LSU’s Kelly won’t buy transfers, but he’s no Kirby Smart
Principles are fine. Principles plus a couple of hulking defensive tackles who address a glaring roster need are even better.
LSU football needs defensive tackle fortification, and coach Brian Kelly pledged to remedy the situation with transfers.
“I think we’re going to be able to address that (position) in short order,” Kelly told me on April 1, a direct nod to the spring transfer period.
The Tigers failed to acquire the desired talent. TCU transfer Damonic Williams chose Oklahoma, and Michigan State’s Simeon Barrow picked Miami. LSU had been in the running for each player. They possess plug-and-play starting ability.
How to explain these misses? “We’re not in the market of buying players,” Kelly told WAFB-TV. “Unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought.”
Kelly’s comment makes it seem as if he beamed down from outer space and he still thinks the year is 2011 and he’s coaching Notre Dame.
Everyone is buying players. It’s allowed.
I understand what Kelly means, though. He’s really saying that LSU isn’t in the market of overpaying for transfers who would make a short pitstop in Baton Rouge.
Kelly didn’t bemoan the balance sheet of LSU’s NIL collective or ask fans for more donations. In fact, he said LSU boasts a robust collective. He doesn’t oppose players making money.
Simply, Kelly’s blueprint calls for rebuilding LSU to prominence by signing blue-chip prospects and then engaging, retaining and developing them. Basically, that’s the Georgia model. Kirby Smart cherry-picks a few top transfers, but, mostly, he’s established Georgia as the SEC’s premier program by signing elite recruiting classes and developing those ballyhooed prospects into stars.
Brian Kelly: Signing double-digit transfers is ‘a red flag’
Kelly played transfer roulette the past two seasons. He had to, considering the lack of roster depth he inherited. LSU hit it big with transfer quarterback Jayden Daniels. Mostly, though, its acquisitions became either mediocre performers or busts. Consider Duce Chestnut. He started at Syracuse, transferred to LSU before last season, played in four games before LSU declared him “inactive,” and then he transferred back to Syracuse in the winter. How futile for LSU.
Now that LSU’s depth chart is more fortified entering Kelly’s third season, he cashed out from the transfer table to invest in what he believes is a sounder strategy.
Everyone’s got a plan until three defensive tackles declare for the NFL Draft. Two of those tackles (Maason
Smith and Mekhi Wingo) were eligible to return to LSU this season.
“There are some areas where I felt like we would be deeper,” Kelly told me. “I didn’t expect to lose a couple of defensive tackles to the draft.”
This is why, despite Kelly’s principled blueprint, and despite the risk-reward prospect of portal players, LSU needed to buy a couple of transfer defensive tackles.
If Kelly thought he already possessed the requisite defensive linemen to pursue a national championship, he wouldn’t have been poking through the portal in the first place.
When you’re driving on empty in the desert, you pinch your nose and pay for overpriced fuel at the only gas station within 30 miles.
Brian Kelly will need time and blue-chippers for his LSU blueprint
In 2024, I think LSU will regret not having landed Williams, Barrow or both. Its defense should improve from last year’s incompetent product but not to such an extent that LSU will rival top teams like Georgia or Texas.
Internally, LSU doesn’t view this as a boom-or-bust moment for Kelly. For reference, Smart took six years to deliver the first of his consecutive national championships at Georgia.
“I love where our program is headed,” LSU athletic director Scott Woodward told me in April. “Year 3 is not like it’s the final thing.”
Woodward oversees a flourishing athletic department. He’s about as secure as an AD can be. In the past 13 months, LSU’s women’s basketball, baseball and gymnastics programs won national championships. Woodward hired the coaches of two of those programs. He also hired Kelly.
Kelly’s sign-and-build approach embraces the long game. Even inside the SEC’s pressure cooker, Kelly enjoys a bit of a runway, thanks to his boss’ backing and Kelly’s possession of a fully guaranteed contract that has eight seasons remaining.
He’ll need more than time, though. To win like Georgia without relying heavily on the portal, Kelly must sign the type of recruiting classes Smart delivers and then retain and develop those players.
Kelly’s past two recruiting classes were good, but they were more like Notre Dame-caliber good than Georgia’s level of elite. LSU’s 2025 recruiting class marks an uptick.
With just under seven months remaining until signing day, its class ranks No. 3 nationally in the 247Sports Composite and features the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect, quarterback Bryce Underwood.
Now, that’s the good stuff. None of LSU’s 13 commitments are defensive linemen, though, and those recruits can’t help now anyway.
Immediate help required LSU to buy transfers. Instead, Kelly served outdated platitudes and a vision.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com.