LSU football coach Brian Kelly doesn’t hold back in rant about targeting rule

Last night, the Tigers of Baton Rouge came away with a major victory vs. Florida, winning 52-35. While the win was, without a doubt, exciting all around, it wasn’t without its fair share of controversy. In the second quarter, safety Andre Sam was ejected from the game due to a questionable targeting call. LSU football Coach Brian Kelly shared his thoughts in the postgame press conference.

The Tiger football team is no stranger to controversial targeting calls

“I think that we’re in a bad position in college football as it relates to targeting.”

In Saturday’s postgame press conference, LSU football coach Brian Kelly wasn’t quiet about his opinion of the targeting rule.

In each of the last two games he’s coached in, he’s been witness to two controversial targeting (or not) calls – both of which went against his team.

In week 10 vs. Alabama, quarterback Jayden Daniels took a massive hit in which Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner went up high and drove him to the ground. For that one, targeting was not called. The conference would later go back and determine that there was indeed no need for a call.

My goodness, this Dallas Turner hit on Jayden Daniels was violent. pic.twitter.com/KN6ygcxgI7

— Connor O’Gara (@cjogara) November 5, 2023

On the other hand, last night vs. Florida, Tiger safety Andre Sam attempted to tackle running back Montrell Johnson Jr. Both players got low, and Sam’s helmet made contact with Johnson Jr’s shoulder. A targeting call was made on the play, and the senior safety was ejected from the game.

LSU Safety Andre Sam has been ejected for targeting. Here is the hit. pic.twitter.com/FJD8HxeI6q

— Matthew Brune (@MatthewBrune_) November 12, 2023

LSU football coach Brian Kelly didn’t hold back

Whether either of these calls should have been targeting or not is up for debate, but there’s little doubt about how LSU football coach Brian Kelly feels about them.

“When you have a situation like we did where Jayden Daniels gets hit underneath the chin, driven to the ground, and is concussed, and it doesn’t get reviewed,” Kelly reflected during Saturday’s Florida postgame press conference. “And then we have a play like tonight, which was a normal football play where a running back (Montrell Johnson Jr) is lowering his shoulder, and we are trying to make a tackle.

“We’re not targeting; we’re not trying to lead with the helmet. We’re just trying to make a tackle. We throw a kid (Andre Sam) out of the game. That is tragic. We’re in a bad place right now. And we need to stop and figure this out because there’s a lot of words I could use, but it’s tragic that we threw a kid out of a game because he was trying to play football.”

There are several indicators of what constitutes a target or not, but it ultimately boils down to whether a player “goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball,” according to the official NCAA football rules book.

The rule is often debated, and many believe it should be removed altogether.

LSU football coach Brian Kelly completed his thoughts by comparing the two most recent targeting calls that have impacted his team, saying, “Last week, that guy (Dallas Turner) that hit Jayden Daniels was trying to knock him out. You can say whatever you want, but that’s what he was trying to do. Our guy was trying to make a tackle.”

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