There were times throughout the day on Saturday when the SEC struggled at the top in non-conference play, with Texas and Alabama dropping games. In the primetime slot, that changed, though. There, Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers got a major win over Clemson. Matt Barrie and Paul Finebaum were discussing the game on The […]
There were times throughout the day on Saturday when the SEC struggled at the top in non-conference play, with Texas and Alabama dropping games. In the primetime slot, that changed, though. There, Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers got a major win over Clemson.
Matt Barrie and Paul Finebaum were discussing the game on The Matt Barrie Show the next day. There, Barrie argued that, with the big losses and other top SEC teams playing relative cupcakes, LSU should be considered the top team in the moment. That was a thought that Finebaum agreed with, emphasizing that Kelly and the Tigers made a massive statement.
“Correct. I agree with everything you said,” Paul Finebaum said. “Except I was led to believe by people who had seen Clemson practice, that they were something that they were not. They’re a good team, but you don’t have to be elite to win that league, where you do in the SEC. And Brian Kelly called his shot. You wondered, was he putting too much pressure? He knew he had to do something different, and he did.”
Opening games had been an issue for Brian Kelly and LSU. In his first three seasons in Baton Rouge, he lost three opening games to Power Four opponents. Often, those were sloppy games too, with self-inflected issues. Those problems persisted to an extent against Clemson, but LSU was able to overcome them.
“You’re right, it was a sloppy win because if felt like some of the other openers — and some of it wasn’t their fault. I mean, touchdowns were taken off the board. Mistakes were made. Field goals were missed,” Finebaum said. “But, in the end, they were so much more physical on the line of scrimmage that we thought was going to be Clemson’s calling card. All of a sudden, that game against Florida in two weeks doesn’t seem like a referendum anymore on Brian Kelly.”
LSU is now in a good position to make it to the College Football Playoff. With one of their biggest games of the year going down as a win, there’s more room to trip up later in the year and still make the 12-team field. With a difficult SEC schedule ahead, that’s some much needed wiggle room.
LSU fires back at Paul Finebaum, Nick Saban, other critics after Week 1 victory over Clemson
LSU had heard the criticism coming in from pundits like Paul Finebaum and former Alabama coach Nick Saban. Now, with a win against Clemson, the Tigers took their shot at those critics. In a video posted on social media, LSU made sure to use those critics to put an exclamation point on their win.
Among others, Paul Finebaum, Mel Kiper, Mike Greenberg, Stanford Steve, and Nick Saban were all included in the video predicting Clemson to beat LSU. Of course, they ended up wrong and LSU got its win. Even immediately following the game, Brian Kelly was clear that the Tigers were aware of those narratives.
“You know, those narratives were never anything we bought into as a program,” Kelly said. “We know, look, people build up the first game to a level of craziness. I mean, look at the quarterbacks that are under incredible scrutiny. So I just think that in this business, you really have to stay focused on what your job is, and my job is to bring a football team on the road, play with great confidence and composure and compete their tails off for four quarters.”
LSU can’t afford a letdown game now. The Tigers return to Baton Rouge and their own Death Valley next Saturday to take on Louisiana Tech.
Category: General Sports
