With a little less than a week remaining of the regular season, LSU football coach Brian Kelly has begun to shift attention towards the upcoming offseason. While the veteran coach hasn’t exactly been known to change his mentality as far as building a program goes, he had plenty to say regarding a shift in NIL and the transfer portal while speaking with the media on Monday this week.
LSU coach Brian Kelly could be taking a completely new mentality into the offseason
The sport of college football is ever-changing, and as it turns out, Brian Kelly is finally willing to change alongside it.
This past offseason, the Tiger head coach struggled to bring in top talent through the transfer portal, particularly as far as the defensive line is concerned. While the majority of his explanation involved recruiting and building from within, he also made headlines by explaining that LSU isn’t “in the market of buying players.”
While this sort of mentality might have worked just a few seasons ago, we’ve found ourselves in a world of college football where you immediately put yourself at a disadvantage if you aren’t willing to utilize NIL (buying players) alongside the transfer portal. Unfortunately for the Tiger football program, as recently as this past offseason, Kelly was one of the many head coaches to hold strong with that mentality, and his 2024 struggles were an excellent example of what happens when a coach isn’t willing to adapt.
With that said, we’re less than a week away from the conclusion of the 2024 regular season, and it already appears that Brian Kelly is ready to make some changes. While speaking with the media on Monday, he was asked about the transfer portal, and he had plenty of exciting things to say about the plan for 2025.
“We’ll be very aggressive,” the Tiger head coach began. “I think everybody that’s followed us knows that we weren’t very aggressive in the transfer portal [last year]. We put together a defensive line using minimal resources. We’ve really put ourselves in a position – and I’ll use this term loosely – to stay well under the ‘cap,’ so we could be quite aggressive this year, and we will be very aggressive in that area.”
Last week, the purple and gold faced the heartbreak of this recruiting cycle, as No. 1 quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment from LSU to his home-state Michigan Wolverines. Interestingly enough, while the recruitment was pretty clearly a loss for his program, it very well might have been the catalyst in this mentality shift from the head man.
Rather than utilizing NIL and team resources on the soon-to-be freshman quarterback, it now sounds as though he’ll use that extra “cap” space to build an overall team, which could end up paying off as soon as the 2025 season.
Year-four appears to be a season of emphasis
Speaking of 2025, this offseason is likely going to be a very busy one for LSU football. For starters, the Tigers are set to bring in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, currently ranking No. 6 overall, according to On3, with 26 total commitments.
Fortunately, because most of those players will be signing in just a matter weeks on national signing day, class of 2025 recruiting won’t be what keeps Brian Kelly busy this offseason. Instead, the biggest task Kelly will be faced with will be simply keeping his roster as together as possible. While the record hasn’t necessarily displayed it all that well, there are a lot of pieces in this 2024 group who have the potential to be high draft picks if they choose to make the jump towards the 2025 NFL Draft.
From star juniors such as linebacker Harold Perkins Jr, tight end Mason Taylor and offensive tackle Will Campbell, to seniors with remaining eligibility like quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, there’s no shortage of young talent that could come back. For Kelly and his entire coaching staff, it’s just a matter of making that happen.
Important to note, chances are there are going to be several players on this team that make the jump early. Still, if what Brian Kelly said was true, and LSU football does have extra resources to utilize this offseason, using them on retention could end up being one of the best things he’s done since taking the job in Baton Rouge.
Add in some additional talent through the transfer portal, and year-four under this current coaching staff has all the potential in the world to be a good one for the purple and gold.
The first step is completing the class of 2025 recruiting cycle with a bang, and from there, it’s up to Kelly to push his chips in the middle, as he and the LSU football program will undoubtedly be searching for a big year in 2025.
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