Josh Pate: Brian Kelly gets too much credit, not enough blame at LSU
Josh Pate dives into the Tigers program after its 31-24 loss at Vanderbilt - dropping the team to 5-2 on the season and in danger of missing the College Football Playoff. Subscribe to “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” on YouTube.
Video Transcript
I was getting some pretty strong indications last week that this Vanderbilt game was very, very important for Brian Kelly's future down there.
Well, they lost it.
Then they flew back home.
So now, what's the situation with Brian Kelly?
Well, I viewed yesterday as sort of an inflection point.
It was different than, you know, Hugh Freeze or Mike Norvell with Brian Kelly.
Brian Kelly wasn't gonna lose the Vanderbilt game and then lose his job the next day, but what I believe is there are some things coming down the road for Brian Kelly that were put in motion yesterday.
Now, here's what I suspect is going on in that building today.
What I suspect is going on is you've got maybe an athletic director, maybe a head coach, and maybe some other power players who sit down kind of a meeting of the mind, or kind of a meeting of the minds.
And you assess the situation.
This happens frequently, it's not an LSU thing and it's pretty obvious that there are some fundamental flaws here.
It's very obvious that there was a hired offensive coordinator for a guy probably not qualified to hold that job.
Now, I like Joe Sloan as a person.
I like him.
I have very, very much been hesitant to throw Joe Sloan under the bus, uh, because #1, Joe Sloan is working from a kind of hamstrung position himself, but #2, if you think Joe Sloan is the worst offensive coordinator in history, he didn't hire himself, is my point.
So I really stop short of throwing people under the bus when they're underachieving.
If we're not going to acknowledge who put them in the position they're in.
So that's Brian Kelly, and then to take it a step further, you could come back at me from 50,000 feet and say, yeah, Josh, but if you're gonna be critical of that move, don't you have to give credit for Blake Baker at defensive coordinator or Austin Thomas where he is, or any of a number of other really good moves that they've made lately?
Well, if you've also listened to this show.
I've been careful with how I've worded that because I haven't really given Brian Kelly credit for those moves because they weren't Brian Kelly's moves, they were organizational moves.
This right here is a Brian Kelly move.
So Brian Kelly's pressed some wrong buttons down there.
He's pressed some right ones, dude, I was, I've, I've been a big supporter of Brian Kelly.
OK, so everyone knows that about me.
I've been called a Kelly homer on this show, but for that crowd out there that just wanders fairly around the internet, thinks we never criticize anyone.
Well, this is Brian Kelly criticism.
So I imagine.
If I know Brian Kelly from a distance like I think I do, that Brian Kelly is presented with the fact that his offensive coordinator is not good enough, his offensive product is not good enough, and while his job is not immediately in jeopardy, he needs to make changes, especially if they lose this Saturday he needs to make changes now.
He could either make those changes.
Or he could look and say no.
And frankly, I don't know which direction it'll go.