Brian Kelly is 0-3 in season openers to this point in his LSU tenure. Whereas different applications throughout school soccer largely started their campaigns with matchups towards Group of 5 opponents or FCS squads, the Tigers launched into the final three seasons with daunting battles towards Florida State (twice) and USC. It doesn’t get simpler in 2025 when LSU hits the street for a marquee showdown towards Clemson.
The Aug. 30 prime time conflict could also be an early Faculty Soccer Playoff preview. Each Tigers groups have postseason aspirations and rosters which might be, on paper, robust sufficient to get them into the bracket. It is likely one of the largest video games on the whole non-conference slate, and Kelly is making it an even bigger deal of this contest than any of the opposite earlier season openers.
“We have circled the sport,” Kelly stated on the “Faculty GameDay” podcast. “I’ve by no means completed that earlier than in openers. It is throughout our weight room. It is throughout our exercises. We’re carrying shirts. I imply, we’re doing the kumbaya of ‘We’re enjoying Clemson and we have to beat Clemson.’ So is that an excessive amount of strain? No, I feel we have sufficient mature, veteran guys on this crew. We had a transparent dialog about why we have been doing it, and so they’re all in on that.”
Kelly opened his LSU profession in 2022 with a neutral-site duel towards Florida State, one by which his Tigers fell behind by two touchdowns and by no means totally clawed again in a 24-23 defeat. The Seminoles gained the rematch in 2023, once more on a impartial discipline, in 45-24 blowout style. Final yr, LSU headed out to Las Vegas and surrendered a late lead in a 27-20 loss to USC.
“The very fact of the matter is they’re thrilling openers, and sadly we’ve not completed effectively in these openers and have not had the outcomes that we needed,” stated Kelly. “Clemson can be an ideal problem, however one which I feel greater than the rest, we’ve a soccer crew that may go on the street. And that is what it’s important to do. You need to have a protection that travels. We lastly have gotten the roster able the place I imagine these are the sort of video games that you just need to go and play, and you might want to win them.”
When LSU employed Kelly in 2022, the expectation was that he would take this system again to nationwide championship rivalry. He fell in need of that objective every of the final three years, and people season-opening losses performed key roles in holding the Tigers again from reaching the CFP.
A dominant offseason by which LSU acquired the No. 1-ranked switch portal class, nevertheless, breathed new life into this system forward of Kelly’s pivotal Yr 4.
“I am not going to make another statements apart from the truth that we have to win the opener, as a result of we’re 0-3,” Kelly stated. “Not that this can be a deciding issue whether or not you get within the playoff or not — it’s a lengthy haul — however we’d like it as a program and for the fan help, the folks to be rallying round this crew, which I imagine goes to be an impressive crew.”
