was happy. It’s rare for a coach to acknowledge something like that head on. Kelly had won 290 games before Saturday, but he’d never taken down the sport’s best in Saban. He’d faced him in a national championship game and a College Football Playoff semifinal, and both times his Notre Dame team got dominated. LSU punter Jay Bramblett, who came to LSU after three years with Kelly at Notre Dame, said, “I think this is one he’s always wanted.”
“Those are the things that you want to check the box and move on,” Kelly said. “So, you get a little emotional about those. I was emotional, not for myself, but I was emotional for our team. Because I know what we looked like in January, and to see where we are today, that’s pretty emotional.”
Advertisement
This LSU team keeps getting better. It keeps proving people wrong. It went from the team on opening night that muffed punts and had multiple field goals blocked in an embarrassing loss to Florida State to a team with two top-10 wins and control of its own destiny in the SEC West. Saturday was always going to be a referendum on whether LSU’s impressive wins against Florida and Ole Miss were outliers or signs of who the Tigers are. The answer: They belong.
And that’s where the excitement really is in this moment in Baton Rouge. It’s not about what this 2022 team might achieve (but, hey, that’s looking pretty great right now). It’s about the mounting evidence that Kelly might really be able to pull this thing off. If he could take this flawed but talented team, address its issues and have it looking this good within a few months, maybe he really can bring titles back to Death Valley.
The marriage between Kelly and the LSU faithful solidified on a night when they embraced him and he embraced them back.
“The crowd was unbelievable,” he said. “They created an energy unlike one that I can remember.”
The real reasons for these decisions usually get slowly pieced together over the course of the night. There’s the public answer, the middle concession and, finally, the real explanation.
LSU needed just an extra point to send this game to double overtime after Daniels broke an electric 25-yard touchdown run on his first overtime play. But to think Kelly would kick the extra point would be missing the context.
Against Florida State in New Orleans, LSU launched a dramatic comeback effort and led a 99-yard touchdown drive to nearly send that game to overtime too. All it had to do was make an extra point, and that extra point was blocked. And there were the previous 60 minutes of this game against Alabama. Kelly was not pleased with the officiating. A specific rule few knew or understood overturned an LSU takeaway. There were questionable ball spots and a pass interference call near the end of regulation that LSU thought shouldn’t have stood because the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
Advertisement
“There was no way that I was gonna let somebody else decide the outcome of this game,” Kelly told his players in the locker room. “We weren’t gonna come back into this locker room saying I wish we got this call or that call, because the only guys I trust are the guys in this locker room. … When it’s about winning a ballgame, I’m gonna let you guys decide.”
Anytime. Anywhere. Any place.
We decide our destiny. pic.twitter.com/T2cizjJEDs
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) November 6, 2022
Kelly said he decided that if he could boil this game down to one play to win it, he’d want the ball in No. 5’s hands. He wanted Daniels to decide this thriller in Tiger Stadium.
During the timeout, he asked Daniels if he wanted to be on the move for the play. Of course, Daniels said.
“He said in the headset he wants five on the move, and the rest is history,” Daniels said.
He liked this play because it provided options. The ball was in the middle of the field, so Kelly said it gave Daniels a sprint out to the right. If Alabama blitzed inside, Daniels would have the space on the perimeter. If they came off the edge, Daniels could get the ball out quickly. If they played bracket coverage and double-teamed the receivers, Daniels could go run.
“It’s kinda one of those catch-all plays that gets your best player with the ball in his hands on the perimeter where he can make multiple decisions,” Kelly said.
Daniels rolled right, and Alabama had pressure coming from the inside and the back side. He immediately decided on Taylor in the flat. An under-recruited three-star prospect and the son of NFL All-Pro Jason Taylor, Taylor rose up Kelly’s depth chart and earned a starting spot immediately. LSU trusted him to catch the ball with the season on the line.
Taylor caught it and fell backward into the end zone. Game over. He couldn’t quite find somebody to hug as the fans rushed the field, so he lifted his arms into the sky.
Advertisement
But it wasn’t like LSU won on that play alone. It won Saturday because of three quarters of dominant defense, with LSU’s rabid pass rush often making Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young look human, a rarity in his career. True freshman Harold Perkins continued to build his case as one of the best freshmen in the country, and LSU held the Tide to nine points through three quarters.
Young would get back to his superhuman self, star running back Jahmyr Gibbs, too, and Alabama scored 15 fourth-quarter points. But on three consecutive drives, LSU turned to Daniels needing points. And on three consecutive drives, he came up in the clutch.
He threaded needles like the fourth-quarter touchdown to Taylor between two defenders. He cut upfield for 31 yards on that same drive, looking as free running the ball as he has all year. In overtime, he broke the 25-yard touchdown on the first play.
LSU is 7-2 for a variety of reasons, but the reason it is suddenly looking like a top-10 team is the evolution of Daniels. And all year, even during games he has struggled, he’s been the one to come through on late drives against Florida State, Mississippi State, Florida and now Alabama.
“We aren’t here if our quarterback doesn’t play really well,” Kelly said. “Whether it’s Pee Wee, high school, college or the NFL, your quarterback has to play well. He did some really amazing things, in particular late.”
Back to the locker room. Back to Kelly in front of his team. He tried to tell the Tigers this is going to become the norm. Then captain Ali Gaye stood up.
“This is why you came here,” Gaye yelled.
“Hell yeah,” Kelly responded.
When LSU lost to Florida State, it seemed proof that he wasn’t a magician who could solve LSU’s many problems in one offseason. That was fair. It had a flawed offense and troubled special teams and a general lack of discipline. By the time LSU squeaked by Auburn playing maybe its worst game and then lost to Tennessee by 27 at home, it was understood this team was a ways away. Right?
Advertisement
But in four weeks, the entire calculus has changed. LSU kept getting better, homing in on Kelly’s oft-mentioned process. The defense shored up its tackling. Daniels made leaps. Special teams has leveled itself. LSU went from being one of the weaker teams in the SEC West to its leader, and expectations are now for LSU to possibly play in the SEC championship game at 10-2. The Tigers aren’t just getting results. They look the part.
“I knew that this football team was going to be better in November,” Kelly said. “But I don’t think I have ever in my career looked at the crystal ball and said, hey, this is how many wins we are going to get and how many losses. What I did know is that they had fight in them after the Florida State game, the way they came back and the way they battled.”
For better or worse, this will come back to why Kelly made this move. He has acknowledged he came to LSU because he wants to win national titles, and he thinks the resources and alignment at LSU are better suited for it. LSU isn’t quite knocking on the door for titles, and this isn’t even a particularly great LSU team. But in Kelly’s first year with SEC talent and this new piece of clay, he took down Saban. He beat the Tide, and LSU looked like the better team doing it.
Kelly, of course, will be the one to say this was just one game in the process. Maybe he’s right.
But in reality, this win meant something in Baton Rouge. The first time LSU beat Alabama in Tiger Stadium in 12 years unfolded in a way that removed much of the mystique that has always followed LSU against Alabama.
More than anything, though, this all finally felt real Saturday. LSU fans thought Kelly was a good coach before. They figured he would do well. But maybe there was some skepticism.
After beating Bama, they got on board, all the way, with Brian Kelly.
(Photo of Jayden Daniels and DeMarcco Hellams: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)