Everything Brian Kelly said after LSU’s loss to Alabama in Death Valley

The No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the No. 15 LSU Tigers 42-13 on Saturday night in Baton Rouge. The loss effectively ends the Tigers’ chances of reaching the College Football Playoff and sends the rest of the season into a tailspin. LSU head coach Brian Kelly spent time with the media after the loss to Alabama.

Below is a full transcript from LSU Brian Kelly:

Opening speech:

“First I would like to say that what we thought would be an exciting evening turned out to be disappointing. I told my team that I was definitely excited about the preparation for the game and the way they thought about this game and what they had to do. “I did everything we talked about physically and mentally. They were willing to not put our guys in the right position tonight and we just didn’t make the most of the opportunities. There were certainly a lot of things that didn’t go right tonight, like us not being able to , leaving the field in the third period, or that we were able to turn the ball over on offense, and it seemed like sometimes there were some crucial things in the game that didn’t go our way, and overall they did very well tonight too played, but we’re dealing with a second loss. Now things are looking up in the SEC. As coaches, we need to put our guys in a better position to be successful. That’s the challenge I have. This is mine and we need to play cleaner football and get off the pitch. Those are the two big takeaways for me when it comes to the game itself. There were some untimely things that happened during the game that were crucial and really set us back in terms of the game itself, whether it was timely penalties or conversions in the third period. They all had an impact on the game and the eventual outcome.”

Looking for answers to stop Alabama’s QB Jalen Milroe…

“Look, when you watch the game, you ask yourself: What did this guy do for two weeks? We have a plan to stop the quarterback. We didn’t manage that. So I take responsibility for it. Blake.” [Baker] We will not hide from the responsibility, but we must also put our players in the right position to exploit what they are capable of. We’re in this together and we definitely need to get it fixed because it’s been a few weeks now, you know, two games. That’s why I respect the requests and questions because we now go into the last three games with the need to win all three games and play better football in November.”

How the team will handle the rest of their schedule after the disappointing loss…

“I think everyone asks the same question. We are disappointed. We are disappointed with the way we played. You know, these guys don’t say, ‘We’re out of the playoffs!’ They’re disappointed and I’m disappointed that we didn’t live up to the standards of LSU football. This affects us more than the damn playoffs. We’re disappointed because when you put on the LSU jersey, there’s a standard of football, those three letters on the jersey are a requirement, and we didn’t live up to that.”

How can you fix the problems in the program?

“Well, deficit is a relative term, right? I mean, we just beat Ole Miss here in a great game that beat Georgia. We went on the road and beat a really good South Carolina team that got a great win against A&M. So, playing in the SEC is a dog fight. We didn’t live up to our standards tonight, did we? Then, honestly, worry about football. If I tell you you’re going to turn the ball over six times against A&M and Alabama, how do you feel about that? I would say not really good. We also have to get off the field and stop the running quarterback. So those are the big things we’re going to look at.”

Did you get the feeling on the sidelines that the players felt like they were out before the end of the game?

“No. No. No, I mean, these guys kept fighting, kept playing. You saw, what did we score with? We haven’t given up. We didn’t look at the scoreboard. They didn’t want us to score. About a minute before the end of the game a personal foul was called. This meant that two teams played until the end.

What was the biggest problem on third down?

“Oh man, I would have to go back and watch it again. The first thing on third down is to stay out of third down and stay out long. You know, as you know, the national success rate on third down is around 40–so generally stay away from third-and-down situations, traditionally throughout the year, the facemask penalty cost us dearly in the game. The bottom line is that we didn’t play at the level of LSU football. That’s up to me. I have to make sure we put our players in a better position to be successful and that’s the work I’m going to do – and I don’t want to bullshit the question, but third down is something I think we can do work through it and continue to improve it.”

What can you do to correct the red zone violation?

“You know, the red zone is ultimately about having a great running game where you just chew people up in the running game, or you have a veteran quarterback who is smart, smart, experienced and… “I had both . Garrett is a first year starter, he just handled the ball well, that’s why we…[inaudible] in the short field areas.”

How do sales destroy themselves?

“Well, you know, the first loss of possession is mechanical in the sense that we had the ball in one hand. Quarterbacks when they get flushed out of the pocket and Garrett will tell you this, he should have had a second hand on the football.” However, we had a young man in there, he got flushed, so we can talk about all the details here again . We have to turn football around. We have to work on that and make sure that we take control of football.

The second instance was back in the coverage and unfortunately I have seen this interception far too many times in my career. He’s a free linebacker who can just drop and you have to play with touch and throw to the backline and we just didn’t do that there. I feel like I’m standing here trying to make excuses and I don’t want to do that. We have to train better in situations like this.”

Can you tell us why the team didn’t live up to LSU standards?

“Well, I think I’ve talked about it a little bit, haven’t I? The failure to leave the field in the third half was in some cases tactical and did not really impact the football. Here too it was not for a lack of effort. We have to continue to work with the guys that we have out there, whether they are rookies playing the nickel. We just can’t make excuses and we have to continue to work with them and coach them. “They were ready to play, but we have some inexperience that we have to do. We have to continue to work with them and put them in better positions to be successful and that’s on me.”

What do you think about punishments?

“So we had two holding penalties, right? I think we would all agree that holding penalties are going to be what I saw or didn’t see in this game. The facemask penalty? Was it a face mask? I don’t know it.” [It was]. OK. So you were there. You saw it. You were in the field. Did you get the instant replay? Torn his head off? He regularly grabbed his face mask and ripped his helmet inside out? He grabbed it? OK, good. I’m glad we were able to get confirmation. Anyway, take a look. I think the only thing I was annoyed about was maybe the late push against Swinson, but you know, it’s like everything else, right? The other guy gave him the job and he was the last one caught. Other than that, we didn’t have many penalties before the snap. We didn’t have a lot of PIs or involvement. It didn’t seem sloppy to me. It could have been that we got a frustration penalty towards the end of the game. That’s how I saw it, maybe I’m wrong. I’m not coming into this game thinking, “Man, we’ve got to get rid of these penalties.” I’m coming into this game thinking, “We’ve got to put our kids in a better position to be successful.” That’s on me, ours Coaches, we need to coach them better because that’s what we have. There are some inexperienced players who will continue to play for us and we need to put them in better positions to be successful.

Thoughts on debris in the field?

“If I were our fans, I wouldn’t be happy. I’m not advocating throwing anything on the field. I watched us play. I also wasn’t happy with the way I trained or played.

How fine is the line between getting back into the game and getting out of the game?

“You saw it. We’re back in the ball game if we score at the three-yard line. That’s the edge, isn’t it? One points game and you have a ball game. We can’t get over the countless things that didn’t go right tonight. That’s just the reality that I have. We have to do a better job and our players have to learn from these situations that we can’t put ourselves in because we can’t overcome them. Unfortunately it was too early and this was a really good football team and if you keep it up I’ve said this to our team: you’re living on borrowed time when you’re constantly putting yourself in difficult situations and tonight the dam broke when we Putting ourselves in these difficult positions over and over again eventually caused the dam to break.”